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Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is the first hospital in North Carolina to join the Cardiometabolic Center Alliance (CMCA). The goal of the alliance is to improve the care of patients with Type 2 diabetes and related cardiovascular and kidney diseases that increase the risk of poor health outcomes.

As a charter member, Wake Forest Baptist’s Heart and Vascular Center will collaborate with the 17 other centers across the country who are part of the alliance.

“Joining this alliance enables our cardiologists, endocrinologists and scientists to work closely with others across the country to discover even better ways to care for our patients who are at high risk for cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Michael Shapiro, director of Wake Forest Baptist’s Center for Preventive Cardiology and a professor of cardiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. “As the region’s only academic learning health system, we are looking forward to collaborating to provide evidence-based preventive care and helping improve outcomes for the patients we serve.”

According to the CMCA, Type 2 diabetes affects millions of people across the nation. It is often accompanied by other serious or life-threatening conditions, including cardiovascular disease or diabetic kidney disease, making it even more dangerous and costly. The pancreas, heart and kidneys are all at risk when these conditions converge, and heart disease is the leading cause of death in people with diabetes.

“The addition of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, a health care leader throughout North Carolina, as a member of the CMCA further strengthens our efforts in delivering comprehensive, team-based, coordinated care to patients living with cardiometabolic disease,” said Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod, executive director of the Cardiometabolic Center Alliance. “This partnership is a substantial step forward in our common goal of improving patient-centered care and clinical outcomes and we are excited to work together to achieve our aligned mission.”

Founded by Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, in Kansas City, Missouri, the CMCA is a national collaborative of health care organizations committed to the mission of improving the quality of care and outcome in patients with cardiometabolic disease.

Across its aligned member sites, care is delivered via a standardized, patient-centered, team-based, comprehensive risk reduction approach based on a novel care model designed and successfully implemented by Saint Luke’s Michael & Marlys Haverty Cardiometabolic Center of Excellence in Kansas City, Missouri.