The Heart of New Ulm Project
Our vision is to simplify and accelerate rural community health improvement efforts for sustainability and impact. Guided by our real-world experience, our rural health consulting team works collaboratively to help communities build individual and community capacity and activate their plans in order to achieve long-term, sustained health outcomes.
Groundbreaking Population Health Research
From 2009 to 2018, the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation® (MHIF) conducted real-world population health research with Hearts Beat Back: The Heart of New Ulm Project (HONU) in rural New Ulm, Minn. MHIF designed the award-winning initiative in partnership with key community partners, including New Ulm Medical Center, as a 10-year demonstration project to identify and deliver the best interventions to reduce heart disease at a population level.
HONU integrated and connected a wide variety of programs, strategies, services and evidence-based interventions simultaneously across all sectors of the community — health care, community and worksites. By tailoring policies, systems and changes to environments based on the community’s unique needs and culture, HONU became woven into the fabric of the community and achieved impressive health outcomes.
Unlike many research projects, as a result of the success of the partnership with MHIF during HONU’s research phase, New Ulm garnered the support of the community to keep investing in and sustaining the project for the future. The Heart of New Ulm continues today as a community-owned health initiative with a highly engaged leadership team and more than 80 community volunteers representing 35 organizations serving on various action teams.
Webinar Series
Are you stymied with how to address a particular health improvement challenge in your rural community? Developing a comprehensive communications strategy, transitioning the mindset of a community, or improving the food and built environments to support healthier choices can all be challenging, but the process doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With many of these challenges, a process of small but proven, well-choreographed steps can begin to tip the scales in your favor for success. In each of the webinars in our series, we show you how to start the process to solve a specific challenge in your community and offer you valuable tools and resources that can help.
Leveraging Electronic Health Records to Maximize Community Impact
Health care systems have a readily available resource at their fingertips to help in understanding the health of the community and to inform their community health improvement work. The electronic health record can be used as a real time surveillance tool to assess the health of the community and provide guidance in determining strategies to meet the residents’ health needs. The EHR not only serves as an assessment tool, but can also be used as an evaluation tool to monitor progress toward your health improvement goals in real time allowing for changes in strategies as needed. In 30 minutes learn how the Heart of New Ulm Project used the EHR in the decision making process for program design and delivery to reduce the prevalence of heart disease and diabetes in the community.
Originally presented August 20, 2020
Communications: A Comprehensive Strategy
Developing a comprehensive communications strategy, transitioning the mindset of a community, or improving the food and built environments to support healthier choices can all be challenging, but the process doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With many of these challenges a process of small, but proven, well-choreographed steps can begin to tip the scales in your favor.
Throughout this webinar you will learn the key steps necessary for impact. These steps were critical in achieving a 94% brand awareness in just the first year of our ten-year rural community health initiative, the Heart of New Ulm Project, and maintaining brand awareness at 90% throughout all ten years.
Originally presented June 18, 2020
An Award Winning Project
During the 10 years of the research phase, The Heart of New Ulm Project received several awards. The project continues in New Ulm today as a community-owned health initiative
2018 Heart Healthy Stroke Free Award from the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention
2016 Health Catalyst Health Analytics Summit "Most Meaningful, Life-Impacting Improvement" award
2014 NOVA Award from the American Hospital Association
Prevention is Key
Prevention continues to be a key area of research as part of MHIF’s commitment to creating a world without heart and vascular disease and MHIF continues other population health research projects through the Nolan Family Center for Cardiovascular Health.
