The Preventive Cardiology Academic Award program: a focus on physician education

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has funded the Preventive Cardiology Academic Award (PCAA) for more than a decade. The background for focusing on physicians in training and prevention is reviewed, as well as the status of the 49 medical schools that have received the award. This report presents a synthesis of the objectives for the award, curricular approaches, and teaching strategies employed by awardees and also the framework for program evaluation. The degree of institutionalization of the programs and the diffusion nationally as well as trends in the program over the past decade are examined.