CHAMPIONS:
Advancing Prevention in Vascular Health
The Comprehensive Heart and Multidisciplinary Limb Preservation Outreach Networks (CHAMPIONS) is a community-focused vascular prevention and wellness initiative that delivers free screenings and education to the public while promoting equitable patient-centered evidence-based care.
Why This Work Matters
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is common and progressive, yet too often identified only after it has advanced to non-healing wounds, severe pain, or limb loss. By the time patients come to clinical attention, the window for prevention has already closed. This is not due to a lack of knowledge or tools. It is because we are not identifying risk early enough. CHAMPIONS was created to change that. By bringing screening and education directly into communities, we move vascular care upstream and into the window where prevention is still possible.
A Different Model
Many individuals at highest risk for vascular disease face barriers to traditional care, including cost, transportation, language, and access to specialists. Many also live in “vascular deserts,” where specialty care is simply out of reach. As a result, conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and PAD often go undiagnosed for years. CHAMPIONS is designed for this reality, meeting people earlier, in settings where they already feel supported. We partner with trusted community organizations (places of worship, cultural events, and local gatherings). This is more than outreach. It is a collaboration. We also focus on the whole person: risk is rarely a single condition but often a combination of unrecognized health issues. In this way, we can provide more meaningful education, prioritize follow-up, and connect people to care in ways that are realistic for their lives.
Why CHAMPIONS Is Different
CHAMPIONS addresses a fundamental limitation in traditional healthcare delivery: care typically begins only after patients enter the system. We reverse that model.
CHAMPIONS:
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Reaches individuals earlier
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Identifies risk before symptoms become severe
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Uses clinically rigorous, population-appropriate tools
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Connects participants to care in ways that are realistic and accessible
This is not simply outreach.
It is a more effective model for prevention in vascular health.
Prevention, Reimagined
CHAMPIONS represents a shift in how we approach vascular disease, moving from hospital-based, reactive care to a model that is community-centered and prevention-focused.
By meeting people where they are, using accurate and scalable screening tools, identifying underlying risk, and ensuring meaningful follow-through, CHAMPIONS redefines what prevention looks like in practice.
The goal is clear: to help people recognize risk earlier, understand what it means, and take action before disease progresses to life-altering outcomes.
CHAMPIONS Voices
Hear directly from CHAMPIONS participants why this program matters to them. From advancing vascular health equity to empowering communities through screening, education, and research, their stories highlight the impact of collaboration and compassion at the heart of CHAMPIONS.
Patient Story
Maria is 58. She works long hours and helps care for her grandchildren. Like many people in her community, she hasn’t seen a doctor in years. Not because she doesn’t care, but because life gets in the way. Time, cost, transportation, and not knowing where to go all add up. So she keeps going, even when the leg pain starts. She assumes it’s just getting older.
At a local community event, she notices a booth offering free health screenings. No appointment. No insurance. Just walk up. That’s where she meets CHAMPIONS.Within minutes, Maria has her blood pressure checked, her cholesterol measured, and her blood sugar tested. For the first time, she learns she has diabetes. A simple, painless test of blood flow to her legs also shows early signs of peripheral artery disease (PAD). Nothing about Maria looks “sick.” But her risk is real.
What happens next is what makes CHAMPIONS different.
She doesn’t just receive results: she understands them. In her language. In a way that makes sense. She begins to see how her blood sugar, cholesterol, and circulation are connected, and that the leg pain she ignored is not normal. And she leaves with more than information. She leaves with a plan. Before the day is over, she knows where to go, who to call, and how to connect to care. For the first time, she is not navigating the system alone. This is the gap CHAMPIONS was built to close.
Across the country, millions of people like Maria are living with undiagnosed vascular disease and its underlying drivers, not because the tools don’t exist, but because the system expects them to come to it. CHAMPIONS changes that.
By bringing accurate, accessible screening into communities and ensuring people understand what comes next, we create the opportunity to intervene earlier, when outcomes can still be changed.
Because the goal is not just to diagnose disease.
It is to meet people earlier in their story and help change what comes next.
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The CHAMPIONS Vision
A future where every individual, irrespective of background or economic status, has access to proactive, community-driven healthcare that prevents vascular disease and promotes long-term wellness.
CHAMPIONS Uses a Multi-faceted Approach
Thank you to our Supporters
