RESOURCES

Below are trusted, evidence-based resources from Million Hearts, NACDD, and leading cardiac rehabilitation organizations that you can use to deepen your knowledge and support clients in both cardiac rehabilitation and tobacco cessation.

AACVPR Program Directory: National Resource to Locate Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programs

AACVPR’s Program Directory is a national online listing of cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation programs that helps patients, caregivers, and clinicians locate services across the United States.

What it is

• The directory is maintained by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR) and is used as the basis for other public-facing rehabilitation directories, such as the American Thoracic Society’s pulmonary rehabilitation directory.
• It compiles program information submitted and periodically validated by professional societies, making it a trusted resource for finding rehabilitation services.

How it’s used

• Users can search by city, state, or ZIP code to identify nearby cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation programs.
  For each listing, programs typically include location and contact details, and may indicate AACVPR certification status, which signals adherence to recognized quality standards in rehabilitation care.

The Ten Components of Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs

This concise reference document outlines the ten core components of a cardiac rehabilitation program, providing a clear overview of the comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach used to support patients recovering from heart events or procedures. The resource defines cardiac rehabilitation as a structured program that combines supervised exercise, education, counseling, and support to help patients build healthy habits, manage cardiovascular risk factors, and reduce the likelihood of future heart problems. Each component is clearly described, including patient assessment (comprehensive medical and social evaluation to develop individualized treatment plans), exercise training (supervised aerobic and strength training), physical activity counseling, psychosocial management (addressing stress, depression, and anxiety), tobacco cessation support, and clinical management strategies for diabetes, lipids, blood pressure, weight, and nutrition. This document serves as a valuable supplement to training materials, offering a quick-reference guide for understanding the holistic, evidence-based care model that characterizes effective cardiac rehabilitation programs.

Million Hearts – Cardiac Rehabilitation (Million Hearts/CDC/CMS)

Overview of cardiac rehabilitation as a comprehensive secondary prevention program, including the recommendation for 36 one-hour sessions with supervised exercise, education, and counseling (including tobacco use). Also links to the Million Hearts/AACVPR Cardiac Rehabilitation Change Package.

Million Hearts – Tobacco Cessation Action Guide & Protocol

Two practical tools:

• • Identifying and Treating Patients Who Use Tobacco (Action Guide) – outlines how to Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange follow-up; recommends covering at least two quit attempts per year, with multiple counseling sessions per attempt. 
  • Protocol for Identifying and Treating Patients Who Use Tobacco – provides a clinic-level protocol for brief counseling, setting a quit date, prescribing medications, and arranging follow-up.

Million Hearts – Tobacco Cessation Change Package

A practical “change package” with concrete ideas for integrating cessation into workflows (standard order sets, decision support, patient education tools, referral and follow-up systems). Designed for health care teams to implement proven changes quickly.

Cardiac Rehabilitation: Saving Lives, Restoring Health, Preventing Disease (Infographic)

Infographic that summarizes benefits of cardiac rehabilitation, key stats (e.g., 47% lower risk of death and 31% lower risk of heart attack for those attending 36 sessions vs. 1 session), and strategies to expand access.

Million Hearts/NACDD Partnership – Advancing Cardiac Rehabilitation

NACDD’s Million Hearts partnership page describes efforts to increase CR referral, participation, and completion, along with mini-grant examples and links to educational resources for professionals and patients. Helpful context to show this course is aligned with national priorities.

Getting to 70% Cardiac Rehabilitation Participation: Action Steps for Clinicians, Hospitals, and Health Systems

This comprehensive PowerPoint presentation, titled “Getting to 70% Cardiac Rehabilitation Participation: Action Steps for Clinicians, Hospitals, and Health Systems,” provides a thorough overview of the Million Hearts® initiative’s efforts to increase cardiac rehabilitation participation nationwide. The presentation details the cardiovascular disease burden in the United States, where CVD accounts for 1 in every 4 deaths and is the greatest contributor to racial disparities in life expectancy, and outlines the evidence-based benefits of cardiac rehabilitation, which reduces all-cause mortality by 13%, hospitalizations by 42%, and heart attack risk by 28%. It addresses the critical gap in cardiac rehabilitation participation, with only 29% of eligible Medicare beneficiaries initiating services and just 8% completing the full 36-session program, while highlighting significant disparities by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and geography. 

AHRQ TAKEheart Initiative

The AHRQ TAKEheart initiative provides free, evidence-based training materials, implementation guides, and tools to help hospitals increase patient participation in cardiac rehabilitation by embedding automatic referral and care coordination into routine workflows. It includes modular training, workflow mapping resources, and peer-generated examples that support teams in designing, implementing, and sustaining system-level changes to cardiac rehabilitation referral, enrollment, and retention, including options for hybrid cardiac rehabilitation models.

AACVPR – Cardiac Rehabilitation Patient and Program Resources

Overview of what cardiac rehabilitation includes, patient-facing fact sheets, and links on smoking cessation and other risk factors.

AACVPR Tobacco Use Intervention Performance Measure for Cardiac Rehabilitation

Defines what counts as tobacco cessation and relapse-prevention interventions in cardiac rehabilitation (counseling, pharmacotherapy, referral to a specialist) and emphasizes providing intensive support over at least 6 months.

AACVPR News & Views – “Smoking Cessation is a Key Component to Effective Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation”

Highlights why cardiac rehabilitation is one of the best settings for intensive cessation and frames smoking cessation as the most cost-effective intervention in CR/PR.

CardioSmart – Cardiac Rehabilitation (American College of Cardiology)

Patient-friendly explanation of cardiac rehabilitation, including how programs support medication adherence, stress management, and smoking cessation.

AACVPR Cardiac Rehab Patient Resource Page (includes smoking cessation links)

Curated links for cardiac rehabilitation patients to external cessation resources: AHA, CDC “Quit Smoking,” American Lung Association Freedom From Smoking, NHLBI, etc.

VA Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation Program

A 12-week, telehealth-based cardiac rehabilitation model that incorporates individualized counseling on exercise, nutrition, medication adherence, stress management, and tobacco cessation. Good for examples of flexible delivery models where TTS’ could fit in (rural, access-barrier contexts).

AACVPR News & Views – “New Tobacco Cessation Frameworks: Implications for Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation”

Connects updated tobacco cessation frameworks to cardiac rehabilitation and notes that the 2024 update of the Core Components of Cardiac Rehabilitation includes tobacco cessation as one of four core disease and risk-factor management components.