HONOLULU (KHON2) — Health professionals at Hawai’i Pacific Health said heart disease is the number one cause of death in America; and most cases are preventable by exercising regularly, keeping a healthy diet and not smoking.

Dr. Jeremy Lum, Chief of Cardiology at Hawai‘i Pacific Health, said, “unfortunately, like the U.S., heart disease is a major problem in Hawaii. It is the number one cause of death in our state. One in 10 deaths in Hawaii are related to heart disease. And, it’s also a main cause for why people are hospitalized in Hawaii.”

Officials said there has been an increase in heart disease in recent years. Knowing this, medical students at John A. Burns School of Medicine formed project HEART, teaching high school students about heart health.

“Hawaii is one of the states where CPR is not a requirement to graduate high school, CPR certification. And, so, that’s a big thing because I think 40-something other states already have that under legislation,” said Anson Lee, co-founder of project HEART and second year at John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Lee also said CPR could save someone’s life in emergency situations, “and we thought it would be best to target high schoolers because, you know, this is when they’re kind of really impressionable, when people are young.”

They hope the students will bring this knowledge to their homes and outside of the classroom.

“I recently taught a workshop at Farrington High School, and I was so happy. I came home so happy because the students, their eyes, just lit up when they saw the mannequins, And, it just made me so happy to hear that they were interested; they wanted to learn more and that they were excited to learn these skills that could save the life of a friend, a loved one or just a community member.” Said Tamlyn Sasaki, first year at John A. Burns School of Medicine.

“We have a curriculum focused on heart disease. Lifestyle modifications that can help us improve our heart health, as well as hands only CPR. And, we do this through a problem-based learning curriculum, which is really similar to how we learn at JABSOM.”

Tamlyn Sasaki

To learn more about project HEART click here.

Project HEART is hoping lawmakers will consider introducing proposals to make CPR a requirement in public schools.