During the years of 2002-2004, El Camino Hospital Emergency Department admissions indicated that only 3% of the population served by the hospital were South Asian, but represented a disparate 6% of all acute myocardial infarction (MI) cases. Also, heart disease seemed to be striking South Asians at a younger age and more malignantly than the general population. So in 2006, with the financial support of philanthropists in the South Asian community and the El Camino Hospital Foundation, the South Asian Heart Center was established at the El Camino Hospital as a non-profit response to the epidemic of heart disease striking the urban South Asian population. Today, the Center helps the South Asian community (people who originate from the Indian subcontinent countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal) reduce the incidence of heart disease and diabetes, with its unique and comprehensive AIM to Prevent program.
