WomenHeart the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease
Did you know...?
- 435,000 American women have heart attacks each year; 83,000 are under age 65 and 9,000 are under age 45. Their average age is 70.4.
- Heart disease is the leading cause of death of American women and kills 32% of them
- More women than men die of heart disease each year, yet women receive only:
- 33% of angioplasties, stents and bypass surgeries
- 28% of inplantable defibrillators and
- 36% of open-heart surgeries
- Women comprise only 25% of participants in all heart-related research studies.
WomenHeart is a wonderful network dedicated to women's heart health. They educate, support, and advocate for change. Their policy goals are:
- Increased coverage for affordable prescription medicines, diagnostic tests, and medical devices.
- Improved physician training and use of appropriate diagnostic tests to identify early signs of heart disease in women.
- Earlier access to cardiologists for high risk women.
- Increased ability of emergency room staff to promptly identify and aggressively treat heart attacks in women.
- Increased and improved smoking cessation programs for women.
- More women participating in clinical trials to test new treatments.
- Access to health insurance for women with low incomes.
- Increased CPR training and availability of automated external defibrillators.
WomenHealth has many excellent programs including...
- Mayo Clinic symposium, which is "competitive leadership training for 60 women heart patients who attend four days at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, of seminars, workshops, advocacy and media trainings to develop skills for community education and outreach."
- Advocacy Institute, which is "a four-day advocacy training for Mayo Clinic Symposium graduates that includes public policy briefings and culminates with Capitol Hill visits to Senate and House offices. Held in odd years, such as 2007."
- Their 10Q Report "identifies the top 10 unanswered research questions affecting women and heart disease and asks Congress to re-direct NIH funding to answer the questions in order to improve the quality of women's cardiac care and reduce their deaths by 50% in 10 years. Unveiled in February 2006 at a Capitol Hill press conference, it is a joint project with our Scientific Advisory Board and the Society for Women's Health Research."
Membership in WomenHeart is free. Please visit their Web site to learn more about this wonderful advocacy organization!
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