Why do you exist when there is already the American Heart Association?

In 1988, a group of medical professionals, headed by a registered nurse, realized the need for an organization devoted to the design of community wellness and early intervention programs for the control of cardiovascular disease, especially as it affect women, not only in the United States, but in developing countries. Together, they founded a consumer health organization to design, develop and implement heart wellness and prevention programs and promote health literacy in gender care through a professional scientific organization for development of the female medical model in healthcare, responding to women's specific needs. Its purpose was raising funds to support research in women's heart disease, professional and public education, and community programs.

In 1994, recognizing that women's heart disease presents differently with milder symptoms resulting in diagnostic delays and a higher death rate in women, the WHF began Women's Heart Week as part of National Heart Month, and structured it as an early intervention program, to be a consumer voice to speak up for the 8 million American women who are living each day with heart disease and those who are being misdiagnosed.

With a dedicated multidisciplinary group of advisors meeting regularly to address critical issues, medical knowledge surfaced that could be exploited, and the Women's Heart Foundation recognized the window of opportunity to advocate for healthcare changes that could lead to the improved care and treatment of women.

Today the Foundation has affected the advancement of smaller-sized tubes to fit into women's smaller-sized arteries for more successful outcomes from angioplasty; patient education materials that feature women as cardiac patients; gender-separated outcomes that are being reported to thoracic surgery societies; an awareness level of the need to identify female-specific risks for surviving heart procedures; and a national awareness and heart screening week during heart month with a resolution passed by the United States Congress for Women's Heart Week February 1-7; and an international movement towards gender care and gender-specific medicine.

Who are your members?

Our members are our Board of Trustees and our Subscribers are those individuals who subscribe to our monthly E-newsletter.

Who are your partners?

The Women's Heart Foundation is the only Non-Governmental Organization dedicated to improving survival and quality of life through the design and implementation of wellness and prevention programs. Hospitals, public health agencies and women's fitness and wellness centers are our partners in reaching out to women about cardiovascular disease treatment, control and prevention during Women's Heart Week. Public health nurses are our partners for reaching out to seniors with our 'Medication Safety' program. Grocery stores are our partners for 'Shopping for a Healthy Heart' - a program we've encountered much success with when implemented as a high school field trip for 10th grade girls.

In 2004, WHF partnered with the Trenton Central High School and Rutgers University-Camden Department of Nursing to design and implement Teen Esteem™ - a health and fitness gym-alternative program to reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes in adolescent girls. The program is entering its third year and researchers are already documenting improvements in the girls' health choices as well as reduction in several indicators for metabolic syndrome (pre-diabetes).

How are you funded?

We are funded through grants, corporate sponsorships, private contributions, special events and conferences.

What are your milestones or strategic dates?

• 1992: Creation of the Women's Heart Foundation (WHF) as a 501c3 charitable organization, with registration of our new corporate logo: a red heart with female sign within

• 1994: Creation of twelve Healthy Heart Guides, featuring women as health care consumers and cardiac patients taking an active role in their own health

• 1994: Creation of Women's Heart Week

• 1995: WHF executive director featured as opening presenter at 15th Annual Nursing Symposium at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation

• 1995: WHF executive director created Cards4Life consumer health record

• 1999: Creation of the Medication Safety program

• 2000: WHF held its first "Interventions" conference on gender care

• 2001: Registered the Purple Ribbon as an awareness ribbon for women and heart disease and the need for gender care

• 2001: WHF recognized by Medicare Quality Assurance Peer Review Organization (PRO- NJ) for "keeping the patient in the loop of health care" with its 'Taking Coumadin at Home' Healthy Heart Guide.

• 2003: Launched a New Jersey initiative to 'Take Women to Heart©' upon receipt of a state grant of $200,000. Creation of a screening and awareness brochure featuring 3 women from New Jersey to promote gender care awareness/ bridge health communication in women's heart disease. Creation of hospital forms to track screening outcomes. Designed curriculum for corporate wellness.

• 2003: WHF partnered with the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey to reach out to 1,000 women February 1 with health screenings and a day of wellness.

• 2003: WHF partnered with Welch's to produce a national public service message - television informercial advocating for women to take up walking exercise in addition to eating a balanced diet for prevention of heart disease, resulting in 10,480,000 media impressions.

• 2004: Created and launched Teen Esteem Program and research project at Trenton Central High School with a customized fitness routine and nutrition intervention.

• 2005: WHF partnered with the Willowbrook Mall and the St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Wayne, NJ to reach 2,000 women with a health message and 320 women with heart health screenings.

• 2006: WHF partnered with the American Heart Association Go Red for Women movement, the NIH Heart Truth campaign, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the state of New Jersey to organize a Women's Heart Rally and Health Expo the first Saturday in February to reach out to 700 minority women and their teen daughters (Junior Deltas) for a day of wellness and awareness.

What major initiatives are you spearheading?

Besides Women's Heart Week and our research initiative for measuring the effectiveness of our Teen Esteem health intervention, we are investing in and growing the Home office. The Foundation is also focusing attention on the education and training needs in various parts of the world by setting up online programming for health professionals with continuing education in the area of gender care and medicine. On the medical and wellness side, we are expanding our Teen Esteem Health and Fitness program, extending it two additional hours each day, which will start in January 2007, to create a low-cost wellness and fitness center for women at risk. WHF is organizing the nursing community to institutionalize gender care through the development of health messages in nursing textbooks. WHF is also working with government and professional organizations to assist with benchmarking quality indicators at Women's Heart Centers nationally.

What are your successes?

Major successes:

• Women's Heart Week (recognized with a national award by the Spirit of Women Foundation)

• Demonstration projects in different parts of the country

• Education: by sharing experiences across the country, much more needs to be done

• Creation of online training for health professionals in the area of gender care

• Creation of curriculum and training for a Speakers Bureau

• Management of a state grant, 18-months in duration and resulting in 32 million consumer impressions and direct service to 15,000 women

• Creation of curriculum for Teen Esteem health and fitness for adolescent girls

• Creation of curriculum for corporate wellness

• Research demonstrating success of the WHF Teen Esteem program for reducing risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease.

What is your policy on tobacco and cardiovascular diseases?

Cigarette smoking is a major cause of heart disease in both men and women. Tobacco use is a growing threat to global public health. Women continue to take up smoking in record numbers and the incidence of environmental tobacco smoke (or second hand smoke), is also a public threat. For women, smoking is the most important risk factor, especially women who are taking a contraceptive pill or on estrogen replacement therapy, which raises their risk of heart attack and stroke exponentially. Smoking also contributes to low birth weight babies and diseases of the lung and upper respiratory system in their children, who are inhaling the second-hand smoke.

Smoking is associated with a higher risk of sudden death among women and a higher risk of mortality in heart surgeries. Smoking contributes to vessel spasm and ischemic episodes in women's heart disease.

The Women's Heart Foundation is serious in its commitment to reduce smoking, and has encouraged a national nursing organization to collaborate in formulating a comprehensive anti-tobacco health message to nurses who smoke by inserting an educational supplement into its magazine during February - National Heart Month 2007.

More needs to be done globally to cease the exploitation of new users of tobacco products, especially in developing countries and third world nations where health was not spoiled. The free distribution of tobacco products to children, the design of products with far more addictive substances and the lack of available public health communication as to the harmful effects of these products is a major concern of the Women's Heart Foundation. The tobacco industry does not play fair.

What is your policy on gender care?

The Women's Heart Foundation encourages the World Health Organization (WHO) to establish an international effort for gender-specific care with gender separation of outcomes globally. Further, WHF urges WHO to implement a global health record called 'Cards4Life' for all citizens of the world. The record is fast becoming a new standard of care in America, for interfacing with health providers in any setting. The Cards4Life personal health file is available free on the WHF pdf health library page.

What is your policy on corporate partnerships?

We have a clearly defined policy. The aim is to provide the means for the Women's Heart Foundation to continue to expand its programs, to recognize the support at corporate level and to reduce potential risks in relationships with other organizations whether this is through donations, sponsorship or endorsement.

How do you see the future?

The Women's Heart Foundation believes that, in the future, cardiovascular diseases in women will continue to escalate. Not only are we going to see more women dying from the disease, but we will see younger women dying due to the unhealthy lifestyles in children and teens. This is a growing crisis, especially in the United States - the leader in the number of persons suffering from childhood and adult obesity. Children are not given play time and are harnessed indoors until parents arrive home from work. This is unnatural and has created a new disease phenomenon of type 2 diabetes in youngsters… something we have never seen before in history.

As unhealthy habits take over -- such as increased intake of processed and fast foods and inactivity associated with the developed countries - and begins to invade newly developed countries, we will see heart disease on the rise in these countries as well, but the United States will lead in the mortalities of the world. Women will supersede the numbers due to the increased risk conferred to women who have diabetes, smoke or who work long and late hours. The increase in cardiovascular disease deaths in women represents an erosion of our quality of life and cries out for a unified response from government, business, public health and medical communities. By 2020, CVD will surpass infectious diseases in the developing world*.

The Women's Heart Foundation needs to achieve the following objectives:

• To continue its 3-year commitment to the Teen Esteem health program and research project.

• To assist public education in the creation of new Teen Esteem health programs as a gender-specific approach to teen girls' health and wellness, and explore having this program for younger-aged children.

• To synthesize the world health message for gender-specific healthcare, medicine and wellness for women.

• To synthesize the world health message for activity and fitness opportunities for all men, women and children in all communities through dedicated and safe walk and bike paths connected to commerce and socialization.

• To synthesize the world health message for the intake of fresh fruits and vegetables and whole foods devoid of trans fats and processing.

• To continue to educate and train medical, allied health personnel and committed lay people.

• To formalize its partnerships with government, business and insurance to promote use of its highly successful health intervention programs to address the growing burden of heart disease as it affects women.

• To support science through congresses, research / publication, and the creation of a strong global network of nurses, the Women's Heart Foundation will energize all the forces who can actively contribute to the prevention of heart disease and stroke.