Increasing Awareness of Heart Disease

Every year, about 42,000 women die from breast cancer, but more than 500,000 die of cardiovascular disease. Yet less than 10 percent of American women know that heart disease is their number one killer.

Increasing awareness of the prevalence and deadliness of heart disease is the mission of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign. “As long as women think they are going to die of breast cancer, they will not get serious or be pro-active in modifying their cardiac risk factors,” says cardiologist Maureen Lowery, M.D., an associate professor of clinical medicine at the School of Medicine.

Lowery, the coordinator of a nine-week cardiology module for medical students, first introduced lectures on heart disease in women ten years ago. This year, as the Heart Association’s physician-spokesperson for the state of Florida, Lowery has woven the messages of the Go Red for Women campaign into the curriculum to dispel the “marked misconceptions” about female heart disease. “It is not a matter of if you are going to die of heart disease, but when,” Lowery says.

Lowery and the Heart Association have stepped up their efforts to make the dangers of heart disease just as familiar to women as breast cancer. “The Go Red for Women campaign is a strong message that upcoming doctors are aware of the problem and we are actively teaching the importance of gender specific differences in heart disease—diagnosis, testing, and treatment,” Lowery says.

The School of Medicine Welcomes HIV
Pathogenesis Research Group

The School of Medicine and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology recently brought three new physicians into the department. The three doctors form the HIV Pathogenesis Research Group, which is housed on the seventh floor of the Batchelor Building. Savita Pahwa, M.D., is professor and director of the group. Andreas Baur, M.D. is associate professor, and Patrick Haslett, M.D. is assistant professor.