Press releases

Released January 31, 2002
Yale-New Haven Hospital news release

Yale-New Haven Hospital shares data, impact and study results from first year of Women's Heart Advantage campaign

For more information, call 203-688-2493 or E-mail Mark D'Antonio

Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH), the national pilot hospital for the Women's Heart Advantage program, welcomed 14 other hospitals from across the United States to the program with a press conference January 31 and released research findings from the first 10 months of the program.

"The program is designed to motivate women to take rapid and appropriate action when they think they are experiencing a heart attack, and our data tells us that we have had a significant impact on the women in this area when it comes to taking action," said cardiologist Dr. Teresa Caulin-Glaser of Yale-New Haven Heart Center, co-chair of the Women's Heart Advantage steering committee. "Heart disease is the number one killer of women. More women die of heart disease than from all cancers combined. Our research shows that more and more women are taking proactive steps in becoming heart-healthy than there were a year ago."

The pilot program and public education campaign debuted at YNHH on March 26, 2001, as a collaborative effort with VHA, Inc. and partners Bayer, SBC/SNET Yellow Pages, Eli Lilly and Company and New Haven Savings Bank.

A survey of 300 women from Connecticut was conducted during 2002 to determine their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors regarding heart disease. This study was compared to a similar study from March 2001, prior to the beginning of the campaign. Since the campaign's inception, the number of women responding that heart disease is the most serious health threat for women today, as well as those indicating they have received information on heart disease at their doctor's office, increased by more than 10 percentage points.

"While the data and research show how we have dramatically affected the way women look at the warning signs, it is the personal recollections of several patients that really emphasizes the importance of the Heart Advantage message," said Dr. Lisa Freed, a cardiologist and co-chair of the Women's Heart Advantage steering committee. "Most women delay seeing their physicians or going to a hospital emergency department when experiencing symptoms of heart disease. This campaign empowered these women to be more assertive in seeking rapid and appropriate care."

In addition to members of the Yale-New Haven Heart Center who have been instrumental in the study and research, patients spoke at the news conference who were motivated by the Heart Advantage message and prompted to take immediate, potentially life-saving action.

For the PowerPoint presentation used at the press conference, whapc02.ppt (24 sl., 655KB). For more information, please contact Mark D'Antonio at (203) 688-2493. For information about the national Women's Heart Advantage campaign, contact Lisa O'Steen, (972) 830-0275.

Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., is a 944-bed not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale University School of Medicine. Yale-New Haven was founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the United States in 1826, and today the hospital complex includes the Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital and the Yale Psychiatric Hospital, with a combined medical staff of about 2,400 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties.

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