Sister to Sister

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Chevy Chase, Md. - The Sister to Sister Foundation is teaming with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins Hospital to undertake a one-year project funded by the Center for Disease Control to promote cardiovascular health in women across America.

The Women's Assessment and Tracking of Cardiovascular Health (WATCH) Study is being funded by a CDC grant of $238,755. It will be implemented in February 2009 and run through 2010. Funds also will be provided by the Pollin Cardiovascular Wellness Program in Women to extend the study and analysis of the results beyond the initial one-year period.

"I have worked with Harvard's medical school and these hospitals in the past. We have a great relationship," said Mrs. Irene Pollin, founder and chairman of the Sister to Sister Foundation. "Partnering with this group for the study is incredibly exciting."

The purpose of the national community-based project will be to promote cardiovascular health in women by enhancing the existing Sister to Sister program that incorporates screenings and risk assessment, diagnostic testing, education and lifestyle modification, with an intervention to track and evaluate women's risk factors over the next year. The ultimate goal is to identify successful preventive strategies to reduce a woman's risk for heart disease and, through Sister to Sister and other organizations, disseminate these strategies to high-risk, under-served women in communities nationwide.

Sister to Sister, a national nonprofit foundation established in 2000 by Mrs. Pollin, provides free heart health screenings in an effort to encourage women to make necessary lifestyle changes to prevent or reduce their risk of heart disease. The foundation has now provided screenings to more than 70,000 women in the United States.

The new study will leverage the experience of the foundation, the clinicians at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, as well as the expertise of researchers in the fields of preventive health and health policy at Harvard Medical School, to support and promote cardiovascular health in women.

Despite declines over the past decades, cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death and disability for women in the United States. More than 300,000 American women a year die from coronary artery disease.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and hospitalization for women in the cities in which the Sister to Sister Foundation holds annual heart health screenings. Those cities include Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

WATCH Principal Investigator, Dr. JoAnne M. Foody, Associate Professor Harvard Medical School and Medical Director of the Pollin Program for Cardiovascular Wellness in Women at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass., said: "This collaborative study will indeed leverage the existing resources and expertise of the Sister to Sister: Everyone Has a Heart Foundation and formalize its partnership with Brigham and Women's and Johns Hopkins Hospital, in order to engage and empower women to modify their risk for heart disease.

"My hope is that this program, using local case managers, will change the way in which we address cardiovascular risk factors and prevent heart disease in women. I look forward to collaborating with Sister to Sister, Mrs. Pollin, and Dr. Roger Blumenthal on this important project," said Dr. Foody.

Dr. Blumenthal is professor of medicine and director of The Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease, in Baltimore, Md.

For more information, contact: The Sister to Sister Foundation
301-718-8033
www.sistertosister.org