Press Date: 03/07/2009

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Columbus, OH - The McConnell Heart Health Center and Women's Health Research at Yale, Yale University's research program on women and gender, are partnering to improve prevention and treatment strategies for cardiovascular disease in women.

"This is a great opportunity to affiliate with one of the nation's renowned women's health research centers based within an outstanding Ivy League institution," said Teresa Caulin-Glaser, MD, executive director of the McConnell Heart Health Center. "Our research department has gained a national reputation over the past six years, and this is recognition of its value."

The partnership establishes the McConnell Heart Health Center as the core site for collaborative cardiovascular research with Women's Health Research at Yale. "We are an interdisciplinary program dedicated to generating new data on heart health that will improve care, and the McConnell Center, with its history of research and prevention, was the obvious place to do that," said Carolyn M. Mazure, PhD, director of Women's Health Research at Yale.

The McConnell Center and Yale will examine the effect of a variety of behavioral and biomedical factors on cardiovascular health to document outcomes in men and women. Their goal is to translate their findings into gender-based prevention and treatment interventions.

"We'll take a broad look at all factors that influence heart disease including age, family history, hypertension, tobacco use, diabetes, cholesterol, obesity, and inactivity as well as social support, stress and depression," Caulin-Glaser said.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among women, yet women historically have been excluded from heart disease studies. "We need treatment tailored to genders," said Mazure, citing increasing evidence that suggests the appearance and clinical course of heart disease can be dramatically different in women than in men.

One particular point of emphasis will be post-heart attack care. "A higher percentage of women than men drop out of cardiac rehabilitation and it is important for us to know why," Mazure said.

The McConnell Heart Health Center established a research program in 2002 that has resulted in more than 75 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at national conferences over the past six years as well as research findings that have improved clinical programming at the center. Topics have included prevention of cardiovascular disease, gender differences in disease management, weight management, depression and chronic disease, musculoskeletal disorders, coagulation disorders and age-related issues in the management of chronic diseases.

"The affiliation with this Yale program will help generate data that will enable us to apply for new grants and will provide support to further our gender-specific research into heart disease," Caulin-Glaser said.

The McConnell Center, in turn, provides Women's Health Research at Yale with a large, diverse patient population and on-site personnel to compile data. "It has the expertise, resources and reputation to make it the most suitable site for one of our core areas of research," Mazure said.

The partnership reunites Caulin-Glaser, a former associate professor at Yale, with Mazure. The colleagues teamed in 2007 to publish a study in The Journal of Preventive Cardiology that linked depression among women with failure to complete cardiac rehabilitation programs. 

McConnell Heart Health Center
The McConnell Heart Health Center is a unique healthcare and fitness facility dedicated to heart health promotion, disease prevention and management, and rehabilitation. The center's physicians and staff are committed to helping individuals achieve and maintain their health by providing the tools and information necessary to reach personal health and fitness goals. Programs at the center include anti-coagulation clinic, cardiac metabolic clinic, cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, diabetes education classes, weight treatment, smoking cessation, nutrition counseling, fitness and massage therapy. Specialized musculoskeletal care and physical and aquatic therapy are also available at the adjacent McConnell Spine, Sport and Joint Center.

The McConnell Heart Health Center is part of OhioHealth, a nationally-recognized, not-for-profit charitable, healthcare organization serving and supported by the community. OhioHealth was named by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 2007 and 2008. Based in Columbus, Ohio, OhioHealth is a family of 17 hospitals, 20 health and surgery centers, home-health providers, medical equipment and health service suppliers throughout a 40-county area. OhioHealth hospitals in central Ohio are Riverside Methodist Hospital, Grant Medical Center, Doctors Hospital, Grady Memorial Hospital and Dublin Methodist Hospital. For more information, please visit www.OhioHealth.com.

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