February 25, 2010

February, National Heart Month, has been an eventful time for the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital.

Jan and Dan Duncan

Feb. 4 saw the annual presentation of the Denton A. Cooley Leadership Award to Jan and Dan Duncan for their amazing and enduring support of THI and other institutions in the Texas Medical Center. The Award was presented at the gala dinner by its namesake and THI founder, Dr. Denton A. Cooley, and THI President, Dr. James T. Willerson. Joining in the ceremonies at the Hilton Americas Hotel downtown were Dr. John Mendelsohn of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Dr. Mark Kline of Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. Learn more about this event.

On Feb. 20, Dr. Ali Massumi helped THI set another milestone in its education mission by hosting the Eleventh Symposium on Cardiac Arrhythmias: Practical Approach to Heart Rhythm Disorders. In the United States alone, 9 million people have heart failure or structural heart disease, both of which can result in changes in the heart's electrical system that make the heart more vulnerable to instability and resulting cardiac arrhythmias. Given recent advances in research and treatment of these disorders, experts agree that physicians' knowledge and treatment practice might differ from the current best practices and the symposium for cardiologists and others in the field was designed to help close that knowledge/treatment gap. The symposium's excellent faculty included our own Drs. James M. Bensler, Michael Eifling, Abdi Rasekh, Mehdi Razavi, Mohammad Saeed and Amy L. Woodruff. Learn more about THI's latest research.

Dr. Stephanie Coulter

Sandwiched in between those two significant events were many other activities, including a number of media appearances on television and radio by THI physicians, helping to educate the public. These included Dr. Roberta Bogaev's interview on Fox 26 News on women and heart disease and Dr. Stephanie Coulter's appearance on KHOU-TV, Ch. 11's "Great Day Houston" program for a discussion on preventing heart disease.

Following former President Clinton's Feb. 11th bout with clogged arteries, THI doctors were sought out by the media as experts in the field to provide information and explain the stents used to treat the condition. Dr. Biswajit Kar, Dr. Mike Wilson and Dr. Pranav Loyalka gave a number of television and radio interviews. And Dr. Loyalka also became a go-to expert for KTRK-TV, Ch. 13 on the subject of increased risks for heart attack during the Super Bowl or other "big game" events.

You can view many of these interviews on our website.

Lance Armstrong

There was also recognition in USA Today of THI's continuing cutting-edge work on heart assist devices, and the Los Angeles Times'  "Booster Shots" medical blog cited the usefulness of information on THI's website about heart disease risk in children and teens.

Also, Lance Armstrong's foundation to fight cancer, on its website, livestrong.com, cited THI as an exercise authority in a blog entry on "How To Do Cardio."

THI continues to work hard every day to fulfill its goal of pioneering research and education for the prevention and treatment of heart disease and is grateful for your continuing support.