As part of its fund mandate, the Leslie Diamond Women’s Heart Health Clinic organizes a public awareness or physician CME (continuing medical education) event every year. This year, the clinic organized a public education session titled “Women and Heart Disease”. Targeted to previous cardiac rehabilitation patients and their friends and family, the event was held on Saturday, April 6, 2013, at the VGH Paetzold Health Education Centre.
Dr. Parvathy Nair (former medical director of the Leslie Diamond Women’s Heart Health Clinic) kicked off the session with the genesis and fruition of this first in Western Canada clinic. Following Dr. Nair:
- Dr. Taira Sedlak, current medical director, spoke about future plans for the clinic. Dr Sedlak is working on Phase 2 for the clinic, which will include collaboration with BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre, as well as Cardiac Services BC.
- Dr. Jacqueline Saw educated and informed the audience about a rare heart condition that affects mostly young women called spontaneous coronary artery dissection.
- Dr. Karin Humphries closed the session with a research update on women and heart disease.
The event was a resounding success with 160 attendees. Participants asked many questions of each speaker, demonstrating not only a high level of interest, but an existing level of sophistication on the topics.
The planning committee needs to be congratulated on a job well done that included speaker arrangements, venue logistics, publicity, managing RSVPs for more than 250 invitees and a catered lunch. Planning for next year’s conference will kick off in the coming months.