Contacts: 

Becky Gams, Deborah E. Powell Center for Women's Health, 612.624.1197
Molly Portz, Academic Health Center, 612.625.2640

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (Nov. 8, 2005)—The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has awarded a $150,000 grant to the Women’s Heart Clinic in the Cardiovascular Center at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.  The study, Enhancing, Improving and Evaluating Outcomes on Comprehensive Heart Health Care Programs for High Risk Women, will focus on populations including women over age 60, racial and ethnic minority women, and women residing in rural communities.

Collaborating with the University of Minnesota Deborah E. Powell Center for Women’s Health, the Women’s Heart Clinic within the Cardiovascular Center, will promote women’s heart health through education, awareness, screening and risk assessment, diagnostic testing and treatment, lifestyle modification and rehabilitation, and tracking and evaluation.  Soma Sen, M.D. is the principal investigator and Anne L. Taylor, M.D., is the co-principal investigator for the one-year study. 

Thirty-five institutions applied for this DHHS funding.  The Powell Center is the only DHHS designated Center of Excellence in Women's Health to win the award. Other grantees include Yale University, Columbia University, the University of California, Davis, and the Fox Valley Women’s Heart Clinic. 

The goal of the Women’s Heart Clinic at the University of Minnesota is to reach Minnesota women, especially those in underserved populations, to provide evidence-based cardiovascular care through education and implementation of early prevention, early treatment, and to serve as a comprehensive women’s heart program for all Minnesota women.

The Deborah E. Powell Center for Women’s Health’s enhances the excellent women’s health programs available through the Academic Health Center, the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, and the University of Minnesota Physicians Clinics, facilitating collaboration, integration and coordination of these programs to initiate significant changes in health care for women throughout the state of Minnesota.

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