2013 Women & Science Fall Breakfast Program

Affairs of the Heart: Gender Differences in Heart Disease and Stroke

While heart disease is often viewed as a men’s health problem, cardiovascular illness is actually the number one killer of women in the United States. Fortunately, biomedical researchers are now paying greater attention to coronary artery disease and stroke in women, and the medical community is promoting awareness of gender differences in symptoms, disease progression, and response to preventive medications.

Holly S. Andersen, M.D., Rockefeller University trustee and director of education and outreach for the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute, is a leader in advancing the understanding of cardiovascular health. An authority on preventive cardiology, she has spoken extensively on the roles that diet, exercise, hormones, stress, and sleep play in heart disease risk. Dr. Andersen’s work in cardiology has focused on women’s heart health, the special concerns of athletes, and the management of patients with mitral valve prolapse. She has been an on-air “heart expert” for ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Evening News, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Fox Television.

Women & Science is delighted to present this lecture by Dr. Andersen, who is an associate professor of clinical medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College and an associate attending physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She is dual board certified in internal medicine and cardiology and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Sports Medicine. Annually since 2001, Dr. Andersen has been named one of America’s “Best Doctors” by Castle Connolly and one of “America's Top Cardiologists” by the Consumers Research Council of America. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and the International Women's Health Coalition, and serves on the Women and Science Council of Weill Cornell Medical College and the Leadership Council of the American Heart Association's Go Red campaign. Dr. Andersen joined Rockefeller’s board in 2010.

Barry S. Coller, M.D., the University’s vice president for medical affairs and physician-in-chief of The Rockefeller University Hospital, will host the program. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine, Dr. Coller is noted for his groundbreaking investigations of platelet physiology and thrombosis, which have led to the development of a drug now widely used to reduce complications of coronary artery stents.