2025 Heart to Heart Grant Recipient Stanford’s winning proposal, “Evidence Based Online Peer Support after Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection”, is partnering with the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI). This is the first Alpha Phi Foundation-funded project that offers cross-country collaboration in the Heart to Heart Grant’s 32-year history. UOHI’s Women@Heart program offers online peer-support for women with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and it has proven results, including enhancing coping skills, empowering women through their diagnoses and building a caring environment via shared experiences. Dr. Katharine Sears-Edwards at Stanford is embarking on this partnership to modify UOHI’s successful program specifically for patients with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) across the United States and Canada. SCAD occurs when the wall of a coronary artery randomly tears. This is an extremely emergent diagnosis that often has no warning and is more prevalent in women than men. SCAD also differs from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in that typical cardiac risk factors like high cholesterol and diabetes are not in the list of common risk factors. While its cause is unknown, potential risk factors include being female, childbirth and stress, which was a motivation for Dr. Edwards to partner with UOHI for SCAD patients everywhere. “We aim to learn whether evidence-based peer support to reduce stress and psychological distress is feasible and can improve outcomes among female cardiac patients," shared Dr. Sears-Edwards. "Our project is focused on one of several stress-triggered cardiovascular conditions that are more common in women than men”. Her team will take UOHI’s program and modify the content to be SCAD-specific, calling it SCAD@ Heart. Stanford staff will recruit peer-support leaders (PSLs) who have experienced SCAD through their Women’s Heart Health Clinic, who will then be trained to provide support to current SCAD patients through online peer-support sessions. These patients will be recruited not only at Stanford, but nationwide.
Dr. Katharine Sears-Edwards
Dr. Kerri Mullen
Dr. Huaiyu Zhang
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Nadine Elias
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