National Wear Red Day: Taking Women’s Health to Heart

Friday, February 6, 2004 is National Wear Red Day, a day when people nationwide will take women’s health to heart by wearing red to show their support for raising awareness that far more American women die of heart disease than any other cause. By showing off a favorite red dress, shirt, or tie, Americans will unite in the national movement to give women an urgent wake-up call about their risk of heart disease.

National Wear Red Day supports the Red Dress as the symbol for women and heart disease awareness, by encouraging women and men across the country to participate in this life-saving movement. The NHLBI developed the Red Dress icon as the centerpiece of The Heart Truth, its national awareness campaign for women about heart disease, and is excited to work with national and local partners to proclaim the first Friday of February (American Heart Month) the first National Wear Red Day. Special events and awareness activities will be held at clinics, hospitals, workplaces, and other public places to help spread The Heart Truth, that heart disease is the number one cause of death of women, and to motivate women to take their heart health seriously and take steps to reduce their risks.

The Heart Truth campaign is sponsored by the NHLBI, in partnership with the Office on Women’s Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Heart Association, WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, and other groups committed to the health and well-being of women.

For more information on women and heart disease and ideas on how to raise awareness in your community, visit The Heart Truth Web site.

Collaborative Research Programs for Circulatory and Respiratory Health Launched

The NHLBI is the first of the NIH components to develop collaborative research programs with its counterpart institute, the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH), of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). To advance research in areas of importance in heart, lung, and blood diseases, the two institutes are together initiating three research programs. The programs will address new strategies to resuscitate heart attack and trauma patients; develop new cellular and molecular imaging of heart, lung, and blood systems; and improve management of thrombotic disorders such as heart attack, stroke, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism.

“This unique programmatic collaboration will bring together scientists who are international leaders in their fields to unravel the complexities of circulatory and respiratory illness. I am very hopeful that this is the first of many collaborative efforts between our two institutes,” said Dr. Bruce McManus, ICRH Scientific Director.

Each of the programs will be conducted at multiple sites in Canada and the United States for several years, beginning in 2004. The collaboration will accelerate research progress in these areas by enabling support for more investigators than either Canada or the United States could support separately.