Seton Opens New Center to Fight Women’s No. 1 Killer: Heart Disease

AUSTIN, Texas – Addressing the need for better care and awareness when it comes to women’s heart health, Seton Healthcare Family is opening the Women’s Heart Center at the Seton Heart Institute.

“Women have unique risk factors that are often overlooked or unknown, such as pregnancy-related or auto-immune disorders,” said Dr. Caitlin Giesler, medical director of the new Women’s Heart Center. “Early identification and treatment of these women is important because prevention works.”

Despite advances in treatment and awareness, heart disease remains the No. 1 killer of women and kills more women than all cancers combined. One in 31 women will die of breast cancer, while one in three women will die of heart disease.

The risk and incidence of heart disease starts to increase in women at age 40, yet many women are unaware of heart disease symptoms. They think of it as a “man’s disease,” tend to dismiss their own symptoms and take longer to seek medical attention.

The Women’s Heart Center, located at 1301 W. 38^th Street, Suite 400, in Austin, uses traditional and female-specific evaluation and management strategies and is designed to help women who have survived a heart-related crisis or who are significantly at risk for one in the future.

“All of our current diagnostic tests and treatments are based on research done overwhelmingly in men, and we know that certain types of heart disease in women are missed by traditional testing,” Giesler said. “We now know that women often respond differently to traditional treatments and medications.”

The center will offer an exclusive $149 Women’s Heart Health Assessment that provides the foundation for a heart disease prevention plan. It includes a risk assessment questionnaire, medical history review, complete cardiac exam, finger-stick cholesterol/glucose check and electrocardiogram (EKG).

The Women’s Heart Center also will serve as platform for cutting-edge research to help answer questions about heart disease in women. The role hormones play and the best treatments for female-dominant types of heart disease will be investigated in collaboration with other specialists, including oncologists and gynecologists.

Giesler will discuss the new Women’s Heart Center on Seton Healthline, Sunday, May 1. The health information talk show airs 4-5 p.m. on KLBJ-AM radio (590 AM/99.7 FM).

For more information or to schedule a Women’s Heart Health Assessment, call 512-324-3440 or visitwww.seton.net/heart-care/womens-heart-center.

About Seton Healthcare Family

Seton Healthcare Family, a member of Ascension, is a faith-based non-profit health care system founded in 1902 by the Daughters of Charity. Called to be a sign of God’s unconditional love for all, Seton strives to expand access to high-quality, low-cost, person-centered care and services.

Seton operates more than 100 clinical locations, including four teaching hospitals that will be training sites for Dell Medical School at The University of Texas starting in 2016. One of those training sites is a world-class pediatric medical center with its own Level I trauma center. Seton conducts research in the prevention and treatment of stroke, traumatic injury, epilepsy and cardiovascular disease.

Seton collaborates with employers, commercial insurance companies, community physicians, nonprofit agencies and government entities to create clinically integrated systems of care with providers throughout its 10,000-square-mile service area. Partners in providing health care include the Austin Independent School District; the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians; and Central Health. An example of innovative health care delivery is Seton’s and Central Health’s Community Care Collaborative, a unique and ambitious integrated delivery system for Travis County residents living at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

Seton employs almost 12,800 and is a major contributor to the Central Texas economy. Over the past decade, Seton has donated $2.9 billion in care and $2 billion in community benefit with help from generous donors and volunteers.

Seton is a member of Ascension Health, the health care delivery subsidiary of Ascension. For more information, please visit www.seton.net.

About Ascension

Ascension (www.ascension.org) is a faith-based health care organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world’s largest Catholic health system, Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all with special attention to persons in poverty and struggling the most. In FY2015, Ascension provided nearly $2 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs. Approximately 150,000 associates and 35,000 aligned providers serve in 1,900 sites of care – including 129 hospitals and more than 30 senior living facilities – in 24 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to healthcare delivery, Ascension subsidiaries provide a variety of services and solutions, including physician practice management, venture capital investing, treasury management, biomedical engineering, clinical care management, information services, risk management and contracting through Ascension’s own group purchasing organization.