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About Us
Program Mission
Ambassador Training
Ambassador Training
The goal of the HeartSmarts program is to increase the knowledge of heart disease and its prevention in underserved, high risk communities. Read more about the HeartSmarts program here.
Ambassador Training
Ambassador Training
Ambassador Training
Through “HeartSmarts” we would like to partner with your organization to educate the members about heart disease and its prevention. Learn more about the Ambassador Training
In the Community
Ambassador Training
In the Community
HeartSmarts ambassadors provide various services in their communities including blood pressure screening and cardiovascular health information.
Ambassador Spotlight
Ambassador Spotlight
Ambassador Spotlight
HeartSmarts Ambassadors come from various backgrounds. Some are heart attack survivors while others are community activists. Learn more about them here.
Success Stories
Ambassador Spotlight
Ambassador Spotlight
Participants of the HeartSmarts program have made various changes that have helped to improve their health. Read more about these changes and success stories here.
HandsOnly CPR
Ambassador Spotlight
HandsOnly CPR
Knowing CPR can be a matter of life and death. Participants of the HeartSmarts program have the opportunity to be trained in CPR. Read more here
Meet the team
The HeartSmarts Team: Dr. Naa-Solo Tettey and Dr. Holly Andersen
A Message from Dr. Naa-Solo Tettey HeartSmarts Creator and Director
The HeartSmarts research program was developed to educate communities about cardiovascular health in a unique way. Since 2011, HeartSmarts participants have increased their knowledge about cardiovascular health, improved their blood pressure, and lost weight. Participants have also improved their health behaviors. HeartSmarts has been recognized as a model for community based health promotion. We hope to continue to expand the program and reach new communities. The work of the HeartSmarts ambassadors is much needed and we are grateful for their dedication.
A Message from Dr. Holly Andersen, Director of Education and Outreach, The Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute
Life is a gift – it should be celebrated, but it should also be cared for. Heart disease is the number one cause of death for both men and women worldwide. There is nowhere that it strikes harder than in our African American communities. This disease is largely preventable, and we at the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute strongly believe that increasing our society’s understanding of this disease through the HeartSmarts program will save lives.
PROGRAMS
HEARTSMARTS PART ONE: WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT IS LIFE
HEARTSMARTS PART ONE: WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT IS LIFE
HEARTSMARTS PART ONE: WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT IS LIFE
The original 12-week HeartSmarts program that focuses on the basics of disease.
HEARTSMARTS PART TWO: CLOSER TO PLANT BASED
HEARTSMARTS PART ONE: WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT IS LIFE
HEARTSMARTS PART ONE: WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT IS LIFE
Follow-up program to HeartSmarts part one that focuses on the power of plant based nutrition in overall health.
HEARTSMARTS: FEEL THE HEARTBEAT
HEARTSMARTS PART ONE: WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT IS LIFE
HEARTSMARTS: FEEL THE HEARTBEAT
Culturally tailored exercise program aimed at increasing physical activity and improving overall health.
HEARTSMARTS: THE HEART OF A MAN
HEARTSMARTS SPANISH LANGUAGE CLASSES
HEARTSMARTS: FEEL THE HEARTBEAT
Men only HeartSmarts classes with a specific focus on the health issues that impact men.
HEARTSMARTS SPANISH LANGUAGE CLASSES
HEARTSMARTS SPANISH LANGUAGE CLASSES
HEARTSMARTS SPANISH LANGUAGE CLASSES
HeartSmarts en Espanol provides the curriculum for all HeartSmarts classes in Spanish.
HEARTSMARTS: FOR CLINICAL SETTINGS
HEARTSMARTS SPANISH LANGUAGE CLASSES
HEARTSMARTS SPANISH LANGUAGE CLASSES
Secular HeartSmarts classes tailored specifically for clinical and other non-faith based settings.
HeartSmarts In the News
Harlem Times: Faith-Based Program Helps Congregations Become Heart Smart
Harlem Times: Faith-Based Program Helps Congregations Become Heart Smart
Harlem Times: Faith-Based Program Helps Congregations Become Heart Smart
Before Reverend Dr. Rose Ellington Murray became a HeartSmarts Ambassador, she wasn’t practicing what she was preaching when it came to her health.
New York Times: In Church, Using the Bible as a Guide for Healthy Living
Harlem Times: Faith-Based Program Helps Congregations Become Heart Smart
Harlem Times: Faith-Based Program Helps Congregations Become Heart Smart
A program seeks to use faith and lessons from the Bible to persuade minority congregants of churches throughout New York to embrace healthier lifestyles.
New York Daily News: HeartSmarts Classes Preach Benefits of Heart-Healthy Lifestyle
Through community outreach, students and faculty tackle health disparities among New Yorkers
Through community outreach, students and faculty tackle health disparities among New Yorkers
Dr. Naa-Solo Tettey teaches a class of HeartSmarts, the faith-based cardiovascular health education program created by Tettey in 2011 to improve health outcomes.
Through community outreach, students and faculty tackle health disparities among New Yorkers
Through community outreach, students and faculty tackle health disparities among New Yorkers
Through community outreach, students and faculty tackle health disparities among New Yorkers
The HeartSmarts program at the Perelman Institute highlights the important role that religion can play in disease prevention efforts in underserved communities.
HOW RACISM AFFECTS HEALTH
Race and Cardiovascular Disease
It is now well documented that there are profound race-associated disparities among those who are affected by and die from cardiovascular disease. These disparities are deeply rooted within the history of race and medicine in the US. Blacks continue to have the highest burden of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality among all ethnic groups in the US, despite an overall decline in CHD-related mortality among the general population. Black patients also have a higher prevalence of CVD risk factors (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and obesity) than white patients. This persistent incongruity has compelled investigators to look beyond traditional risk factors for CVD towards psychosocial risk factors in an effort to better comprehend and offer solutions to the issue. Individual psychological stress has emerged as a potential nontraditional CVD risk factor that has garnered much attention. There is a growing interest in elucidating how chronic exposure to racial/ethnic discrimination, a psychosocial stressor, contributes to observed CVD and cardiovascular care disparities.
Race as a Stressor
Racial and ethnic discrimination has been postulated as a multidimensional environmental stressor at the societal and individual levels. That is, there are physiological consequences of chronic exposure to fluctuating or heightened neural or neuroendocrine response that results from repeated or chronic stress. Over time, these stressful life experiences can have detrimental effects on the health of people in historically marginalized groups. There is now compelling evidence linking the perception of racism to cardiovascular health. Race-related stress is perceived by many blacks as an influential factor.
Race Influence on Access to Quality Care
Give customers a reason to do business with you. Race-based discriminatory attitudes and behaviors by health care professionals may contribute to suboptimal diagnosis and management of CVD among patients from minority groups, particularly blacks. Additionally, entrenched institutional racism leads to inequities in access to and quality of health care. Studies have demonstrated pervasive disparities between treatment of blacks and whites in health care delivery in realms such as clinician adherence to prescribing guidelines, therapy intensification, and use of invasive cardiac procedures
resources
Hands Only CPR & The Perelman Heart Institute
Hands Only CPR: Most people who experience cardiac arrest at home, work or in a public location die because they don’t receive immediate CPR from someone on the scene. As a bystander, don’t be afraid. Your actions can only help. When calling 911, you will be asked for your location. Be specific, especially if you’re calling from a mobile phone as that is not associated with a fixed address. Answering the dispatcher’s questions will not delay the arrival of help.
How to Give Hands-Only CPR- If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, call 911 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest to the beat of any tune that is 100 to 120 beats per minute. Immediate CPR can double or even triple a person’s chance of survival.
The Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
The Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center provides patients with advanced cardiac care — from new minimally invasive procedures and medications to innovative specialized approaches —to prevent and treat heart disease in men and women. With its welcoming, stylish, five-story atrium, the Institute is the ideal setting for discovery and healing through innovative methods of diagnoses, treatment, clinical research, and education. It expands upon the Hospital's existing cardiac care expertise and connects all cardiac services — plus it adds a layer of public and patient education not available at other hospitals. The end result — enhanced patient experience, reduced infections, faster recoveries, disease prevention, education and, perhaps most important, improved patient outcomes.