About Us
The Linda Joy Pollin Cardiovascular Wellness Center for Women promotes cardiovascular health, health equity, and wellbeing, and works to increase awareness of heart disease in women. It combines action with research to improve women’s heart health and create transformative change.
The Center advocates for women's heart health through public awareness campaigns and professional education, runs an outpatient clinic for women with heart disease, maintains women-led wellness and community programs, and conducts research to advance gender equity in health care.
The Center is part of Hadassah Hospital’s Heart Institute, which made Newsweek’s “World’s Best Specialized Hospitals-Cardiology” in a ranking of top-tier global medical centers.
Our Vision
The Center’s vision is to enhance cardiovascular health among women in Israel. The Center is part of a world-wide movement dedicated to changing the standard of women’s heart health and wellness at all levels.
The Center takes on a special responsibility to individuals and communities with more acute risk factors. The Center places an emphasis on these populations within Israel with the goal of promoting heart health equity.
We believe in evidence-based practice in medical care and in health promotion. The services we provide help further women’s cardiovascular health, and the research we do helps improve and advance cardiovascular health promotion in women.
Women and Heart Disease
Each year, 8.6 million women worldwide die of heart disease, accounting for one third of all deaths in women. More than 50% of women are affected by heart disease during their lives.
In Israel, more women die each year from heart disease than men. The increases in obesity, sedentary lifestyle and smoking in women have amplified the risk in younger and younger women. Despite this, many women perceive heart disease as a “man’s disease” and do not consider themselves at risk.
Differences in diagnosis and treatment of heart disease in women remain a core gender-based inequity in health care. On average, it takes more than twice as long for a woman to seek care and receive treatment for a heart attack - 2.5 hours for women, compared to 1 hour for men. As a result, a woman is almost three times less likely to survive a heart attack than a man.
Gender-appropriate knowledge, tools and social support enable women to recognize the signs and symptoms of heart disease and to adopt heart healthy behaviors that reduce their risk. Social and cultural factors as well as the caregiver role affect the choices women make regarding self-care, but with tailored and culturally-adapted messaging, women can recognize their personal risk and implement choices that reduce their risk of heart disease. The development of material and methods and supportive communities that convey information and skills to as many women as possible reduces inequities in women's heart health.