[February 04, 2014] |
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ADDING MULTIMEDIA AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation Awards $197,634 Grant to Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation
BALTIMORE --(Business Wire)--
The AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation's Connections for
Cardiovascular HealthSM program today announced a
grant of $197,634 to Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation to support its
Heart-to-Heart initiative. This is the second consecutive year in which
the Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation has received a grant from the
AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation, totaling $442,089.
From left to right: Richard Buckley, President of the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation; Dr. Shannon Winakur, Medical Director of the Women's Heart Center at Saint Agnes Hospital; Dr. Carlos Ince, Chief of Cardiology at Saint Agnes Hospital; Dr. Michael Miller, AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation Trustee; and Bonnie Phipps, President and CEO of Saint Agnes Hospital, at a ceremony today for the presentation of a grant for $197,634 to Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation, Inc. from the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation. The event took place at Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, Md. The AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation has announced grants totaling nearly $3.7 million to 19 U.S.-based nonprofit organizations across the country dedicated to improving cardiovascular health in local communities. (Photo: Business Wire)
Heart-to-Heart aims to identify and assess underserved, low-income
African-American women at high risk for cardiovascular disease and
provide a community-based church intervention program that includes
nutrition, physical activity and healthy lifestyle education to reduce
their risk for heart disease.
"With Southwest Baltimore having some of the highest rates of premature
death due to cardiovascular disease, Saint Agnes Hospital has made it a
priority to not only educate and raise awareness about heart disease but
also to help prevent and cure it," said Lucy Ferko, senior vice
president of the Clinical Institute and Ambulatory Services, Saint Agnes
Hospital. "The Heart-to-Heart program allows us to bring the services
and screenings of our Women's Heart Center, the only program of its kind
in Maryland, to the community. Afteronly one year, the Heart-to-Heart
program has reached hundreds of women, successfully improving the
cardiovascular health of participants -- and we look forward to
improving even more lives this year."
As a result of previous funding from the AstraZeneca HealthCare
Foundation, Heart-to-Heart staff completed 276 one-on-one tailored heart
risk assessments for African-American women living in communities with
some of the most severe healthcare disparities in the state of Maryland.
At the beginning of the program, 80 percent of the participants had a
waist circumference (an indicator of cardiovascular risk in women) that
placed them in the At Risk category. After four months of program
participation, the percentage of participants in the At Risk category
decreased to 65 percent.
"Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United
States, and organizations like Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation are
creating innovative programs to help prevent and decrease the associated
risks with this devastating disease," said James W. Blasetto, M.D., MPH,
FACC, chairman of the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation. "We are
grateful to Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation for its commitment to
improving heart health in their community."
The Connections for Cardiovascular HealthSM
program annually awards grants of $150,000 or more to U.S.-based
nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving cardiovascular health in
local communities. This year, the program awarded nearly $3.7 million in
grants to 19 organizations. More than $14 million in grants have been
awarded through the program since its inception in 2010.
Organizations can learn more and apply online for a Connections for
Cardiovascular HealthSM grant at www.astrazeneca-us.com/foundation.
Applications must be submitted online no later than 5 p.m. EST on Feb.
27, 2014.
About Saint Agnes Hospital
Founded by the Daughters of Charity in 1862, Saint Agnes Hospital is a
276-bed hospital that recently completed a $200 million-plus expansion
emphasizing patient safety in a high quality healthcare environment.
Saint Agnes is the oldest Catholic hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and
is a full-service teaching hospital with residency programs in medicine
and surgery. The hospital's key institutes include the: Cancer
Institute; Cardiovascular Institute; Maryland Metabolic Institute;
Orthopedic & Spine Institute; Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery; and The
Bunting Health Institute for Women & Children. Saint Agnes opened the
first Chest Pain Emergency Department in the world more than 30 years
ago, and continues to expand and grow its Emergency Services. Learn more
at www.stagnes.org.
About Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation, Inc.
The Saint Agnes Foundation is a nonprofit corporation that raises
millions of dollars annually in support of Saint Agnes HealthCare. Its
focus is on the strategic expansion of the six centers of excellence,
new health programs, campus expansion, supplemental education for
healthcare professionals, and leading-edge medical equipment and
technology.
About AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation
Established in 1993, the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation is a Delaware
not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)(3) entity organized for
charitable purposes, including to promote public awareness of healthcare
issues, to promote public education of medical knowledge, and to support
or contribute to charitable and qualified exempt organizations
consistent with its charitable purpose. Connections for
Cardiovascular HealthSM was launched in 2010
through a charitable contribution of $25 million from AstraZeneca.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20140204005354/en/
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