"WOMEN'S HEALTH: NOT SOLELY A MEDICAL ISSUE" ADDRESSED BY CARDIOLOGIST NANETTE WENGER AT EMORY GREAT TEACHERS LECTURE

April 1998

Media Contacts: Sarah Goodwin, 404/727-3366 - sgoodwi@emory.edu
Kathi Ovnic, 404/727-9371 - covnic@emory.edu
http://www.emory.edu/WHSC/

In love, so the saying goes, women fall more often, but men fall harder. In heart disease, the opposite may be true.

Emory University cardiologist Nanette Wenger was one of the first physician-scientists to speak out about the great underrepresentation of women subjects in medical research -- and was one of the first to uncover significant differences in how heart disease affects women and men. In 1994, she was named "One of the 10 Most Important Women in Medicine" by Ladies Home Journal. On April 21, Dr. Wenger will address important trends in women's health research when she presents "Women's Health: Not Solely a Medical Issue."

The talk is part of the Emory University Great Teachers Lecture Series. It begins at 7:30 p.m. at Emory University's Cannon Chapel, 515 Kilgo Circle, Atlanta. Call 404/727-6216.

In her newly published book Women & Heart Disease (D. Julian and N. Wenger, Eds., Martin Dunitz, London, 1997) and in her 1993 New England Journal of Medicine paper Dr. Wenger lists point after point in which women are more devastated by heart disease than men. She currently heads the Emory component of the Heart and Estrogen-Progestin Replacement Study (HERS), a national study evaluating whether hormone replacement therapy can prevent or stall heart disease in women after menopause. And earlier this month, the beginning of an international study was announced testing in some 10,000 women in 25 countries the role of the osteoporosis drug Raloxifene in preventing heart disease; Dr. Wenger will serve as co-principal investigator.

Dr. Wenger was recognized by McCall's magazine in 1994 for her research into causes and treatments for heart disease in women, has been recognized as Atlanta Woman of the Year in Medicine and cited in Time magazine's Woman of the Year issue.

She directs Cardiac Clinics at Grady Memorial Hospital and is professor of Medicine (Cardiology), Emory University School of Medicine. She received her bachelor's, Phi Beta Kappa, from Hunter College, N.Y., and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School.

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