Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center lead the effort

New survey data and PSA with Jennifer Hudson also unveiled.

NEW YORK (November 12, 2014) — Today, Barbra Streisand and Ronald O. Perelman rolled out a new campaign, Fight the Ladykiller, to tackle the number one killer of women—heart disease. The campaign is an effort of the newly formed Women’s Heart Alliance (WHA), founded by Barbra Streisand and Ronald O. Perelman and two of America’s leading medical institutions—the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. As part of the announcement, WHA unveiled a new public service announcement featuring Academy and Grammy Award winner Jennifer Hudson and the results of a new GfK survey of women on heart disease.

WHA and the new campaign were born from Ms. Streisand’s and Mr. Perelman’s outrage over the gender disparity in heart disease. Every minute, a woman dies from heart disease, and heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined. New survey data show that an alarming 45 percent of U.S. women ages 25-60 don’t know it’s their number one killer. Even though women make up more than half of the U.S. population, for the last 50 years, the treatment of women’s hearts has been largely based on medical research done on men.

“Every woman and the men who love her should be outraged that this killer takes one out of three women each year—one woman every minute—yet we’re not doing nearly enough to stop it. We need to empower women to take charge of their health, encourage doctors to make women’s heart health a priority and direct more research funds toward women’s heart disease,” said Barbra Streisand before an audience at a Hearst Master Class event in New York today.

“Women’s hearts will continue to go under-researched, untreated and misdiagnosed if we don’t take action. That’s why we are launching Fight the Ladykiller,” said long-time supporter of women’s health issues, Ronald O. Perelman, chairman and CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc.

To understand women’s perspectives on heart disease, WHA commissioned GfK to conduct a survey of more than 1,000 women ages 25-60 in the U.S. using GfK’s KnowledgePanel®. Despite heart disease being the number one killer of women, nearly half of women (45%) don’t know this to be true. Most women are not talking about heart health with friends or family (76% never or rarely talk about it) and are not bringing up the topic with their doctors (46% almost never bring up the subject with MDs). Nearly half (49%) of women who never bring up heart health with their doctors, or only bring it up on some visits, expect that their doctor will bring it up if there is an issue. A similar survey conducted by Edge Research in May 2014 of nearly 300 primary care physicians and cardiologists found that they too report most women do not bring up heart health during visits. This same survey found that only 49 percent of primary care physicians and 52 percent of cardiologists agree that a woman’s heart is different than a man’s, which further solidifies the need for immediate action. Full survey results can be found here.

The women’s survey also found that few women (27%) can name a woman with heart disease and even fewer (11%) can name a woman who has died from it. Women also do not understand the links between heart disease and other conditions, like diabetes (57% do not understand the connection), autoimmune disease (81%), pregnancy complications (79%), early menopause (90%) and irregular periods (95%).

“Lack of awareness, communication and personalization of women’s heart disease is a deadly combination,” said Holly Andersen, MD, adviser to WHA and Director of Education and Outreach at the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “All women and those who love them need to start talking and taking action against this killer. All women should get heart checked.”

Fight the Ladykiller encourages women to talk to their healthcare providers and empower them with a single, meaningful action they can take—#getHeartChecked. The term #getHeartChecked encompasses the conversation and the screenings that allow healthcare providers to assess a woman’s unique and personalized risk of heart disease. The initiative also encourages the medical community to talk to patients and peers about women’s heart health and proactively address the screening, diagnostic and therapeutic differences of a woman’s heart, and moves Congress and federal agencies to action on funding women’s heart health research.

To engage more people on the issue, WHA released a new PSA featuring Jennifer Hudson. The PSA was written and produced in collaboration with Ms. Streisand. Ms. Hudson concludes the PSA by telling women to fight back and get heart checked.

“For women, getting your heart checked is especially important,” said C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, FACC, adviser to WHA and Director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center and the Linda Joy Pollin Women’s Heart Health Program at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. “Fundamentally, women’s hearts are different than men’s, their heart attack symptoms are often different and heart disease impacts a woman’s body differently. Often the disease is found in small arteries in women rather than large ones, which is typical in men. As such, heart disease is harder to detect in women—leading to more deaths, less aggressive treatment and poorer outcomes.”

WHA is led by Chief Executive Officer British A. Robinson. She added, “This is a long-term effort. We aim to amplify and accelerate efforts with other leading women’s health organizations toward our shared mission of saving women’s lives from heart disease.”

For more information on the Women’s Heart Alliance and the Fight the Ladykiller campaign, visit www.fighttheladykiller.org. A full press kit can be found here.

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The Women’s Heart Alliance (WHA) was formed to raise awareness, encourage action and drive new research to fight women’s heart disease. It’s a unique collaboration between Barbra Streisand and Ronald O. Perelman and two of America’s leading medical institutions—the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. For more information, visit www.fighttheladykiller.org.

The Women’s Heart Alliance is a project of the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity.