Winner of the 2009 Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award

C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., an internationally recognized authority on women's heart health, will receive the American Heart Association's 2009 Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award at the organization's Scientific Sessions 2009, to be held in Orlando at the Orange County Convention Center Nov. 14-Nov. 18.

Bairey Merz is director of the Women's Heart Center and the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. She also holds the Women's Guild Endowed Chair in Women's Health and is a professor of medicine at Cedars-Sinai.

Since 1997, Bairey Merz has served as chair of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute-sponsored multicenter study, Women's Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation (WISE). The ongoing study investigates the diagnoses and treatment of women's heart disease, often uncovering differences between the genders when it comes to heart disease symptoms and treatments.

The Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award, initiated by the AHA Women in Cardiology Committee and sponsored by the AHA's Council on Clinical Cardiology, was designed to recognize individuals who have an outstanding record of effectively mentoring women cardiologists and to underscore the importance of mentoring in the professional development of women cardiologists.

"Dr. Bairey Merz is known and respected throughout the medical world for her excellent patient care, her groundbreaking research and for mentoring the future leaders of cardiology," said Eduardo Marbán, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. "She is an inspiration to all of us and the ideal recipient of this well-deserved award."

Martha Gulati, M.D., a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said Dr. Bairey Merz' mentorship made her rethink the definition of "scientist." "I believe that a true scientist, whose ultimate goal is to seek answers to unknown scientific questions, requires mentorship and teaching of others in addition to the ability to carry out research, in order to continue the ultimate quest for discovery," Gulati said.

Source: American Heart Association