Peer-Support for Healthy Hearts
Alpha Phi Foundation is excited to announce the recipient of the 2025 Heart to Heart Grant, Stanford University.
Stanford’s winning proposal, “Evidence Based Online Peer Support after Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection”, is in partnership with the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) – this is the first Alpha Phi Foundation-funded project that offers cross-country collaboration in the Heart to Heart Grant’s 32-year history. UOHI’s Women@Heart program offers online peer-support for women with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and it has proven results: enhancing coping skills, empowering women through their diagnoses, and building a caring environment via shared experiences.
Dr. Katharine Sears-Edwards at Stanford is embarking on this partnership to modify UOHI’s successful program specifically for patients with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) across the United States and Canada. SCAD occurs when the wall of a coronary artery randomly tears. This is an extremely emergent diagnosis that often has no warning and is more highly prevalent in women than men. SCAD also differs from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, in that typical cardiac risk factors like high cholesterol and diabetes are not in the list of common risk factors. While its cause is unknown, potential risk factors include being female, childbirth, and stress, which was a motivation for Dr. Edwards to partner with UOHI for SCAD patients everywhere.
The plan? Dr. Edwards says, “We aim to learn whether evidence-based peer support to reduce stress and psychological distress is feasible and can improve outcomes among female cardiac patients. Our project is focused on one of several stress-triggered cardiovascular conditions that are more common in women than men”. Her team will take UOHI’s program and modify the content to be SCAD-specific, calling it SCAD@Heart. Stanford staff will recruit peer-support leaders (PSLs) who have experienced SCAD through their Women’s Heart Health Clinic, who will then be trained to provide support to current SCAD patients through online peer-support sessions. These patients will be recruited not only at Stanford, but nationwide.
Along with Dr. Edwards, co-investigators Dr. Kerri Mullen (UOHI), Dr. Huaiyu Zhang (Stanford), and Nadine Elias (UOHI) are joining the endeavor. This team brings forth an impressive collection of accolades and experiences that are certain to yield results. Additionally, both Stanford and UOHI have established relationships with their local Alpha Phi chapters (Kappa – Stanford and Iota Upsilon – Ottawa), and the team is confident that collegiate and alumnae members alike can get involved with them and their project.
Dr. Edwards continues, “We believe that members of Alpha Phi will connect with our goals of empowering women to educate themselves, advocate for themselves, and be active participants in their own health.”
Awarded annually, the Heart to Heart Grant would not be possible without the continued support and generosity of Alpha Phi Foundation donors and volunteers. For over 75 years, Alpha Phi’s commitment to promoting advancements in women’s cardiac care has not wavered. Alpha Phi Foundation continues to create and celebrate impact in their priority of Women’s Heart Health and looks forward to further supporting this field for years to come.
If you’d like to make a gift to support women’s heart health in celebration of our 2025 Heart to Heart Grant recipient, please click here.