Keeping the Women we Love Healthy

  The Howell Foundation held its first luncheon of the year with the presentation “Telemedicine:  Bridging the Gap Between Science and Technology”, hosting Dr. Todd Coleman as the key note speaker.   His presentation focused on merging the most recent wireless technologies to medical care. Dr. Coleman, who holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT, was encouraged by his mentor to go “do a post-doctoral study in something wildly different”.  He decided to start his post-doc studies in Neuroscience.  “I was happy with the opportunity to learn more about how the brain works” he commented during his presentation. The new focus of his field of study was how to merge recent wireless technologies and biology to best serve the human being through an interactive, non-intrusive process:  how can the machine talk back to the human and engage?   By understanding how the brain works and utilizing the concepts of analytics, Dr. Coleman, his laborato...

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give   ~Kahlil Gibran In recognition of the many donors that make it possible for students to accomplish their dreams, UCSD celebrated the community's donations  at their annual Hearts and Scholars dinner in February at the Estancia, La Jolla.  The Doris A. Howell Foundation was recognized as a Cum Laude in their 2014 Honor Roll of Scholarship Donors. It was certainly a pleasure celebrating the gift of education with 2014 UCSD scholars Angela Zuo, Erica Birkholz, Stephanie Myers and Orysya Stus; all making progress and well on their way to advocating for women's health through their fields of study. We are proud of all our Howell Scholars.  If you would like to make a donation towards empowering students to fulfill their passion for research, please contact the Doris A. Howell Foundation today: www.howellfoundation.org.                          ...

Images Courtesy of Free Digital Fotos.net “Go Red for Women”, a date designed to raise awareness of heart disease in women, is the first Friday each February. The story behind wearing red to raise awareness the first Friday of February started in 2003, when the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute designed the campaign to create awareness of the severity of heart disease in women.  Back then, the disease was affecting and taking the lives of almost half a million women. Sadly today -- after all the research that has been done regarding heart health and women, there are still those who either don't know the effects of heart disease in women, or believe that heart disease affects more men than women. Did you know that: More American women die of heart disease than of all forms of cancer combined?  Most women do not know that heart disease is the #1 killer of women?  Many of the risk factors for heart disease in women (h...

As National Heart Health Month is here, it only seemed appropriate to sit and chat with Dr. Carole Banka, recently elected Chair of the Board of Directors for the Doris A. Howell Foundation.   Dr. Banka is known in the research community for being a champion of gender differences in research, which should lead to diagnosing and treating illness accordingly.   If you ever hear the words “were both genders included in the research/studies?” or “how did gender differences impact the outcome?” then you know it HAS to be her!    Carole L. Banka, Ph.D is currently Associate Project Scientist in the Department of Medicine at the UCSD School of Medicine.  She received her Ph.D. from UCSF School of Medicine and did postdoctoral training at UCSD School of Medicine and The Scripps Research Institute. She has held faculty positions at The Scripps Research Institute and the La Jolla Institute for Molecular Medicine where she was Director of Women’s Health Resea...

As February comes around, Heart Health awareness takes center stage. Education on the risks of heart disease in women is crucial for a long, healthy life.   You  have  probably  reviewed the statistics from the American Heart Association regarding heart health and women.  Here is a summary of the most relevant facts you need to remember: