Women's Heart and Vascular

The Women's Heart and Vascular Program at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital provides screening, education, and treatment for women at risk for, or with established heart disease. Our approach to care is focused on the unique healthcare needs of women.

Heart disease remains the number one killer of women in the United States, and there is a great need for specialized care directed at women's cardiac needs.

As part of the Women's Heart and Vascular Program at Yale New Haven, there is close collaboration with experts in behavioral health, diabetes, exercise physiology, gynecology, nutrition, obstetrics, sleep medicine, and smoking cessation. This multidisciplinary approach ensures comprehensive and personalized care for each woman.

Cardiovascular Conditions We Treat

Lawrence + Memorial Hospital specialists use innovative technologies and techniques to diagnose and treat patients with a host of cardiovascular conditions and issues, including:

• Autoimmune disease
• Cardiovascular complications during pregnancy
• Congenital heart disease and pregnancy
• Coronary microvascular dysfunction
• Diabetes
• Familial hypercholesterolemia
• Pulmonary hypertension
• Stress-induced cardiomyopathies

Personalized Risk Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation

New patients will complete a questionnaire at their first appointment to identify individual risk factors and symptoms for heart disease. This questionnaire will become the basis of the initial evaluation by the cardiologist, who will review risk factors, discuss symptoms, and determine abnormalities on physical exam and electrocardiogram.

An individualized care plan will then be made, which may include:

• Laboratory testing such as lipid panel and blood glucose, hemoglobin A1C, cardio CRP (C-reactive protein), thyroid function, or specific hormone testing
• Diagnostic imaging
• Referral to an additional specialist in areas such as behavioral health, diabetes, exercise, menopause, nutrition, smoking cessation, pulmonology
• Treatment of risk factors and/or cardiac disease with follow-up appointments