Blog Archives
New series of articles in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes
Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes will be publishing a new series of articles called narratives, which will be written by patients or by their family, friends or caregivers.
Narratives: The purpose of this series is to further understanding of patients’ experience of cardiovascular disease. These articles will be written by patients, or by their family members, caregivers, or friends. The articles will explore the effects of illness and treatment on patients’ lives and on their relationships with family, friends, caregivers, and health care providers. They will often discuss aspects of a condition that are important to patients but may not be fully appreciated by clinicians. We are especially interested in publishing narratives that contain lessons on the strengths and weaknesses of our health care system. They may, for example, be designed to help health care providers become aware of problems in communication of information, decision making, care coordination, access, cost, timeliness, safety, equity, and quality of care.
More information is available here. Submit your article here.
Heart and Stroke Foundation “make death wait” campaign: effective advocacy or unnecessary scare tactics?
I would be interested to know what my readers think of the two Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSF) ads shown below. The ads are part of HSF’s “Make death wait” awareness and fundraising campaign that’s been going on for the last few months. In the first ad, shown in this You Tube video, several different women are shown as a male voice, meant to personify death, intones “I love women. I love older women, professional women, stay-at-home moms. I love how women put their family first. I love how you’re so concerned that I’ll get to your husband.” In the last scene a woman in a bathing suit looks apprehensively over her shoulder as the voice warns, “You have no idea that I’m coming after you.” Eileen Melnick McCarthy, director of communications for the foundation, told a reporter that the intent of the campaign is to “wake up Canadians to the threat of heart disease and stroke.”
In addition, the print ad that appears below has appeared in a Canadian magazine. The copy, in case you can’t make it out, reads as follows:
Death loves menopause. He loves that menopause makes women more vulnerable to heart disease and stroke. And that women are far more likely to die of a heart attack. Most of all, he loves that heart disease and stroke is the #1 killer of women. Please donate, and make death wait.
Is this a legitimate way to “wake up” people to the threat of cardiovascular disease? Or unnecessary and counterproductive scare tactics? I lean toward the latter.
Marilyn Mann's Blog 