Cleveland Clinic To Host Heart-Brain Summit June 7-8

Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Article Date: 02 Jun 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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From around the world will gather at Cleveland Clinic June 7-8 to explore the link between cardiovascular and nervous system disorders at the 2nd Annual Bakken Heart-Brain Summit.

The summit will bring to the forefront the relationship between cardiovascular and neurological health, highlighting the latest in cardiovascular and neurological research and treatment.

"As the field of heart-brain medicine emerges, we are striving to gain an understanding of the unique interactions of the cardiovascular and neurological systems," said Marc Penn, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Earl and Doris Bakken Heart Brain Institute at Cleveland Clinic. "The Heart-Brain Summit will again bring together researchers, clinicians and others to stimulate greater collaboration and understanding of the heart-brain link and to positively impact research, education, and patient care."

The 2nd annual Heart-Brain Summit will take place at the InterContinental Hotel & Bank of America Conference Center in Cleveland, located on the Clinic's campus. Agenda and registration information can be found at http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/summit/heartbrain07.

The Summit's first full day, June 7, will include two primary sessions. The first will focus on the . Presentation topics will include the behavioral and psychosocial triggers for acute coronary syndrome events, the inflammation link between injury to the brain and damage to the heart as well as a focus on how different disciplines evaluate the same patient differently. The second session, Strategies for Heart-Brain Health will highlight biofeedback, hypnosis, and exercise to improve heart-brain health.

The second day of the Summit will focus on cardiac manifestations of neurological disorders and emerging topics in heart-brain medicine. Discussion topics will range from cardiovascular issues in movement disorder patients to the potential beneficial neurological effects of medications typically used for cardiac patients. For full agenda of discussion topics for the summit, please visit www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/heartbrain07.

In September 2004, a gift from the Earl and Doris Bakken Foundation allowed the creation of the Earl and Doris Heart-Brain Institute at Cleveland Clinic. One of the goals of the institute was to host an annual summit at Cleveland Clinic to help bring the fields of cardiovascular and neurological medicine together.

It has been the dream of Earl Bakken, Ph.D., co-founder of Medtronic and developer of the first transistorized battery-operated wearable pacemaker in 1957, to bring these two fields together.

"We need to look at health and medicine in a more holistic way," Dr. Bakken has said. "Understanding how systems currently considered separate work in conjunction will lead to an understanding of how the health of the body, mind, and spirit is maintained throughout our lives."

Diseases of the cardiovascular system and nervous system (including stroke) represent the first and third leading causes, respectively, of death in the United States. According to the American Heart Association, 64.4 million Americans have one or more types of cardiovascular disease. In addition, statistics show that every year more than 1 million adults in the U.S. are diagnosed with a chronic brain disease or disorder.

About The Earl and Doris Bakken Heart-Brain Institute

The Earl and Doris Bakken Heart-Brain Institute at Cleveland Clinic is dedicated to promoting research and education related to heart-brain interactions, to discovering new treatments and cures for cardiovascular and nervous system disorders that build upon these interactions, and to offering a range of healing solutions that treat the patient as a whole. For more information, please visit: www.cms.clevelandclinic.org/heartbrain.

About Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland Clinic, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a not-for-profit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation's best hospitals in its annual "America's Best Hospitals" survey. Approximately 1,500 full-time salaried physicians at Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Florida represent more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties. In 2005, there were 2.9 million outpatient visits to Cleveland Clinic. Patients came for treatment from every state and from more than 80 countries. There were nearly 54,000 hospital admissions to Cleveland Clinic in 2005. Cleveland Clinic's Web site address is www.clevelandclinic.org.