Category: Heart Sisters

– posts here focus on general topics about women and heart disease

My open letter to “Patients Included” conferences

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 39 Comments

different red chair

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Dear medical conference organizers,

Thank you so much for inviting me to participate in your conference later this year. It is a real honour to be asked to help represent the patient voice at your prestigious event. I know that inviting patients alongside your impressive international roster of well-respected physicians is new to you. So congratulations on your interest in the  increasingly important “Patients Included” movement sweeping through medical conferences. By the way, here are the five qualifications your event requires in order to meet those Patients Included criteria.

But as I once wrote to patient blogger (and conference speaker) Carly Medosch:

“I can no longer afford to be ‘honoured’ by any more medical conference invitations.”

Allow me to explain:
 Continue reading “My open letter to “Patients Included” conferences” →

This is your heart (my Heart Month interview)

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

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by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Heart Month (aka February) typically means a flurry of once-a-year media attention to the important subject of women’s heart health, so I like to take advantage of as many interview requests as I can every February.  Strike while the iron’s hot!  Make hay while the sun shines! Drink the glass of wine while it’s sitting right in front of you!  Okay, that last rule I just made up…

One such interview request this year was from Media Planet’s 2016 Cardiovascular Health Campaign launched by Canada’s National Post newspaper and online. Here’s the text of that interview with Taylor Mihail of Media Planet. Continue reading “This is your heart (my Heart Month interview)” →

A year in review: Top 10 Heart Sisters posts in 2015

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

It’s that time again, when navel-gazing pundits everywhere compile their Best Of or Top 10 lists of movies, political stories, books or bloopers for the year that’s just about to slip away.

Same here at Heart Sisters. So let’s take a nostalgic look backwards today at this website in 2015, at what I like to describe as “cardiac rehab for my brain”.    Continue reading “A year in review: Top 10 Heart Sisters posts in 2015” →

The Christmas truce – 1914

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Christmas Truce 1914As World War I raged on in the trenches of Europe in 1914, Christmas Eve arrived cold and bleak. But German soldiers put up Christmas trees decorated with candles, on the parapets of their trenches. Although their enemies, the British soldiers, could see the lights, it took them a few minutes to figure out where they were from. Could this be a trick?

British soldiers were ordered not to fire, but to watch closely. Instead of trickery, however, the British soldiers heard the Germans singing carols and celebrating. One young soldier wrote home about this remarkable event:    Continue reading “The Christmas truce – 1914” →