by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
Even as a fairly new breast cancer patient (diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma on April 1st, 2025), I knew I’d likely choose quality of life (QoL) over length of life (LoL) after my diagnosis. Continue reading “Quality of Life vs. Length of Life? Pick One.”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
A number of cardiologists seem to be revisiting the warnings of their late colleague Dr. Bernard Lown, who often cautioned physicians against using “words that hurt“ – specifically, the name heart FAILURE * (what he termed “doom forecasting”). Imagine being a patient hearing for the first time the words, “You have heart FAILURE.” A terrifying – and worse, often inaccurate – name. I’ve been told that changing the name of this condition would be impossible. But a recent editorial in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has suddenly offered a glimmer of hope.
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
When McMaster University cardiologist Dr. Harriette Van Spall asked her Twitter followers recently to offer topic suggestions for the upcoming Heart Failure Summit, I responded with a suggestion of my own:
“Please please please can we STOP calling this condition heart FAILURE?” .
Continue reading “Is it finally time to change the name ‘heart FAILURE’?”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
If you’re a heart patient living with stable angina, the ISCHEMIA clinical trial presented at the 2019 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions is all about you. Cardiologist Dr. John Mandrola described the impact of this study in his Medscape column like this:
“CARDIOLOGY CHANGES TODAY!” .
But realistically, does one study have the power to actually change the practice of cardiology? .
Continue reading “ISCHEMIA study: that blockage isn’t a time bomb in your chest”
Heart Sisters 