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September Is for Service: the GW Heart & Vascular Institute Supports Local and International Community Programs.
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 Drs. Tracy and Mercader Perform Fifth Medical Mission to Honduras
This September, Cynthia Tracy, MD, and Marco Mercader, MD, traveled to Centro Medico Comayagua Colonial Hospital in Comayagua, Honduras, to provide a free, two-week heart clinic identifying at-risk patients of all ages in need of heart pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators. This is the Institute's fifth annual mission trip to Honduras and is the only medical mission in Honduras to address these acute cardiac needs. One again, our GW medical team implanted more heart devices during this two-week period than are performed the entire rest of the year in Honduras. The five person team, which included Fernando Najera and Carlos Moss of GW, and Sean Farrell of Medtronic, provided care to more than 100 patients and implanted 36 devices. Many patients who received devices during our mission in prior years were evaluated for follow up care and device check-ups. Since our first mission to Honduras in 2010, the medical mission team has evaluated more than 500 heart patients and implanted 165 heart pacemakers and defibrillators. The Institute raised more than $500,000 in donated pacemakers and implantable defibrillators from the medical device industry, as well as $15,000 from individual donors to support the 2014 Mission.
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 Institute Hosts Volunteer Day at Food & Friends
For the third consecutive year, the GW Heart & Vascular Institute's faculty, fellows, and their families, donated their time on a Saturday morning preparing more than 200 packaged meals and groceries to support Food & Friends. Food & Friends provides over 1 million meals per year for people living with life-challenging illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and cancer in the DC region. The volunteer day was organized by chief cardiology fellow, Bassel Hassouna, MD, and executive director, Jessica Johnson.
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 Dr. Solomon and Cardiology Fellows Screen Young Athletes
Allen Solomon, MD, and cardiology fellows, Bassel Hassouna, MD, and Aditya Sharma, MD, provided free heart screenings to 100 high school and middle school athletes at Albert Einstein High School in Silver Spring, MD, to kick-off the school year. Dr. Solomon has led this annual screening of young athletes in Montgomery County for more than a decade.
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 Women's Heart Center at GW Heart & Vascular Institute Leads Nutrition Workshop
Registered dietitian, Kelli M. Metzger, MS, RD, LDN, CDE, and Helma Parikh, CRNP, led a free nutrition education workshop at GW Medical Faculty Associates for 20 at risk women on September 17, 2014. The workshop provided helpful information and useful tools for practical, healthy cooking and eating. Participants were encouraged to practice healthy eating habits daily in order to reduce risk for cardiovascular disease and prevent future cardiovascular events.
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