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[December 10, 2009]
Downstate to Provide Heart Screenings to Young People at Heart Health Expo at Madison Square Garden, December 13
SUNY Downstate Medical Center will participate in Madison Square Garden’s Heart Health Expo, taking place in the MSG Expo Center, Sunday, December 13, from 12 noon to 5:00 p.m., during the annual Maggie Dixon Classic, the premier women’s basketball event of the year.
The Heart Health Expo is intended to raise awareness of arrhythmias and other heart conditions in children and young adults that can lead to sudden, unexpected death.
Children and young adults up to age 22 can receive free heart screenings, and all those in attendance can check out educational heart displays, play games, and receive free giveaways.
Baylor vs. Boston College and Tennessee vs. Rutgers are the matchups in this year’s Maggie Dixon Classic, which is held annually in memory of the former Army Black Knights women's basketball coach. Dixon died unexpectedly at the age of 28 due to an arrhythmia caused by a previously undiagnosed heart condition. Three weeks earlier, Dixon had led her team to its first NCAA tournament appearance in school history.
Among the services being offered by SUNY Downstate at the Heart Health Expo this year are:
- Cardiac electrophysiology physicians and staff will read the EKGs and provide cardiology information to attendees.
- Non-invasive cardiology physicians will administer free electrocardiograms and the director of the Preventive Cardiology Unit will offer advice on preventive cardiology.
- Downstart Healthy Lifestyles Program physicians, psychologist, nutritionist and staff will provide information on weight loss, exercise, and lifestyle change for the overweight.
- Students enrolled in Downstart will demonstrate their exercise program.
- Cheryl K. Murphy, international karate champion and exercise instructor for the Downstart Program, will sign autographs.
- Athletic trainers from the Department of Orthopedics Division of Sports Medicine will answer questions for young athletes.
- The Brooklyn Health Disparities Center will address the health disparities in testing and treatment.
- Sleep Disorders Center physicians will provide information on the importance of good sleep, and the correlation between sleep ailments and heart health problems.
Other attractions will include free CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) training by the New York City Fire Department (FDNY); the National Institutes of Health’s “We Can” children’s healthy activity program; the CARE Foundation’s “Tales from the Heart” arrhythmia patient stories; the Mega Heart – a giant walk-through model of the human heart; the New York Knicks’ “Groove Truck” and New York Rangers’ “Bounce House;” and blood pressure screenings and other services provided by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Also participating are the American Dietetic Association, the American Lung Association, and the Donate Life national organ donor association.
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SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, Colleges of Nursing and Health Related Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, a School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and an Advanced Biotechnology Park and Biotechnology Incubator.
SUNY Downstate ranks ninth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.
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