Women as One Co-Founder Among Four to Receive Inaugural CRF Awards

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation has announced its Inaugural Pulse‑Setter Awards, including Pulse-setter Champion and Women as One Co-Founder, Roxana Mehran, MD.

Photo credit: Cardiovascular Research Foundation

November 23, 2022 — The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) has announced its inaugural Pulse‑Setter Awards, presented to programs and individuals who harness innovation in unique ways to improve access to medical care. Four awards will be presented during the “Pulse of the City Gala: An Evening with Heart,” event on Dec. 9 in New York, NY.

The honorees to be recognized by CRF include: Pulse-setter Champion Roxana Mehran, MD; Pulse-setter Leader Sam Conaway; Pulse-setter Trailblazer Doug Evans; and Pulse-Setter Crusader Foluso Fakorede, MD.

The award ceremony will gather luminaries in cardiovascular medicine — as well as high-profile leaders in government, business, and the community who are passionate about improving treatment for patients with heart and vascular disease. Funds raised at The Annual Pulse of the City Gala allow CRF to pursue innovative areas of research, train tomorrow’s physician leaders, and educate the medical community and public about heart health. A summary of the honorees provided by CRF follows.

Pulse-Setter Champion: Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, Co-Founder, Women As One

Dr. Mehran is a professor of medicine and director of interventional cardiovascular research and clinical trials at The Zena and Michael A. Weiner Cardiovascular Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York. She works tirelessly to help advance the careers of female interventional cardiologists.

Dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women in medicine, Women As One was established to build a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable workforce in medicine. Women as One was founded in 2019 by Dr. Mehran & Dr. Marie-Claude Morice, two internationally recognized leaders in cardiovascular care and research. Its mission is to promote talent in medicine, providing women physicians with unique professional opportunities.

Pulse-Setter Leader: Sam Conaway, Boston Scientific Executive and Chair of Close the Gap

Starting as a cardiovascular technologist more than 30 years ago, Sam Conaway leveraged his cath-lab experience to become a passionate leader in the medical device industry. He is a member of Boston Scientific’s executive leadership team, where he provides strategic direction for the interventional cardiology division, and chairman of Close the Gap health equity program.

Pulse-Setter Trailblazer: Doug Evans, PE, President & CEO of Lungpacer Medical, Inc.

Lungpacer Medical is pioneering a diaphragm pacing therapy system to help critically ill and mechanically ventilated patients return to natural breathing more quickly by improving diaphragm strength and lung function. Evans is an accomplished medical device executive, business leader, and strategist with 30 years of industry, public, and private company experience. He is the co-founder of Cure4Cam Childhood Cancer Foundation.

Pulse-Setter Crusader: Foluso Fakorede, MD, Cardiovascular Solutions of Central MS

A leading voice in the effort to reduce health disparities, Dr. Foluso Fakorede practices interventional cardiology in central Mississippi. Through his passionate advocacy to improve access to quality care and his groundbreaking work on peripheral arterial disease, he has reduced amputations by 88% over a three-year period in the Mississippi Delta.

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For over a quarter century, CRF has helped pioneer innovations in interventional cardiology and has educated doctors on the latest treatments for heart disease. CRF works to significantly reduce the worldwide health and economic burden of heart disease.

Founded by Martin B. Leon, MD, the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference, is the Cardiovascular Research Foundation's (CRF) annual scientific symposium and the world's foremost educational forum specializing in interventional cardiovascular medicine. Juan F. Granada, MD, is CRF’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Debuting as a small gathering of 150 in 1988, TCT now attracts more than 10,000 attendees from more than 100 countries. Every year, TCT features major medical research breakthroughs and gathers leading researchers and clinicians from around the world to present and discuss the latest evidence-based research.

For more information: www.crf.org