GAINESVILLE - According to the Centers for Disease Control, every 34 seconds a person in the U.S. has a heart attack. In fact, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the U.S. Heart disease knows no boundaries, impacting every age, income and socioeconomic group. <br />
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Currently, experts say, no network of community research exists in rural areas for cardiovascular disease and much of the groundbreaking science and research happening around the world never reaches the majority of patients. For all these reasons, Dr. Jeffrey Marshall, an interventional cardiologist with The Heart Center of Northeast Georgia Medical Center, has brought together a community-based group of leaders to form the North Georgia Heart Foundation.<br />
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​"The North Georgia Heart Foundation is a unique community-based foundation that has important goals that no one else is doing in North Georgia," says Dr. Marshall. "We are seeing women with heart attacks in their mid 30s and men having heart attacks in their late 20s. It's a scourge on our community, and we need to do the research and the teaching to provide hope for the future."<br />
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For more than a year, board members of North Georgia Heart Foundation (NGHF), including Dr. Marshall; George Ordway, PhD, PA-C, physician assistant with The Heart Center at Northeast Georgia Medical Center; Perry Barnett, CPA and partner with Rushton & Company; Tommy Bagwell, owner of American Proteins, Inc.; Tom Calkins, an attorney and managing partner with Hulsey, Oliver & Mahar, LLP; Nic Chronos, MD, an interventional cardiologist with Cardiology Care Clinic; Rob Fowler, partner at Turner Wood & Smith Insurance; Kim Hudson-Gallogly, PhD, APRN-BC, department head of the School of Nursing at University of North Georgia; Ron Quinn, president and CEO of Peach State Bank & Trust; Keeta Wilborn, PhD, RN, professor of nursing at Georgia Gwinnett College; Jack Griffeth, MD, a radiation oncologist with Northeast Georgia Cancer Specialists; and Jane Anderson-Buffington, BSN, MSN, an assistant professor of nursing at Brenau University have been working together to outline and lay the groundwork for long-term success. <br />
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"The Heart Foundation is a huge undertaking for our community," says Perry Barnett, treasurer of NGHF board. "We are the first organization of our kind in this area, and we have been working hard over the past year to do our due diligence to ensure a strong foundation, creditable reputation and identify clear financial and tangible goals. This is important work, in fact it is life-saving work with unlimited potential on the lives of those in our community."<br />
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NGHF seeks a world without cardiovascular disease, starting right outside our backdoor. With the support of the community, NGHF will serve as a platform to work towards making a significant difference in the lives of those in the communities of north Georgia and apply that knowledge for a global benefit. <br />
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"Research. Education. Hope. These are the basic core values and beliefs of North Georgia Heart Foundation," says Keeta Wilborn, board member of NGHF. "We believe that through local research, both clinical and population based, we have the ability to impact the heart health of our community; that local, community education is the key to eradicating cardiovascular disease and improving outcomes; and that if we provide hope to just one person, family, mother, daughter, grandfather or friend, we have touched a life in our community in a way that cannot be measured."<br />
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NGHF will begin its efforts by focusing on four main goals:<br />
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