A women’s health educational foundation that provided more than 100,000 free cardiovascular screenings nationally is shutting down and will donate its storehouse of information to the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, it was announced Friday.
Sister to Sister: The Womens Heart Health Foundation, founded 15 years ago by philanthropist Irene Pollin, will close at the end of next month.
“We are honored to have partnered with Sister to Sister and Mrs. Pollin over the past decade to heighten public awareness of women’s heart disease and advance treatment options for the No. 1 killer of women,” said Dr. Noel Bairey Merz, director of the Streisand center and the Womens Guild Chair in Women’s Health. “Now, Sister to Sister is passing their torch to us. We gratefully accept this generous donation, which will be invaluable as we continue Sister to Sister’s important work educating women about heart health.”
Teaching women about cardiovascular disease has been a longtime mission for Pollin, who, along with her late husband, Abe, owned sports teams including the Washington Wizards basketball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team.
The Pollin’s daughter, Linda Joy, was born with a heart defect and died at age 16. In 2013, Pollin honored her daughter by founding the Linda Joy Pollin Women’s Heart Health Program in the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center.
“Although we have made great progress, there is still so much work to be done,” Pollin said. “I am confident that Cedars-Sinai can lead the movement and educate women that getting screened is the only way to know your personal risk for heart disease.”
Pollin, a psychotherapist and author, created Sister to Sister in 1999 to inform women about heart disease prevention and the benefits of cardiac screenings for women of all ages, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds.
