The Women's Heart Advantage

initiative was recognized for its outstanding efforts to foster a publicly

accountable healthcare system.

FACCT, a not-for-profit organization

dedicated to helping Americans make better healthcare decisions, invited

nominations for the 2002 Ellwood Awards from more than 1,500 corporate,

policy and health industry leaders.

Previous winners of this award

include The Leapfrog Group, the Institute of Medicine and the Health Care

Financing Administration.

"Piedmont Hospital is

proud to be part of Women's HeartAdvantage, a community-based initiative

working to reduce morbidity and mortality of heart disease - the leading

cause of death for women," said Nina Montanaro, vice president of

public affairs and marketing for Piedmont Hospital.

"Women's HeartAdvantage

actively links our physicians and the women in our community together

in order to increase awareness, improve outcomes and respond to gender-specific

symptoms and treatments for heart disease--effectively treating patients

as partners in their heart health."

The award honors work that

continues the legacy of Paul M. Ellwood Jr., M.D.

A national leader in efforts

to make the health system accountable to consumers for delivering high-quality

care, Dr. Ellwood helped guide the development of FACCT, a Portland, Oregon-based

organization creating information and tools to help Americans make better

healthcare decisions.

"Women's HeartAdvantage

empowers women to ask critical questions, apply evidence-based knowledge

to their own care, engage in risk reduction strategies, and actively seek

appropriate care," said Dr. Nancy Wilson, VHA vice president.

"VHA-member healthcare

providers are engaged to promote cardiovascular health by better understanding

the influence of gender on heart disease and utilizing tools and guidelines

to assess and care for women."

"This year's Ellwood Award

winners demonstrate the leadership, vision and action that are moving

the healthcare system toward overall accountability and improvement.

Developing effective decision-making

tools, offering better health plan options, investigating variations in

care, activating consumers to work with their providers, and fostering

a sense of what the system should offer are all critical steps toward

transforming healthcare.

"Each of the winners is

giving consumers tools to help shape the system themselves," said

David Lansky, PhD - President of FACCT.