Former Penn Medicine Board Chair and 1973 Wharton Master's of Business Administration graduate Mark Winkelman and his family donated $5 million to the Penn Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease, reported the Penn Almanac.
“This cause is very near to our family and we are proud to make a gift to support the Penn Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease,” Mr. Winkelman said to the Almanac. “Our hope is that this gift will help provide resources for the team to continue their mission and change the lives of patients for generations to come.”
The center, which was created in 2015, uses a family-based approach to heart care, whereas most similar centers focus on individual patient treatment, according to its website.
The center's approach emphasizes how most heart diseases are hereditary and seeks to ensure that families are aware of the risks of and ways to prevent heart disease. Some heart conditions treated in the Center include cardiomyopathies, arrhythmias, high blood cholesterol, Marfan Syndrome, familial amyloidosis, and Loeys-Dietz Syndrome, among others.
According to Penn Medicine's press release, the donation will greatly aid the center in their research efforts to find the cure for these various heart conditions and diseases. The Center plans on using parts of the gift over a five-year-period to support clinical care, additional researchers, and studies related to inherited cardiovascular diseases.
Medical director of the Center and professor of medicine Anjali Tiku Owens said she believed the donation is a “game-changer."
“It will strengthen our ability to offer the patient-oriented, detailed and personalized level of care needed to treat patients with these diseases." Owens added.
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