In 2003, based on the announcement by researchers that heart disease is the number one killer of women, the American Heart Association kicked off ‘Go Red For Women” to raise public awareness.

As part of the ‘Go Red For Women’ movement, the American Heart Association has named the first Friday of each February as National Wear Red Day’ It is the day each year set aside to draw attention to this silent killer of women and motivate them to know their cardiovascular risk and take the necessary actions to live healthier, longer lives.

This year, Wear Red Day was Friday, February 7th. While you can see from the photo that I wasn’t wearing red on this special day, it was fitting that I was in Cape Town, South Africa, where cardiology is a prominent medical discipline and also where the first heart transplant surgery was completed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in 1967. I was representing our innovation hub and making a presentation to a group of entrepreneurs and academics at the University of Cape Town, some of whom are interested in establishing a U.S. presence for their start-up businesses at M2D2.