Women's Heart Health Forum Speaker Information
Join these leading health experts in an interactive discussion on women's heart health - November 28!
Click here for event details.
Dr. Rhonda Low, Bsc. (Hons) MD CCFP - (forum moderator)
CTV Health Specialist
Dr. Rhonda Low hosts Your Health daily on CTV News, providing information current to today's health issues. She also writes the Your Health column found weekly in TV Week magazine. Dr. Low's community medical services include examiner for the Clinical Competence Program of B.C. for U.B.C. and the College of Physicians and Surgeons as well as Secretary/Executive Committee Member for St. Paul's Hospital Annual Refresher Course for Primary Care Physicians; the largest annual medical update course in Canada. She continues to lecture at and produce various medical education conferences for physicians and the public around Vancouver. She is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of British Columbia, where she helped pioneer the "Interviewing Skills" (Bedside Manners) course in the 1st year medical school curriculum. She has taught both undergraduate and post-graduate medical students, and has been twice nominated for Teacher of the Year award in the Faculty of Medicine, UBC. Dr. Low started her journalistic career co-hosting the 1996 thirteen part television series on Alternative Medicine for the Life and Knowledge Television Networks and has guest hosted for Dr. Art Hister's "Housecalls" radio program on CKNW. She is also a regular guest expert for the Bill Good Show on CKNW, moderates and speaks at many public education events in Vancouver. In 1993, Dr. Low helped establish the Asian Woman's Pap Smear Clinic (now known as the Asian Woman's Health Centre) to help break down cultural barriers and enable Asian women to access pap and breast examination screening. Dr. Low was born and raised in Vancouver and practices family medicine full-time in Vancouver. She has experience practicing within the American HMO setting. Dr. Low received her Bachelors of Science degree with Honours in Cell Biology from UBC and is a graduate of UBC Medical School. She is a Fellow of both the College of Family Physicians of Canada and American College of Family Physicians.
Martha Mackay, MSN, RN, CCN(C)
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Heart Centre, St. Paul's Hospital
Doctoral Candidate, UBC School of Nursing
Martha Mackay is currently the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in Cardiology in the provincial Heart Centre, part of the Providence Heart + Lung Institute at St. Paul's Hospital. She is currently completing a PhD at the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia. She is the recipient of a CIHR Clinical Research Fellowship, as well as scholarship awards from Heart & Stroke, the Canadian Nurses' Foundation, and UBC School of Nursing. Her initial nursing education was at George Brown College in Toronto (St. Michael's Hospital) and she has subsequently received a BSN and MSN (1984, 1997) at the University of British Columbia. She has been practicing for 30 years in critical care and cardiac nursing, with many years as critical care nursing educator, and the past 13 years as a CNS. She was also been a member of the UBC/Providence Health Care Research Ethics Board for nine years, twice chaired the St. Paul's Heart Centre Accreditation Team, and is a current member of the Dynamics of Critical Care Editorial Review Board, and the Canadian Nurses' Association Cardiovascular Exam-Writing Committee. Her research interests include sex and gender differences in heart attack symptoms and helping patients to improve their risks for heart disease, and she has several publications in these areas.
Dr. Eve Aymong, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Interventional Cardiologist, Providence Heart + Lung Institute at St. Paul's Hospital
Dr. Eve Aymong is Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC in the Department of Medicine. She is currently practicing as an interventional cardiologist at St. Paul's Hospital and is Associate Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. She attended medical school and internal medicine training at the University of Toronto, moving to Calgary for cardiology and interventional cardiology training. She then obtained a masters degree in biostatistics and clinical research at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York. While in New York, she collaborated with researchers at New York University and the Cardiovascular Research Foundations. She is a member of the Research Ethics Board at Providence Health Care and is a reviewer for the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, as well as JAMA, AHJ and EHJ. She has a particular interest in quality assurance and chairs the Morbidity and Mortality rounds for the Heart Centre.
Dr. Ali Zentner, General Internist, Metabolic Syndrome Program, Heart Centre,
St. Paul's Hospital
Dr. Ali Zentner received her undergraduate medical degree from McMaster University and completed her Internal Medicine Residency with an extra year of Cardiology training at the University of Calgary. Ali practiced Internal Medicine in Southern Alberta for five years with a particular focus on Cardiovascular Risk Stratification and the Metabolic Syndrome. While in Lethbridge, Alberta, Dr. Zentner was director of the Chinook Region Heart Failure Clinic and the Southern Alberta Obesity Clinic. She established the largest multidisciplinary obesity clinic in Southern Alberta and continues to work in the region as a consultant in obesity medicine. Dr. Zentner has been practicing in West Vancouver since 2005 as a specialist in Cardiac Risk Management and Obesity. She is a passionate speaker in the field of disease prevention. Dr. Zentner has recently begun a Metabolic Syndrome Fellowship at St. Paul's Hospital with a focus on the treatment of patients with Metabolic Syndrome. She is currently studying the effects structured rehabilitation programs on patients' adherence to lifestyle modification.
Dr. Marla Kiess, MD, FRCPC, FACC
Medical Director, Pacific Adult Congenital Heart Clinic, St. Paul's Hospital
Dr. Marla Kiess attended medical school at UBC, did her cardiology residency in Toronto and a research fellowship in Nuclear Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is Director, Electrodiagnostic Laboratory and Pacific Adult Congenital Heart Clinic at St. Paul's Hospital and Clinical Professor of Medicine and Radiology at UBC. Dr. Kiess was an examiner for the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada. She spent many years serving on review and policy committees for the BC and Canadian Heart Foundations and was co-chair of the clinical trials committee. She was President of the BC Cardiac Society and is Past-President of the Canadian Society of Nuclear Cardiology. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Adult Congenital Heart Network and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. Dr. Kiess has been on the organizing committees of many scientific meetings. She continues to be an abstract reviewer and has served as Chair of scientific sessions for the AHA, the ACC, ASNC, ICNC, CCS and SNM. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology and has been a reviewer for many journals, including the JNC, JACC, JNM, AJC, Canadian Journal of Cardiology. Her research interests are in Nuclear Cardiology, Adult Congenital Heart Disease and heart disease in women.
Dr. Sarah Cockell, Ph.D., R. Psych.
Clinical Psychologist, Heart Centre, St. Paul's Hospital 
Dr. Sarah Cockell obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 2001. She works with patients in a medical setting, helping them cope with cardiac problems such as congenital heart defects, heart failure, and metabolic syndrome. She also runs a private practice where she works primarily with individuals who have eating disorders. Her research interests include perfectionism and enhancing motivation for change. When she isn't working, Dr. Cockell enjoys an active lifestyle, running in the trails and cycling along the coast with friends.