Healthy Foundations
A larger-than-life exhibit of the human heart strives to instill healthy habits by capturing kids’ imaginations.

One by one they file in, not sure what to expect but delighted by the catchy, up-tempo “Pump Your Blood” song playing in the background, and intrigued—as only children can be—by the purple and red dome in the center of the room. The kids, fourth- and fifth-graders from local schools, know that they’ve traveled to Overlook Hospital to learn about cardiovascular health, but they don’t realize they’re about to be treated to an interactive lesson designed to stay with them for a lifetime—and that the blow-up, igloo-like dome is actually a walk-through replica of the heart. At nine feet tall, the heart would be large enough for the Statue of Liberty, and is outfitted with videos and other depictions of the heart’s anatomy, function, and some common ailments. The aim? To educate kids about their hearts and get them thinking about heart-disease prevention at a young age.

“We live in a culture afflicted by childhood obesity,” says Steven Sheris, MD, FACC, chief of Cardiology at Overlook Hospital and a member of Associates in Cardiovascular Disease. “Kids aren’t concerned about heart disease. They’re concerned about computer time. But this display gets kids to think about it. They need to have some coaching for heart health.”

Walk in the Heart, as the program is called, is a Community Health project supported by a charitable donation from Sanofi-Aventis U.S. The idea was conceived by Community Health Manager Joyce Passen, who wanted to do something unique in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the hospital’s annual Cardiac Health Fair. “I’m very passionate about educating children about all kinds of health issues,” says Passen, who has been touched by heart disease in her own life; both of her parents died of cardiac disease years ago. “I was really close with my parents. My dad was here one day and gone the next. No one taught him about cholesterol or about what foods to eat. By the time kids get to adulthood, they are already suffering the side effects of a lifetime of bad choices and lack of information. But I thought to myself, If only there was a way to reach people sooner, maybe this wouldn’t be happening.”

In fact, in the few weeks since Walk in the Heart debuted at Overlook, hundreds of children have opened their eyes to a new way of thinking about their hearts and their health. They are encouraged to think of their own hearts as homes, with four chambers that are like rooms and valves that are like doors. “Just as you’re supposed to take care of your house,” says Passen, “you’re supposed to take care of your heart.”

In addition to the inflatable heart, the program consists of learning stations on topics ranging from fitness to nutrition to CPR. Kids learn how to make a 911 call, see depictions of foods’ fat content in test tubes, and can use clay models to observe the difference in size of a human heart versus that of various animals.
“We all need to take a larger role in educating our children,” says Sheris. “Everything about hospitals and the healthcare system doesn’t have to be about disease; it can be about health. Kids need to know that it’s important to maintain heart health as you age. For now, what they need to know is to eat sensibly, stay active, and have fun—that’s what childhood is about.”

Says cardiologist William Tansey, MD, FACC, “We’ve tried to teach cardiovascular disease to adults for a long time. Now we’re reaching out to a younger audience. If young kids get engaged with topics they’re learning about, they’re inspired—they want to get out and learn more. Your standard science and health texts in the classroom are literally black and white. By having a hands-on experience, your black-and-white experiences become colorful. If you have the chance to take the path in the heart that a blood cell takes through an artery, you will never forget the sequence of cardiac circulation. Once you have that basic information, you can go back to class and hang things on it: ‘Let me look a little harder. How did that electrical impulse start in the first place? If the heart is a pump and all pumps need fuel, where does the heart get its fuel? How do I take care of it so it lasts as long as possible?’”

Programs like Walk in the Heart give science heart and soul and imagination, Tansey says—all the tools for creating an interactive science education. “There is no reason science has to be onerous,” he says. “So many kids don’t have feelings of excitement that go along with biology and chemistry, because they never really had their curiosity piqued. There is a stereotype among kids that science is dull, and for nerds. But if you can get people past the stereotype and get them fascinated, then they get to enjoy the exploration. The kids today who are going to make a difference in what we eat, how we breathe, how we drive, how we live, are going to be the kids who got curious at a young age.”

Passen, Sheris, and Tansey are hopeful that this curiosity will extend to adults, too. Next month the heart will be featured in Trenton at the state’s Capitol building. And for every child and every adult who comes face-to-face with the larger-than-life heart, Passen says the take-home is simple: “I hope everyone takes this message home to their families: ‘I want you to be with me for a very long time. Stop smoking. Eat better foods. Come take a walk with me.’ ”