‘Art for Heart’ Campaign: Columbia Asia Hospitals, Gurgaon, displays Painting Exhibition on Heart Health

• The campaign initiated on World Heart Day, aimed at spreading awareness about heart healthy lifestyles
• The painting competition concludes on October 12 with an exhibition of the best works and ‘Heart Talk’ by a Cardiologist

Gurgaon, Oct 12, 2014: Columbia Asia Hospitals, Gurgaon today concluded its creative campaign to generate awareness about heart healthy lifestyles, with a colorful exhibition of paintings submitted by people from across the city on the theme of cardiovascular health.

“Art for Heart”, was a unique campaign initiated by the Hospital ahead of World Heart Day to encourage people with a penchant for the brush to draw a piece of art that stimulates thinking and awareness about heart health.

With the hospital receiving scores of entries of drawings, paintings, and sketches on the ‘art theme’ 'Keeping your Heart Healthy', its premises will play host to as many as 80 of the best selected art works among them.

The exhibition held today displayed 200 paintings submitted by the people, from which a panel of five judges selected the best art-works. On the exhibition day, the hospital also held an in-house programme that included a ‘Heart Talk’ a by senior cardiologist, an Active Lifestyle Workshop, a Healthy Cooking Workshop, as well as a workshop on Basic Life Saving Skills. 

Basic Life Saving Skills include techniques of emergency response to revive victims of heart attack, strokes or accidents with measures like Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).

Cardiovascular disease has emerged as one of the leading causes of deaths in India in recent years. As Indians adopt unhealthy western lifestyles, with increasing intake of saturated fat, dependence on tobacco and alcohol, and absence of physical activity, the number of cardiac patients is set to grow dramatically.

According to a study supported by ASSOCHAM in 2010, India was projected to lose USD 236.6 billion because of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, in the decade between 2005 and 2015. Columbia Asia Hospitals, Gurgaon launched this uniquely creative campaign to exhort people to pay attention to their heart this World Heart Day, which was on September 29.

“We often tend to overlook monotonous messages of drab awareness campaigns that tell us that cardiovascular disease is taking epidemic proportions in India. But, art is something that is subtle and attracts attention without being boisterous. It compels our inner faculties to think and internalize a message without sounding like a campaign message. ‘Art for Heart’ was a campaign that aimed to invigorate creative thinking to help us drive home the point that maintaining heart health at both individual and societal levels is extremely important today,” says Dr Anil Bansal, Chief Cardiologist, Columbia Asia Hospital-Gurgaon

The aim of this elaborate campaign was to draw people’s attention to the growing threat of cardiovascular diseases in India, and their early onset in young people due to lifestyle falws.

“Cardiovascular diseases are already among the leading causes of deaths in India after communicable diseases. As our population ages, we will soon have a ‘nation-sized’ group of people suffering from cardiac diseases. However, we know the risk factors that lead to heart disease and if we inform and educate the masses well about the need and mechanisms of leading a ‘heart-healthy’ life, we can stave off the impending crisis. Even a simple lifestyle modification involving 30 minutes of exercise daily can reduce the threat of cardiac disease in an individual,” says Dr Bansal