As seen in Top Doctors in Nashville, July 2013
If you're in Percy Warner Park early on a Saturday morning, and pass a group of ladies running, don't disturb them. They're solving the world's problems. The group has been running the park together every Saturday and Sunday morning since 1996. Stacy Davis, MD is one of them.
Undoubtedly the group has heard Dr. Davis's desire to talk with Roger Goodell. She wants to see NFL players wear red in November to raise awareness of heart disease in women. As Director of the Women's Heart Center at Baptist Hospital, Davis is concerned about the number of women dying from heart disease because they don't recognize the symptoms.
'It is tremendous to see the NFL players wearing pink every October and know that the public is being educated on the importance of breast screenings,” says Dr. Davis. 'However, one in seven women is diagnosed with breast cancer and one in 2.5 is diagnosed with heart disease. 'Despite these numbers, how many women go to the ob/gyn every year, but rarely see their internist?”
In 1996 Davis became Medical Director of the Heart Transplant Center at Vanderbilt. She was asked to direct the mechanical circulatory support program. Within a few years she was asked to be part of the Women's Heart program at Vanderbilt. Then in 2004 she was approached by Baptist Hospital, which wanted to build a women's heart program.
For people who know Davis well, it's little surprise that this cardiologist once wanted to be an architect. 'I like building things and understanding how they work. That's why I got into cardiology. But it's the patients that keep me in this specialty,” she's quick to add. 'Everyone has a story and I learn so much from my patients. I want to educate women to pay attention to the symptoms and learn to eat right and, especially, exercise!”
Where exercise is concerned, Davis is certainly a good role model for her patients with her weekly jogs through Warner Park hills.