FOR CLINICIANS & REVIEWERS
A patient-prepared summary of pregnancy and health history, results, medicines and questions—with space to record the next step agreed during the visit and return to it afterward.
Explore the resources
Patient preparation
The summary is patient-reported and needs clinical context. It does not diagnose, calculate risk or recommend treatment. Every section is optional. Answers stay in the browser tab and can be downloaded or printed without an account. A saved editable draft can be reopened after the visit; entering a clinician’s name does not send the notes or confirm a handoff.
View the worksheetsChoose your route
Dated, source-linked analysis of what changed, what the evidence shows, what it does not show, and whether practice changes today.
Read clinical updates 02 · REVIEWOffer feedback on a page, tool or question that fits your experience.
See how you can helpThree layers · kept separate
Recognized adverse pregnancy outcomes are associated with later cardiovascular risk. Midlife and menopause are important times to revisit blood pressure, lipids, glucose, symptoms, family history, function, and prevention in the individual clinical context.
HISTORY carries context forward. FLOW, BEAT, PUMP, and POWER organize four different questions in a woman's cardiovascular story. The checks and worksheets help a person prepare for care; they do not calculate risk or direct care.
Pregnancy Is Heart History is a quality-improvement concept for asking about pregnancy history, preserving it in a durable longitudinal record, and considering it alongside current symptoms and established risk factors. It requires clinical, workflow, privacy, equity, and statistical review before pilot use.
A question to test
A first pilot would examine whether Heart Story is useful before, during and after an appointment. These are proposed measures for discussion with patients and clinicians. No pilot is currently running.
| Question | What we would record |
|---|---|
| Can women use it? | How many can prepare and save a useful summary, how long it takes, and where help is needed. |
| Does the history reach the conversation? | Whether relevant pregnancy history or uncertain details are discussed. Keep patient reports separate from clinician confirmation. |
| Is the next step clear? | Whether a woman can describe the agreed action, the person or team to contact, and the timing—or explain what still needs to be decided. |
| Does it fit the visit? | Whether the summary is used, what a clinician finds useful, and any added work or duplication. |
| What happens afterward? | For a clinician-recommended step, distinguish planned, scheduled and completed, and record how that status was confirmed. |
Report counts with denominators, reasons for noncompletion and any confusion about the tool. The participating site would agree on eligibility, review, consent and privacy before a pilot. Website visits and downloads would remain separate from measures of clinical use.
The design draws on AHA guidance on health after pregnancy complications and AHRQ guidance on follow-up responsibility and timing and checking understanding. These sources support the questions being asked; they do not validate HEART RESERVE or establish improved health outcomes.
Help shape the evaluationWays to help
You can review just one page or tool. Tell Lisa what fits your experience, and she will send the material, its sources and a few specific questions. There is no ongoing commitment.
Read a page or tool and tell us what needs correcting, explaining or adding.
Offer feedbackHelp us understand how pregnancy history could fit into a visit and be recorded so the care team can find it later.
Offer feedbackTell us what feels confusing, difficult to use or insensitive to a woman’s experience, and who we may be overlooking.
Offer feedbackHelp decide who could take part, how to protect privacy and how to assess whether the approach is useful. No pilot is currently running.
Offer feedbackClinical feedback
Send a suggestion about a resource, or tell Lisa which page or tool you would like to review.
lisazahakos@gmail.comInclude your role and the resource you are writing about. Please do not send patient records or personal health information.
What reviewers receive
We agree on the page, passage or tool before you begin.
You receive the references, with any unanswered questions clearly marked.
What is accurate? What is missing? What could be misunderstood or difficult to use?
You can give feedback privately. Your name, title, affiliation, words or logo will appear only with your written approval of the exact use.
Printable review brief
Print the brief or save it as a PDF for a colleague who may want to help.
Prepared by Lisa Zahakos, RPA-C
HEART RESERVE is an independent women's cardiovascular-health education project. It connects pregnancy and reproductive history, menopause, established risk factors, symptoms, testing, and physical capacity across time.
The Heart Story, pregnancy, blood sugar and midlife tools help women organize their history and questions before an appointment. Heart Story also holds notes on the next step agreed with the care team. Answers stay in the browser tab unless the user saves or prints them. These tools do not diagnose, calculate risk or replace individualized care.
Pregnancy Is Heart History is a proposed quality-improvement workflow: ask about pregnancy history, preserve what is known in a durable searchable record, and respond proportionately alongside current symptoms and established risk factors.
A future participating site and qualified reviewers would determine eligibility, sample size, measures, analysis, privacy protections, and whether the activity is quality improvement or human-subjects research. The purpose would be to test whether pregnancy history can be asked, documented, and followed by an appropriate recorded response—not to promise health outcomes. No pilot is currently active.