Stephanie Coulter, MD
Director, Texas Heart Institute 
Center for Women's Heart and Vascular Health

Dr. Stephanie Coulter, an energetic and vocal advocate for addressing the often overlooked and startling gender differences surrounding cardiovascular disease, provides the medical leadership for THI's Center for Women's Heart and Vascular Health.

"Too often, women's heart disease is ignored by primary care physicians, emergency room staff, and women themselves, not for any reason other than they are unaware that women have different symptoms than men. We aim to change that with a targeted education program for doctors and women throughout the community," says Dr. Coulter.

"Much of our understanding of heart disease and heart attack, and the basis for our standard methods of diagnosis and treatment, are the result of research conducted on men," she adds. "For this reason we will also undertake a rigorous research program aimed at understanding these differences and developing the most effective, least invasive diagnostic tools, treatments and prevention strategies that can be quickly translated into improved cardiovascular care for women."

Dr. Coulter earned her Doctor of Medicine degree at The University of Texas Medical School, Houston. She completed an internship in medicine as well as internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. She completed a fellowship in general cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital: the teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Her advanced fellowship was in echocardiography at Massachusetts General and in clinical epidemiology and clinical trials at Brigham and Women's Hospital–Thrombosis in Myocardial Infarction Group.

Dr. Coulter is registered as a Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine with a subspecialty in cardiovascular disease, echocardiography as well as certified in nuclear medicine. She is an Assistant Professor in Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Associate Director of Noninvasive Cardiology at St. Luke's Medical Center. She is a member of many professional societies, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association.

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