Story by DDNS Reporter Benjamin McDowell

NEA Baptist hosts programs that promote heart-healthy behaviors through community screenings and educational programs that raise awareness of risk factors and promote healthy lifestyle choices.

NEA Baptist hosted a Heart Talk on Feb. 26, 2026, at Southwest Baptist Church.

Ty Jones, director of marketing at NEA Baptist, said his goal is to create opportunities for community engagement and education.

The organization focuses on community engagement and education through health screenings and risk-factor education. Outreach efforts include digital marketing, terrestrial radio, and television advertisements. Jones said balancing medical accuracy with creativity is crucial.

“As a company, we seek perfection every day, whether or not perfection is ever really attainable,” Jones said. “As human beings, we try to seek that in everything that we do. When you balance that with marketing and making sure you’re staying inside the box — which a lot of people find more difficult than just going with any creative whim — it’s a lot of fun.”

Jones said NEA Baptist always strives to partner with local schools, churches, and organizations to promote heart health and target the next generation of cardiologists.

“The big thing for us is making sure that we’re engaging students at a young age, letting them know not only what clinical health care careers look like — physicians and nursing — but also letting them meet residents to see what that educational track looks like from school to becoming a doctor,” Jones said.

Jones said balancing medical accuracy with creativity in marketing campaigns and materials helps convey heart health information in an engaging and impactful way.

“Understanding the roles in health care that may be behind the scenes — laboratory scientists who run tests to help physicians determine a patient’s root cause, as well as financial, billing, and marketing staff — is also important,” Jones said.

“Our goal at the end of the day is to take care of our community, whether that’s patients admitted to our emergency room, patients seeing primary care providers, establishing a baseline for preventive medicine, or providing free education,” Jones said.

Jones said community impact is measured by individualized patient care and tailoring medical services to each person.
Lena Awar, an interventional cardiologist at NEA Baptist, said it is important to educate people to recognize and not ignore early warning signs of heart disease, such as fatigue, leg swelling, and chest pain.

“Coronary artery disease is very prevalent in this area,” Awar said. “We live in what’s called the Stroke Belt, and part of this talk discusses risk factors that contribute to that, including hypertension, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle. All of that increases heart disease risk.”

Awar said stress management techniques such as walking in nature, reading, taking a hot bath, or practicing yoga or meditation can improve heart health.

“In our community, recommending smoking cessation is probably the most important thing, followed by getting in those 10,000 steps a day,” Awar said.

Awar said about 50% of health outcomes are genetically inherited and cannot be controlled. However, lifestyle choices can make a significant difference.

“One thing we can control is how we live our lives — diet, exercise, and routine checkups,” she said.

She also addressed misconceptions about heart medications.

“A lot of people think of us as drug pushers who just want to prescribe another medicine,” Awar said. “We wish all our patients could achieve their goals with diet and exercise alone, but sometimes that’s not enough. Some medications, like statins, have a bad reputation, but they save lives. We work with patients to tailor medications so they maintain a good quality of life.”

Oreoluwa Oladiran, a cardiac electrophysiologist at NEA Baptist, said it is important to recognize heart disease symptoms such as chest pain and heartburn, which are often overlooked.

He stressed the need for early heart health management beginning in a person’s 30s and highlighted preventive measures such as maintaining a healthy weight, eating well, and avoiding smoking.

“Heart disease is the most common cause of mortality not only in the United States, but worldwide,” Oladiran said. “In the United States, it kills nearly a million people every year,” Oladiran said.

Oladiran said monitoring blood pressure and blood sugar levels is an effective way to track heart health.

“We see patients in their 30s having heart attacks,” he said. “The earlier, the better. Don’t wait until you’re 40 to establish care with a primary care provider and pay attention to your health. Many of these issues are lifestyle-related, not necessarily medication-related.”

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