A partnership between women at risk of/living with heart disease and healthcare professionals is important to improve outcomes.
There is a growing body of evidence that shows women, compared to men, are less likely to have the signs and symptoms of heart disease recognised by healthcare professionals and receive appropriate investigations and treatments for heart disease.
If you are a healthcare professional, what can you do to help promote and improve women’s heart health? There are many things that a healthcare professional can do. A few examples include:
Questions that healthcare professionals can reflect on include:
- When obtaining a medical history, do I routinely ask about any adverse pregnancy outcomes, endometriosis, PCOS, menopause and contraceptive use to aid in individualised risk assessment?
- Do I provide an individualised biopsychosocial assessment and a shared decision care plan with interventions specific to women’s needs and choices?
- Do I address the social determinants of health that negatively impact a women’s risk of CVD, access to healthcare services and management of CVD?
- Have I considered the impact of women presenting with symptoms of CVD being under-investigated, less likely to access guideline recommended treatments? What can I do to improve access to evidence-based care?
- Do I consider how my service can better meet the needs of women to support access to healthcare e.g. offer virtual/telephone consultations, alternative appointment times where appropriate?
- For women of reproductive age with CVD do I consider the impact of pregnancy, planned or unplanned, and actively support women in accessing safe, effective contraception and preconception counselling?
- Do I support access to healthcare professionals with expertise in CVD and pregnancy to inform decision making and better pregnancy outcomes?
- Do I take opportunities to assess and manage co-morbidities that impact CVD outcomes and work with the multi-disciplinary team to optimise care?
- Do I make each interaction count by assessing CVD risk and providing or referring for individualised assessment and management?
- When designing or delivering CVD research, do I ensure gender equal patient and public involvement in study design, aim to enrol the proportion of women that represents the incidence/prevalence of the area of heart disease being investigated, and provide study information that addresses the concerns of women and allow the woman time to consider participation? Where appropriate, are pregnant and postpartum women included?
- When developing services, pathways or guidelines, do I support appropriate representation of female clinicians on these committees and provide gender specific recommendations for heart disease where they exist?
- When I deliver education, do I provide information on sex-related differences in presentation and management of heart disease in women of all ages?
- Do I think of CVD as a disease of the elderly or do I recognise that CVD affects women of all ages and that younger women do present with CVD, complications of CVD or risk factors for CVD that need particular focus?
- Are women given a voice to inform the design and delivery of services in my area? What can I do ensure women have meaningful involvement?
- What can I do to develop my knowledge to support women live better with CVD?
