Women experience distinct heart disease and stroke symptoms and risk factors that remain under-researched and misunderstood. With these new investments, we're closing the gap and moving toward a future where all women receive the high-quality heart and brain health care they need.
On September 23, the Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, announced that the Government of Canada and partners, Heart & Stroke and Brain Canada, are investing $10M to establish two new national research networks for women's heart and brain health.
The networks will be led by Dr. Rohan D'Souza at McMaster University, whose team will create a Canada-wide collaboration aimed at reducing deaths and serious illness from heart conditions during and between pregnancies, and Dr. Amy Yu at the Sunnybrook Research Institute whose team will work on improving evaluation, diagnosis, and outcomes of stroke in women across Canada.
Each network will receive $5M in funding over five years to better understand women's risk factors for heart and brain conditions and to improve the diagnosis and treatment of conditions more common among women or that are less well studied.
Quotes
"We know that women can have conditions that affect them disproportionately or differently, like heart disease and stroke, but these conditions remain under-researched and misunderstood. By investing in these research networks, we can fill persistent knowledge, practice and policy gaps in women's heart and stroke health - so women across Canada can get the care they need."
The Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health
"A strength of the Research Networks of Excellence is the intersectional approach being used to examine how women's heart and brain health differ by social factors including Indigeneity, race and sexual orientation, as well as how social processes like racism, sexism and homophobia may further shape risk and health outcomes. This type of research is necessary to inform precision medicine approaches to greatly improve women's care and save lives."
Dr. Angela Kaida, Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Gender and Health
"Heart & Stroke is proud to accelerate advances through these national networks to drive new knowledge and innovation in women's heart and brain health. Certain types of heart and brain conditions are more common in women, and women can be impacted differently by heart disease and stroke. We are excited that this new research will reflect the various life stages women go through and will include additional considerations for gender and racial identity, disability and social economics. These new research networks will allow us to further develop and use research evidence in women's heart and brain health, and ultimately help save more lives."
Doug Roth, CEO, Heart & Stroke
"As Canada's only research funder focused exclusively on the brain, we are committed to advancing sex and gender science. Brain Canada is pleased to match the $2.4-million investment by Heart & Stroke in the first Canadian research network dedicated to the study of women and stroke. This research examines why stroke affects women differently than men, and identifies variations in treatment, access to rehabilitation, and risk of recurrent stroke. Findings will lead to new therapies and improved stroke recovery for women."
Dr. Viviane Poupon, President and CEO, Brain Canada
Quick facts
- This type of research is crucial, as some risk factors for brain and heart conditions in women are under-recognized, not only by women themselves, but by health care professionals and the general public, including risk factors related to the use of oral contraceptives, gestational diabetes, disorders related to pregnancy, pre-term delivery, premature menopause, hormone replacement therapy and polycystic ovary syndrome, among others.
- There is a persistent lack of awareness and understanding around the heart and brain health of women, transgender, non-binary, intersex, Two-Spirit and people marginalized on the basis of their gender, as historically most research has focused on men's hearts and brains.
- The use of the term "women's health" reflects an evolving concept, broadly including the multidimensional concepts of sex and gender. It refers to physical, biological, reproductive, psychological, emotional, cultural, and spiritual health and wellness across the lifespan in the context of the unique intersecting concerns related to bodies, roles, social locations, and identities. This goes beyond sex and gender binaries and welcomes the experiences and needs of all people who identify as a woman, girl, intersex and/or under-represented gender identity, including but not limited to Two-Spirit, trans, non-binary, gender fluid and agender people.
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