Current Strategies to Diminish the Impact of Cardiovascular Diseases in Women

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has recently promoted the "Women at Heart" program in order to organize initiatives targeted at promoting research and education in the field of cardiovascular diseases in women. Comparisons of the gender differences in specific disease and treatment trends across Europe are provided by analyzing data from the Euro Heart Surveys. A Policy Conference has been organized with the objective to summarize the state of the art from an European perspective, to identify the scientific gaps and to delineate the strategies for changing the misperception of cardiovascular diseases in women, improving risk stratification, diagnosis, and therapy from a gender perspective and increasing women representation in clinical trials. A Statement from the Policy Conference has been provided and published in the European Heart Journal. Synergic activities should be undertaken at European level with the support of national scientific societies, European institutions, national health care authorities, patients' associations, and foundations. The commitment of the Board of the ESC is that these initiatives contribute to increase the awareness across Europe that cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death in women and to improve the knowledge of risk factors, presentation and treatment of cardiovascular diseases in women.