It’s Time to Rethink Women’s Heart Health

Female bodies are different from male bodies, right down to the cellular level, and not recognizing this has exacerbated health disparities and inequities especially in women. Heart disease is the leading cause of premature death for women in Canada, and early heart attack signs are missed in 78% of women. Every 20 minutes a woman in Canada dies from heart disease and 2/3rds of heart disease clinical research focuses on men. The longer we ignore these facts, the longer we continue to under-research, underdiagnose and undertreat women’s heart health.

Biography

Dr. Colleen Norris is a Professor and Associate Dean of Research at the University of Alberta Faculty of Nursing. She is the CAVARZAN Chair in Mature Women's Health Research and an adjunct professor with the Faculties of Medicine and the School of Public Health Science at the U of A. Her PhD is in clinical epidemiology. Dr. Norris, a Nurse by training, completed post-doctoral training with the Canadian Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Team (CCORT) and Tomorrows Outcome Researchers in Cardiovascular Health (TORCH) in health outcomes research and developed the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease (APPROACH) follow-up program. Her program of research focuses on the sex and gender factors that impact women’s heart health. She is the past Chair of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance (CWHHA), Health Policy and Services (HP&S) working group, whose mandate is to implement policies that advance our understanding of the unique sex and gender factors affecting the outcomes of women’s heart health. A Fellow of the American Heart Association and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Dr. Norris has mentored over 90 students/trainees. She has presented extensively and has over 400 publications in the areas of sex and gender differences in cardiovascular treatment and outcomes as well as women’s heart health.