Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women, accounting for one in three deaths annually. However, women are often underdiagnosed and undertreated because symptoms differ from men.
This was the focus of a panel discussion at the MedTech Conference in Boston on Monday. During the discussion, the moderator — Colby Holtshouse, CEO of May Health — asked the panelists what the biggest market opportunities are to improve women’s cardiovascular health.
Here is what the panelists had to say:
Inflammation
One panelist called for more research on inflammation in women.
“Women have more inflammation; they have more autoimmune disease. Inflammation is linked to more cardiovascular disease. It’s linked to actually more dementia, more cancers, more of all sorts of health problems, and it’s kind of a black box still. We need way more science there, so that’s my hope,” said Dr. Kathleen Jordan, chief medical officer at Midi Health, in an interview. Midi Health is a virtual care clinic for menopause.
Listening to women
Another panelist, Sarah Huoh, corporate vice president of public affairs at Edwards Lifesciences, said the healthcare industry needs to listen better to women. She shared the story of a woman she knows who survived childhood cancer but later developed valve disease as a result of her cancer and was unable to undergo surgery because of prior radiation exposure.
“She had to advocate and fight for herself in this day and age to get the treatment that she needed,” Huoh said. “So my question comes back to why? Why did Leslie have to go through all of these steps and this agony over years to be able to ultimately get the treatment she needed? … So I think for us, it’s about listening. It’s about listening to the clinicians that are at the bedside and understanding what are the real experiences that are happening there.”
Not an afterthought
Alicia Chong Rodriguez, founder of Bloomer Tech, stated that women can no longer be an afterthought in clinical trials and when building and investing in new solutions. Bloomer Tech is accelerating cardiovascular research for women.
“It should come front and center that we’re building for female patients and I think it seems to me that we’re still an afterthought,” she said.
Amplify women’s health
Dr. Laura Mauri, senior vice president and chief scientific and medical officer at Medtronic, noted that women historically have been underrepresented in healthcare. In order to change that, the industry needs to “enrich the data” and overrepresent women to make up the difference.
“That’s probably true even more so for women of color. … I would say from an investment standpoint, why wouldn’t we double down on an area that is undertreated and underserved?” she said.
Photo: Grace Cary, Getty Images
