The research is part of the EuroHeart project, which aims at defining areas of policies and public health interventions which can contribute to prevent avoidable deaths and disability across Europe. It is led by the ESC, in partnership with the EHN, and is co-funded by the European Commission Public Health Programme 2003-2008.

The 'Red alert for women's hearts' conference will systematically review the place of women in all aspects of scientific literature, whether clinical trials, guidelines, medical curriculum or regulatory processes.

More than 60 awareness campaigns addressing the particular issue of women and cardiovascular diseases have been organised in the last 20 years in the 19 countries participating in WP 6 of the EuroHeart project. This is evidence that national Heart Foundations and Cardiac Societies have long been aware of the urgent need to promote the issue amongst the female population and health professionals. The results of campaigns showed an increased awareness that cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death for women. Despite this, gender-specific training for cardiologists is still lacking in the majority of European countries.

The objective of this conference is to create a series of recommendations for policy makers, research funding agencies and regulatory entities, at both national and EU level.

Red Alert for Women's Hearts is also the opportunity to look at how countries address the lack of information of the population and of health professionals, by giving an overview of past campaigns and their impact, country by country.

Source: European Society of Cardiology