Eliminating the Sex and Gender Gap and Transforming the Cardiovascular Health of All Women

Critical to eliminating the sex and gender gap in cardiovascular health is addressing known differences in disease burden, disparities in treatment and clinical outcomes, and the scientific importance of sex as a biological variable that influences resilience, pathophysiology, and ultimately the health of women. Furthermore, key disparities exist at the intersection of sex/gender and race/ethnicity where women of color are disproportionately affected by higher burden of disease and poorer outcomes in several cardiovascular conditions. Through efforts to galvanize strategic partnerships, The NHLBI Strategic Vision sets forth research priorities across all of its objectives relevant to the cardiovascular health of women; it encourages strategic partnerships in both establishing and implementing research priorities. The Vision promotes a promise of precision medicine that embraces sex as its highest order, leverages an integrated approach to data science, explores sex influences on molecular underpinnings of disease, and advances sex-specific and race-sex interaction analyses toward the elimination of gaps in the cardiovascular care and health of all women.