Let me just say thank you for your question. One of the things that your government has done through the CIHR, is to impose a sex and gender analysis in all of the research that is conducted. Let me just say that I applaud that, because 70% of the research in animal models or human models is done on males, and too often studies are not powered to be able to arrive at conclusions about the other gender.
On the awareness issues, I'll take heart attacks, for example. Most people think of someone with a heart attack as presenting with chest pain. Most women experience heart attacks without chest pain. They will often present with nausea or overheating. In the emergency room, they will be diagnosed as having indigestion and will therefore have slower access and more permanent damage.
We need to do work to equip both health professionals and women to be very proactive in exhausting the pathways that are available to them, and to demand that the possibility of a heart attack be eliminated when they are in the emergency setting. This is a really big crisis.
The other thing that is a really big issue is that even after diagnosis—for males and females who have had a heart attack—the rate of referral to cardiac rehab and of completion is about 30% lower for women. From a health system perspective, it's making sure that the programs are designed in ways such that women will adhere to them and such that they are referred, because we know that cardiac rehab has benefits to actually repairing the heart and ensuring that people can live in good health and without permanent damage.