Closing the gap, beat by beat: A $25 M fund for women’s heart health

Today, the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF) launches the Women’s Heart Health Fund, an ambitious philanthropic initiative to raise $25 million by 2030 to redefine cardiac care for women. This fund will accelerate the pace of research and clinical innovations to better understand, prevent, diagnose, and treat heart disease in women, more quickly transforming discoveries into tangible solutions truly tailored to female patients.

In Canada, heart disease remains the leading cause of premature death for women, claiming more than 25,000 lives each year. Yet, only about 30% of clinical trial participants in cardiology are women. This underrepresentation has significant consequences: a scarcity of knowledge of the impact of specific biological characteristics, less accurate diagnoses, treatments that are ill adapted to women, and, ultimately, a lower quality of life. Moreover, women who experience a heart attack have a lower survival rate than men. We can and must do better. Every woman deserves evidence-based care supported by data, with treatments truly adapted to their needs.

The Women’s Heart Health Fund offers a tangible solution to improve how we approach women's cardiac care. By 2030, the Fund will enable the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) to enroll more women in research projects, adapt treatments to their unique characteristics, develop prevention programs better suited to their needs, and train the next generation of scientists in order to dispense care that is more personalized.

“The close collaboration between the Foundation and the MHI means that every donation will drive innovation,” said Nathalie Rochette, Vice-President of the MHIF. “Thanks to initiatives like these, we can reduce the significant disparities that exist in cardiovascular care for Canadian women and make a concrete and measurable difference.”

The Fund will support a range of promising, complementary research efforts at the MHI that have the potential for huge impact, led by teams working on the cutting edge, and focusing on basic research, both clinical and preventive, as well as personalized medicine. Together, they have one goal: to better understand women’s health to provide better care.

One of the specialists supported by the fund is Dr. Céline Fiset, a pharmacist and researcher in cardiac electrophysiology. For many years, she was the only woman conducting basic research at the MHI. A pioneer in her field, she has dedicated her career to studying women’s hearts and focuses on arrythmia during pregnancy, a period where the heart works up to 50% harder. 

“The MHI is an exceptional place to conduct this kind of research. It houses specialists with unique skillsets in a collaborative environment, all benefitting from the Foundation’s steadfast support. It’s a place where we can push the boundaries of science further and faster, to the advantage of every patient, male or female,” said Dr. Fiset.

Another expert in her field, Dr. Catherine Martel explores the role the lymphatic system plays in the cardiovascular health of menopausal women. Her study is part of an integrated approach to better understand the biological mechanisms that impact women’s heart health.

“The fund is contributing to a genuine push for research into women’s health. It brings together different fields of expertise and gives us the means to explore new avenues that are still understudied,” said Dr. Martel.

Other experts supported by the fund include Dr. Simon de Denus, studying the impacts of medicine; Dr. Guillaume Marquis-Gravel, evaluating post-heart attack treatments; Dr. Louis Bherer, focusing on the links between cardiovascular health and cognitive health; and Dr. Claudine Gauthier, studying hormone therapy. Together, these projects are part of a coherent, powerful ecosystem where each discovery fuels the whole. This synergy between disciplines and therapeutic areas makes the Women’s Heart Health Fund a catalyst for sustainable change in women's cardiac care. 

Since 1977, the Foundation has been raising and managing funds to support the innovative projects carried out at the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI), a highly specialized cardiology hospital. The MHI was founded in 1954 and is affiliated with the Université de Montréal. It is home to Canada’s largest cardiology research centre, cardiovascular prevention centre, and cardiovascular genetics centre. Thanks to the Foundation’s philanthropic events and contributions from donors, the MHI has become a global pioneer in cardiovascular health. Since it was founded, the Foundation has raised more than $430 million. Its donors helped make significant discoveries possible. They also give the MHI’s specialists, professionals, and researchers the means to provide care at the cutting edge of technology to tens of thousands of patients in Quebec.