Cardiovascular Patient Community Launches the
Women’s Heart Health Action Agenda
Global Heart Hub Annual Review 2024: A Year of Impact and Global Collaboration in Cardiovascular Patient Advocacy
25 March 2026
Global Heart Hub, the international alliance of heart patient organisations, has launched the Women’s Heart Health Action Agenda aimed at tackling cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among women globally.
The Women’s Heart Health Action Agenda is structured around five core areas for change, bringing policy, systems, education, research and public awareness into a single, coherent structure for improving outcomes for women.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among women – yet women continue to experience late, missed and misdiagnosis of heart disease – often compounded by fragmented care. These gaps result in avoidable deaths, disability and economic and societal costs. These gaps are not inevitable – they reflect systems that were not designed with women in mind, and they can be changed.
Photo: Members of Global Heart Hub’s team and Board of Trustees at the launch of the Women’s Heart Health Action Agenda.
“Women’s cardiovascular health cannot wait. When we act together, we can change the story and change the future. Let this Action Agenda be the moment we step forward together – thinking and acting heart first,” says Neil Johnson, Executive Director, Global Heart Hub.
Developed through a rigorous, inclusive and transparent co-creation process, the Action Agenda is shaped by lived experience and clinical expertise.
Joanna Markle (contributor to the Action Agenda, WomenHeart Champion, USA) shared her experience of living with cardiovascular disease. After years of misdiagnosed symptoms, Joanna survived a major cardiac event in January 2024 caused by a blockage in her artery.
“I felt dismissed and, to be honest, ashamed that I wasn’t being strong enough. My symptoms were getting worse, but I gave up trying to have the conversation. I felt unheard and retreated into myself until I finally realised that I had to step out of the shadows and speak up.”
Women’s cardiovascular health can be transformed, but only through coordinated, system-level action. By acting together – across policy, systems, education, research and communities – we can change the story of women’s cardiovascular health and change the future.
“The future of cardiovascular medicine depends on our willingness to see, hear and value women’s hearts equally. Let’s raise our collective voices and be silent no more,” says Prof. Martha Gulati, Cardiologist and Director, Davis Women’s Heart Center, DeBakey Heart & Vascular Institute, Houston Methodist Hospital, USA and Immediate Past President of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology, USA.
Read the Action Agenda now: https://globalhearthub.org/womens-action-agenda
