Advancing women’s heart, brain and vascular health together.
April 25 - 26, 2025 | Ottawa, ON
Reflecting on the past, empowering the present, and shaping the future.
Proudly hosted by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute's Canadian Women's Heart Health Centre, and Heart & Stroke, the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit is the only event of its kind and has become the national reference point for health professionals seeking up-to-date knowledge of women’s heart, brain and vascular health.
Building on the success of the previous four Summits, we have assembled national and international experts and collaborators to further advance women’s heart, brain, and vascular health.
Together, we will transform and enhance Canadian women’s lives through research, awareness, policy development, and care.
2025 Summit Objectives
- Discuss the progress made in sex and gender-based research and practice since the first Summit in 2016;
- Unite key collaborators to improve heart, brain, and vascular health among women.
- Identify emerging and future areas, gaps and health disparities in research and clinical practice for heart, brain, and vascular conditions affecting women.
- Champion and make use of equity-promoting strategies to enhance the adoption of evidence-based research and clinical practices for heart, brain, and vascular health in women.
This is an accredited, clinical, and scientific opportunity to foster knowledge exchange among a diverse group of collaborators, including primary care providers, cardiologists, neurologists, gynecologists, pharmacists, nurses, cardiac rehabilitation providers, allied healthcare professionals, researchers, policy-makers, community partners, people with lived and living experience (PWLLE), and caregivers.
When we talk about women, we mean ALL women.
Sex and Gender are complementary concepts but they are not interchangeable. Sex describes biology, such as hormones and chromosomes, while Gender describes our lived experience and how we move through the world.
It is important that we understand these differences as they impact the amount of clinical knowledge we have specific to women, the appropriateness of clinical best practices used to treat women (such as diagnostic procedures and interventions), how women seek knowledge and care, and so much more.
When we talk about women, we mean all women.
People who identify as women make up just over half of the population in Canada and we choose to take an intersectional approach to understanding health inequities faced by women and how to address them.
We understand that women’s health is shaped by many different and overlapping factors, including sex, indigeneity, race, ability, sexual orientation, education, income, geographic location and more. This includes cisgender and transgender women, and non-binary people.
This event is an Accredited Group Learning Activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and approved by the University of Ottawa’s Office of Continuing Professional Development. You may claim a maximum of 15,00 hours (credits are automatically calculated).
Other links
- 2023 Canadian Women's Heart Health Summit Highlight Report
- 2018 Canadian Women's Heart Health Summit Highlight Report
- The Beat, June 2017 - Charting a Course for Women's Heart Health in Canada
- Canadian Journal of Cardiology, June 2017 - Charting the Course for Women's Heart Health in Canada: Recommendations From the First Canadian Women's Heart Health Summit
- 2016 Canadian Women's Heart Health Summit Highlight Report