WomenHeart Receives $100,000 PCORI Engagement Award

Last month, WomenHeart received a $100,000 grant through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards program, an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Working with the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM), WomenHeart will use the funds to develop a convening to address missed and delayed diagnosis of heart disease in women. WomenHeart is a member of SIDM’s Coalition to Improve Diagnosis.

For decades, heart disease has been considered a “man’s disease,” which has greatly contributed to higher rates of misdiagnoses and delayed diagnoses in women. This discrepancy in diagnosis is also greater in women of color. Why? Part of the reason is that the majority of heart disease studies have been done on white men, which leads to a lack of understanding of the symptoms and treatments that are unique to women with heart disease.

Suz Schrandt, Senior Patient Engagement Advisor to SIDM, shared that “This project will provide a perfect platform for SIDM to partner with WomenHeart, as we can contribute insights from both our diagnostic quality and safety focus and our ongoing work in patient engagement.”

The convening will bring patients and diverse stakeholders together to discuss missed and delayed diagnosis of heart disease in women, as well as support the creation of research recommendations to improve health outcomes and quality of care for women with heart disease. WomenHeart and SIDM will assemble a Steering Committee of female patients who suffer from heart disease, cardiologists, nurses, researchers, policy makers, industry representatives, and others to lead the planning process.

“We are thrilled to be awarded this funding so we can center women’s experiences as we bring together experts to build a plan for addressing this inequity and, ultimately, improve the care journey for women with or at risk of heart disease,” said Celina Gorre, CEO of WomenHeart, in a press release.

The “Convening to Address Missed and Delayed Diagnosis of Heart Disease in Women” is part of a portfolio of projects that PCORI has funded to help develop a community of patients and other non-clinician stakeholders equipped to participate as partners in comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and disseminate PCORI-funded study results.

WomenHeart’s project was selected through a highly competitive review process in which applications were assessed for their ability to meet PCORI’s engagement goals and objectives, as well as program criteria. Through the Engagement Award Program, PCORI is creating an expansive network of individuals, communities, and organizations interested in and able to participate in, share, and use patient-centered CER.