Women are the best ambassadors to change healthcare

[Music]

women

are weird they have atypical symptoms

and they don’t fit in a cardiac

model of how a patient should be

this is what i learned when i was in

training for cardiology in the 80s

women just didn’t fit in the male

standard

as they should and of course we knew

we were wrong but at the time we didn’t

understand their symptoms

a few years later i was working

as a young cardiologist one of my

patients

she got very angry at me she shouted at

it was a woman in the beginning of her

50s and she said to me

why don’t you know the reason of my

symptoms

i have chest pain and you’ve done done a

lot of investigations

a bicycle test even a coronary angiogram

and you still don’t know what i have

and you know what i feel worried heart

disease is in my family

my mother died of a heart attack when

she had my age

i want to know an answer what’s wrong

with me

i didn’t know what to say i didn’t

have an answer to her question i didn’t

understand her symptoms

and still now thirty years later

i feel ashamed that i didn’t know

i failed her i failed many

other female patients

and i was afraid that i would say

stupid things to all my female patients

for the rest of my career

and you know what women are half

of all our patients

we are now a few decades later

and we have learned that heart disease

is so different between men and women

the heart ages differently and this has

an enormous impact also

in the symptoms men and women have

we know that men and women are different

into every cell

of their body and this has consequences

for many fields of healthcare

we know now that we have to to use

different pathways to diagnose

and to treat women than we do in man

and this has even find its way into our

guidelines

but you know scientific progress

translates very slowly into clinical

practice

so if we look at cardiology practice

today

care for women is not as it should be

doctors tend to look at

patients from a vertical view

within the safe boundaries of their own

discipline

but patients are not walking diagnosis

they have a context patients have a

horizontal life course

things that have happened in the past

they have consequences for the future

and we have to take that into account

not only biology is different between

men

and women communication styles

are also very different

men communicate in a very direct way

they tell these are my symptoms what is

your answer

women tell stories and they connect

things with each other which are not

always true

and it often happens that the most

important message

comes at the moment when patients

are about to leave the office

and this is a missed opportunity this

may lead to wrong diagnosis

we may miss diagnosis so it’s important

for women

to take this into account prepare your

visits

and try to communicate in a more direct

way

health care is changing over time

and you can be part of that change

you can help your doctor to think in a

sensitive gender-sensitive way

like that women did to me 30 years ago

try to connect with your doctor and

you know it’s still amazing that

at this very moment many doctors and

even cardiologists

are not aware of gender medicine

i’ve seen hundreds perhaps thousands of

second opinions

of women walking around

with misunderstood symptoms

and this has to change and

you can be part of this change we can do

together

what can you do about it try to connect

with your doctor

dare to connect with your doctor perhaps

by asking a personal question

you know doctors are also human beings

in the white coat they have their

problems

they have sorrows they have joy

happiness

but perhaps they also have diseases

try to connect with your doctor

for instance ask a friendly question how

it is to work

in a hospital in this covis crisis and i

can tell you it’s not so nice

it’s completely different

your input matters and it’s

important to ask three questions when

you visit your doctor

what is the reason of my symptoms

what are we going to do about it

and what does it mean for my future

patients and doctors are more and more

partners in care and we need that

we need to make health care more

individual gender

sensitive and especially

better for women and you

are the best and best ambassadors

to make this change happen