It was an honour to be included in the Clinical Roundtable on Women’s Cardiovascular Health in Melbourne yesterday, 24 August. Facilitated by the Hon Rebecca White MP, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health and Assistant Minister for Women, the Roundtable supported the work of the Ministerial Expert Panel on Women’s Health.

It was inspiring to have clinicians, researchers, advocates, consumers and peak organisations all in the room together. We know that bringing diverse perspectives together is essential to achieving meaningful improvements in health outcomes. The agenda was packed and covered a range of priority areas, including:

• consumer and lived experience insights
• culturally safe care for First Nations women
• patient education
• healthcare provider training and continuing professional development
• clinical guidelines and their application in practice

The Roundtable provided an important opportunity to understand where the challenges are and to prioritise what health professionals and researchers need to better recognise, assess, diagnose and treat to make a difference in women’s cardiovascular health.

Data and measurement underpin all of this work and we had a chance to bring cardiovascular data and evidence into the conversation, highlighting where better data can help us understand what is working, where improvements are needed and how we can measure progress overtime. Having a strong evidence base is critical to ensuring that the actions we take translate into better outcomes for women.