Dr. Karin Humphries receives a CIHR Spring 2018 Project Grant

When women under the age of 55 experience a heart attack, their risk of death is two times higher than their male counterparts. Dr. Humphries and team believe that this could be changed with a lower cut-point for the biomarker high sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn; a protein released when the heart is damaged during a heart attack) since women produce lower levels of the protein than men.

This lower cut-point will be introduced in 26 emergency departments across the country, with the intention of identifying more women with heart damage, and thus improving health outcomes and care.

The project grant will provide $1,656,226 over five years.

The Women’s Health Research Institute would like to acknowledge that we are uninvited guests on the unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lo, and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.

As a provincial research institute committed to improving the health outcomes of women, including those across the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum, we recognize our responsibility in the collective effort towards establishing culturally safe health care systems and services that address health inequities among Indigenous peoples, especially Indigenous women, girls, and Two-spirit peoples.

We encourage all people involved in research to read both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action and the In Plain Sight Report, and reflect on ways we can incorporate the recommendations into our work. As we gather in spaces together, we encourage you to reflect on your positionality on these lands and your personal commitments to reconciliation.

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