Between mind and heart: Sex-based cognitive bias in cardiovascular disease treatment

- There are sex and gender differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD) treatment.
- Women receive reduced treatment at both the primary and secondary levels of disease management.
- Disease management is affected by implicit biases from healthcare providers.
- Provider training, checklists and systematic inpatient referral strategies are recommended.

Given that both men and women experience cardiovascular disease (CVD), a common misconception is that they have similar risk factors and clinical presentation, receive comparable treatment, and have equivalent clinical outcomes; in reality differences are observed between men and women for each of these endpoints. Moreover, these differences occur as a function of both gender and sex. A review of the literature reveals widespread bias in the selection of research subjects based on these factors, in addition to implicit patient and provider biases that impede the access of women to recommended primary and secondary CVD management. In this perspective, we identify strategies to eliminate such biases and improve women's access to CVD treatments to ensure their care is consistent with current guidelines.