A project led by McMaster University focused on creating a better understanding of risk factors for heart conditions during pregnancy has been awarded $5 million from Heart & Stroke, along with partners at Brain Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Gender and Health. 

The Canadian Network of Networks to Reduce Cardiovascular Mortality and Morbidity in Pregnancy (CaNCaM-Preg) is a winner of the Research Networks of Excellence in Women’s Heart and/or Brain Health. 

Led by Rohan D’Souza, associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at McMaster, CaNCaM-Preg will establish a large network of clinicians, researchers, social scientists, economists and persons with lived experience from across Canada to work together towards reducing heart-related deaths and serious illness during and after pregnancy.  

The project involves in-depth reviews of all serious pregnancy-related cardiovascular events in Canada; assessing pregnant people with heart conditions after their pregnancies to ensure that they recover fully so that they have fewer complications later in life; and ensuring pregnant people with heart valve disease receive specialized care when needed, to improve outcomes for them and their babies. 

“Cardiovascular conditions are a leading cause of severe morbidity and death among pregnant individuals in Canada. Reducing pregnancy-related cardiovascular deaths and morbidity requires an inter-disciplinary and multi-provincial approach, grounded in principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and family-centeredness. CaNCaM-Preg aims to bring together healthcare professionals, researchers, social scientists and persons with lived experience of heart disease in pregnancy to make this possible,” says D’Souza, who is a Canada Research Chair in Maternal Health. 

D’Souza’s project is one of two winners of the Research Networks of Excellence in Women’s Heart and/or Brain Health. Amy Yu of Sunnybrook Research Institute was also awarded $5 million for her project aimed at improving diagnosis and treatment of women living with the effects of stroke. The project, StrokeGoRed, will be the first formal research network in Canada dedicated to studying stroke in women, and Ada Tang, professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster, is a principal applicant on the network focused on rehabilitation and community integration.

Winning teams were evaluated by an independent peer review panel that included specific considerations for Indigenous health, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender identity/2STLGBTQIA+, and women living with disabilities. 

“We are thrilled to fund the important research of these collaborative teams,” says Doug Roth, CEO, Heart & Stroke. “We are hoping to get even closer to closing the gap on the inequities women face when it comes to their heart and brain health. These teams represent some of the best Canadian minds, and I am looking forward to what we will learn from their research and how we can apply it to advance women’s heart and brain health.” 

Funding for the Research Networks of Excellence in Women’s Heart and/or Brain Health has been made possible by the generosity of Heart & Stroke’s committed donors, Canada’s leading health charity devoted to heart disease and stroke, Canada’s federal funding agency for health research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Gender and Health, and the Canada Brain Research Fund (CBRF), an innovative arrangement between the Government of Canada (through Health Canada) and Brain Canada Foundation.