by Tanner Lambson

On Saturday, February 21, the VCU Health Pauley Heart Center hosted its 11th annual Heart Health in Women Symposium at the Dewey Gottwald Center in Richmond, Virginia. The symposium provides medical professionals across Virginia and the nation with updates and insights around the presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of heart disease in women.  Presentations covered state of the art data on chest pain, heart medications, hormone replacement therapy, and more. The goal of the Heart Health in Women Symposium is to improve cardiac care for women in Central Virginia through education and awareness. 

Talks at the 2026 Symposium included:  

• Stroke in Women. Dennis Rivet, MD, spoke about the importance of quick care for people experiencing stroke. He also walked the audience through the types of strokes more common in women and unique risk factors in women, which include migraine, pregnancy, atrial fibrillation, and oral contraceptives. 

• Friend, Foe or Both? Menopausal Hormone Therapy (MHT) and Lifetime Cardiovascular Risk. Saima Shikari, DO, discussed the pros and cons of MHT and how the hearts of women who have undergone menopause are different from those who have not. 

• Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) in Women and Pregnancy. Mohammed Makkiya, MD, discussed how HCM, a genetic disorder that causes the left ventricle of the heart to become unusually large and stiff, affects pregnancy. He went on to identify safe ways to obtain images of the heart during pregnancy.  

•  Heart Failure: The Fantastic Four (and GLP-1 makes 5?). Melissa Smallfield, MD, discussed the four pillars of heart failure therapy (ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, SGLT2 inhibitors, and MRAs) and the 2022 guidelines surrounding their use. She also discussed a treatment that she expects will make the list in the future: GLP-1s, which are currently most commonly prescribed for diabetes control and weight loss. 

• Cardiac Rehab in Women. Justin Canada, PhD, shared the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation for women, and discussed how and why women are referred less for cardiac rehab than men.  

• Pressing Matters: Hypertension Management in Women. Kylie Weigel, PharmD, BCPS, discussed the current guidelines for hypertension management medications for women. 

The event also featured an appearance from keynote speaker Martha Gulati, MD, MS. Gulati is the inaugural director of the Davis Women’s Heart Center at Houston Methodist Debakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston, Texas and the recipient of the 2026 Dr. Carolyn McCue Award for Woman Cardiologist of the Year. Gulati’s keynote talk explored the question: to what degree are men and women different when it comes to cardiovascular disease? Her talk carefully explored gender disparities in care and research. 

Additionally, undergraduate and graduate students – including two Pauley undergraduate research program alumni – presented posters of their ongoing cardiovascular research during the Symposium: 

• Connor Jeffs, James Madison University undergraduate — The Impact of COVID-19 Related Anxiety on Participation and Retention in a Large Multi-Center Cardio-Oncology Breast Cancer Cohort Examining Serial Change in Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction 

• Lauren Daniel, VCU School of Medicine medical student — Physical Activity Regardless of Muscle Quality is Associated with Preserved Six Minute Walk Distance 24 Months after Breast Cancer Treatment (WF-97415) 

• Ashwin Pillai, MD, cardiovascular disease fellow — Sex-divergent clinical phenotypes and outcomes in cardiac sarcoidosis with ventricular arrhythmias 

• Kelsey Burrows, DO, internal medicine resident — Antilipemic Medication Utilization and Low-Density Lipoprotein Goal Attainment for Secondary Prevention of Atherosclerotic Coronary Artery Disease in Female Patients – A VCU Health Quality Improvement Feasibility Study 

Finally, we were joined by students from Richmond’s Cristo Rey High School, who attended a mentorship luncheon hosted by Sangeeta Shah, MD, to learn about careers in cardiovascular medicine. 

Save the date for next year’s Heart Health in Women Symposium, which will be held in Richmond on Saturday, February 6, 2027!