Exploring sex-specific diagnostic thresholds

In this thought-provoking session, Dr Paz Tayal, MRC Clinician Scientist and Associate Professor, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London explores a striking and important inconsistency in modern medicine: women are diagnosed with heart failure less often than men, and are frequently thought to have milder disease - yet they experience twice as many hospital admissions.

Why? The answer lies not in biology alone, but in how we define disease. Much of our diagnostic framework is built on data derived predominantly from men. As a result, the thresholds we use can fail to detect clinically significant illness in women - leaving many unwell patients reassured that their tests are “normal.”

This session will reveal how current practice may inadvertently train clinicians to overlook disease in women, and makes a compelling case for the adoption of sex-specific diagnostic thresholds. By recalibrating how we assess and diagnose, we have the opportunity to intervene earlier and deliver better, more equitable care.

While focused on heart failure, this is a broader story about bias in medicine, and a powerful call to rethink how we define health and disease for the 51%.

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