PRECISION4CARE-CARDIO: Sex- and Gender-Specific Mechanisms, Risk Models and Translational Decision Pathways for Cardiovascular Diseases

PRECISION4CARE-CARDIO is a European research and innovation project designed to understand sex- and gender-specific mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and to create translational pathways that ensure this knowledge benefits clinicians and patients today—not only in the distant future. While substantial sex- and gender-specific evidence already exists, much of it is 10–20 years old and has not been incorporated into clinical guidelines or practice. This has contributed to persistent underdiagnosis and suboptimal treatment, particularly for women.

To address this gap, the project integrates biomedical, clinical, behavioural, and social determinants with advanced AI models to develop sex- and gender-specific risk tools and a continuous evidence-to-guideline pipeline. This enables healthcare professionals (HCPs) to make more precise, individualized decisions based on validated evidence and patient-specific factors.

Scientific Background:
Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in Europe, yet sex- and gender-specific differences in pathophysiology, symptoms, and outcomes are still not systematically integrated into research or clinical practice. Women often have different risk profiles, disease trajectories, and treatment responses, yet remain underrepresented in clinical studies. Evidence on these differences exists but has not been translated into practice.

PRECISION4CARE-CARDIO aims to overcome this structural evidence–practice gap by combining new mechanistic research with translational modelling and clinical decision-support pathways.

Project Objectives:

1. Identify sex- and gender-specific mechanisms across molecular, hormonal, genetic, behavioural, and psychosocial domains in cardiovascular diseases.

2. Develop multimodal, sex-/gender-specific risk models that incorporate biological and social determinants and reflect real-world patient diversity.

3. Validate new pathways and risk factors using clinical data, digital biomarkers, and AI-supported pattern discovery.

4. Build a translational pipeline that continuously compares up-to-date evidence with existing cardiovascular guidelines, highlighting outdated recommendations and enabling clinicians to make informed, individualized decisions.

5. Integrate patient-specific factors into decision pathways so that HCPs can apply sex-/gender-sensitive insights to today’s patients, not just future ones.

6. Ensure strong SSH involvement, exploring behavioural, cultural, and socioeconomic influences that shape risk, symptom expression, access, and outcomes.

Innovative Elements:

• A continuous evidence-updating pipeline that merges new mechanistic discoveries with existing clinical recommendations.

• AI-driven guideline comparison tools to identify gaps between current practice and validated evidence, enhancing clinical decision-making.

• Multimodal data integration that reflects biological, clinical, behavioural, and environmental reality.

• A translational framework that helps researchers, clinicians, and guideline committees incorporate sex- and gender-specific findings more rapidly.

Partners Sought:

• Clinical centres specialising in cardiology, women’s cardiovascular health, CVD prognosis

• Biomedical research groups (genetics, endocrinology, imaging, immunology)

• Social sciences and humanities experts (behavioural science, gender studies, health inequality)

• AI, data science, and medical informatics groups

• Operators of registries, cohorts, or biobanks

• SME partners in digital health, MedTech, clinical decision support

• Patient organisations

Expected Impact:
PRECISION4CARE-CARDIO will generate new mechanistic insights and close the 20-year translational delay between evidence generation and clinical adoption. By combining sex-/gender-specific discovery research with actionable clinical decision pathways, the project aims to reduce misdiagnosis, improve tailored treatment strategies, and ultimately decrease the cardiovascular disease burden in Europe.