Insight
The RESIL-Card tool launches across Europe to strengthen cardiovascular care preparedness against crises
By Women As One
Women As One is proud to have contributed to the development of the RESIL-Card tool as an active Advisory Board member, ensuring that gender equity and the perspectives of women cardiologists were embedded from the outset.
Through strategic input on the project’s design, formal support of its EU4Health funding application, and ongoing participation in advisory activities, Women As One has helped shape both the direction and implementation of this initiative.
By amplifying awareness, facilitating engagement from our global community, and advocating for inclusive representation, we have worked to ensure that RESIL-Card reflects the diverse realities of cardiovascular care and supports more equitable, resilient health systems in times of crisis. Read more about our involvement here.
On the European Day for Prevention of Cardiovascular Risk (March 14), the RESIL-Card consortium proudly announces the official launch of the RESIL-Card tool, a free online resource designed to help hospital cardiovascular professionals and other stakeholders assess and strengthen the resilience of their care pathways — ensuring that lifesaving care remains accessible even during times of crisis.
Available now at https://www.wecareabouthearts.org/resil-card/online-tool/, the RESIL-Card tool offers a structured self-assessment framework for evaluating the preparedness of cardiovascular services and identifying concrete actions to maintain continuity of care when health systems face disruption.
“Cardiovascular care must remain uninterrupted regardless of the challenges health systems face,” said Professor William Wijns, Research Professor in Interventional Cardiology, University of Galway, Ireland, and We CARE – RESIL-Card Coordinator.
“The RESIL-Card tool provides healthcare teams with a practical way to assess preparedness, identify improvement opportunities, and ultimately ensure that patients continue to receive lifesaving care when it matters most.”
Why the RESIL-Card tool was developed
Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in Europe, making the continuity and resilience of care pathways a public health priority.
Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, recent crises – from pandemics to geopolitical instability – have exposed the vulnerability of healthcare systems.
In today’s increasingly uncertain health landscape and global environment, proactive preparedness is no longer optional – it is essential.
The RESIL-Card tool was developed as part of an EU4Health-funded initiative to support organisations providing lifesaving cardiovascular care in strengthening their preparedness, improving coordination, and safeguarding patient outcomes in times of disruption.
The initiative focuses on practical resilience strategies to help health systems anticipate challenges rather than simply react to them.
“Healthcare systems today operate in an increasingly complex and unpredictable environment,” said Ariadna Sanz, Health Policy Manager at the Catalan Health Service (CatSalut).
“Tools like RESIL-Card help shift the focus from responding to crises toward proactively building strong, adaptable cardiovascular care pathways that protect patients over the long term.”
A collaborative and evidence-based methodology
The RESIL-Card tool is grounded in a robust, multidisciplinary development process involving cardiovascular experts, healthcare professionals, public health specialists, patient organisations, and policy stakeholders from across Europe.
Its development combined comprehensive literature reviews and analysis of existing preparedness frameworks with extensive stakeholder consultations and co-creation workshops. Real-world insights from healthcare providers and patient representatives were integrated throughout the process to ensure the tool reflects the practical realities of cardiovascular care delivery. The methodology also included iterative testing and validation phases, allowing the consortium to refine the tool and ensure it is both scientifically rigorous and practical for everyday use.
“From the outset, RESIL-Card was co-created with clinicians, patient representatives, and health system experts to ensure it reflects real-world practice,” said Professor Niek Klazinga, Em. Professor of Social Medicine, Amsterdam University Medical Centre / University of Amsterdam.
“The result is a tool that combines scientific rigour with practical usability, enabling healthcare teams to translate resilience concepts into concrete action.”
What the RESIL-Card tool is and how it works
The RESIL-Card tool is a practical online self-assessment instrument designed for use by a multistakeholder resilience team led by cardiovascular care providers.
Through a structured four-step process, including a questionnaire and guided analysis, users assess the preparedness and resilience of their cardiovascular care pathways and gain a clear understanding of how well their services can maintain care continuity during periods of disruption.
The assessment process helps teams identify existing strengths as well as potential gaps in service delivery.
Based on the responses provided, the tool offers tailored recommendations and examples of best practices to support improvement.
These insights can then inform strategic planning, helping organisations prioritise actions that reinforce care continuity, strengthen patient safety, and optimise the long-term sustainability of cardiovascular services.
Benefits for Key Stakeholders
For healthcare professionals and organisations delivering cardiovascular care, the RESIL-Card tool provides a structured way to strengthen preparedness and crisis-response capacity.
By helping teams assess their existing systems and identify areas for improvement, the tool supports better coordination across services and clinical disciplines.
It also facilitates evidence-based planning and quality improvement initiatives, enabling healthcare organisations to enhance their operational resilience while maintaining efficient and manageable care processes.
“By promoting awareness about strengths and limitations of each system, the RESIL-Card tool will help physicians to understand where improvements are needed and strengthen coordination and planning to face crises,” said Doctor Alfredo Marchese, Chief of Interventional Cardiology Department at Santa Maria Hospital, Bari, Italy and President of the Italian Society of Interventional Cardiology (GISE).
For patients and patient organisations, the RESIL-Card tool contributes to improving the reliability and continuity of essential cardiovascular care.
By encouraging healthcare providers to proactively address vulnerabilities in care pathways, the tool helps promote uninterrupted access to diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up services.
It also supports a more patient-centred and equitable approach to care delivery, encouraging collaboration and transparency in preparedness planning.
Ultimately, these improvements can contribute to better health outcomes and increased safety for people living with cardiovascular disease.
“For people living with cardiovascular disease, continuity of care is not optional — it is essential,” said Teresa Glynn, Senior Executive Strategy & Partnerships at Global Heart Hub.
“By helping healthcare providers strengthen preparedness, RESIL-Card supports more reliable and equitable access to treatment and greater confidence for patients and their families.”
At the European level, the RESIL-Card initiative contributes to a shared effort to strengthen the resilience of health systems.
By providing a common framework for assessing and improving preparedness, the tool encourages cross-border learning and facilitates the exchange of best practices among healthcare providers and policymakers.
It also aligns closely with European Union priorities on health system preparedness, crisis response, and sustainability.
By helping healthcare organisations identify vulnerabilities and implement practical resilience measures, the RESIL-Card tool can support efforts to reduce inequalities in access to high-quality cardiovascular care across EU Member States.
“Strengthening the resilience of cardiovascular care is a shared European priority,” said Rachel Kenna, Ireland’s Chief Nursing Officer at the Department of Health.
“While the RESIL-Card tool has not yet been tested in an Irish setting we look forward to seeing how it can support the development of more sustainable and prepared healthcare systems.”
Call to Action
Cardiovascular care providers and other healthcare professionals are encouraged to explore the RESIL-Card tool at https://www.wecareabouthearts.org/resil-card/online-tool/.
By using it to assess their cardiovascular care pathways, they will identify areas where resilience can be strengthened and ensure that essential services remain accessible during times of disruption.
Patient organisations also play an important role in this effort. By engaging with healthcare providers and policymakers, they can help promote the use of the tool and ensure that patient perspectives are meaningfully incorporated into preparedness and response planning.
Policymakers and health authorities are invited to support the adoption of the RESIL-Card tool within regional, national and European strategies aimed at strengthening healthcare system resilience.
Integrating the tool into policy frameworks can help safeguard access to essential cardiovascular services and enhance the ability of health systems to respond effectively to future challenges.
Learn more about Women As One at womenasone.org
Women are being urged to seek evidence-based advice and avoid menopause misinformation shared on social media.
A seminar co-hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) mainly examined what is known about the cognitive effects of menopause and current research in the field worldwide.
Dr Nicole Jaff, a South African academic and certified menopause practitioner, said research into menopause and its effects was now at a peak.
She said: “There’s a lot of information out there.
“But I would say please look for the evidence-based information, not for the influencers and the misinformation, but those who are giving guidelines, who are giving information.”
Jaff highlighted research into cognitive changes during menopause and how some women experience brain fog, a term for difficulties with memory, concentration and clear thinking.
She said: “I’m very excited about the non-hormonal treatments that are now available, especially for women who could never take hormone therapy because of breast cancers and various cancers, who can now take it.
“I’m extremely excited about people who are standing up for evidence-based medicine, for science, who are actually fighting back against a lot of the social media and influencers who are not giving evidence-based information and making life very difficult for women because they think they should be forever young or buying this or buying that.”
Jaff advised women and healthcare workers to read new guidelines recently issued by the International Menopause Society. They are available free to download from its website.
The seminar also heard from Professor Aimee Spector, professor of clinical psychology of ageing at University College London.
She raised similar concerns about misinformation, particularly claims linking hormone replacement therapy, known as HRT, to dementia. Some claims suggest HRT reduces dementia risk, while others suggest it increases the risk.
Spector said: “I think there’s also lots of misinformation.
“And I think that there’s huge variations in how even professionals and doctors interpret this information.”
She was part of an international research team commissioned by the WHO last year to assess published studies on the issue.
The institutions involved also included the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin.
Spector said: “The first thing to say is that the quality of evidence was very low.
“Nine out of the 10 studies we looked at were observational, which means that you’re observing patterns over time. But you don’t necessarily know whether that’s due to the hormone therapy or not.
“Our overall recommendation was that there’s insufficient evidence for menopause hormone therapy in terms of either increasing or reducing the risk of dementia. In other words, we don’t know either way.”
Spector said women should therefore decide whether to use HRT to treat menopause symptoms rather than based on concerns about dementia.
She said: “It’s recommended for menopause symptoms, but it’s not recommended to reduce dementia. And I think a lot of people are saying that.”
The Menopause on the Brain webinar was part of an ongoing series hosted by the WHO and other global health agencies.
An endometriosis musical by two US writers will debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.
“Endometriosis: The Musical” follows Jane, a woman trying to discover why she is living with chronic pain.
Maria Bartholdi and Kristin Stowell first developed the production for the 2022 Minnesota Fringe Festival.
The full show premiered at Theater in the Round in Minneapolis in 2025.
Stowell said the play drew on personal experience, although neither writer realised it at the time.
“So it’s like my goal to let women see themselves in this who are dealing with this and have a question they can bring back to their doctor,” she said.
“Like, could it be endometriosis?”
Bartholdi said she did not realise she might have the condition herself until after the play premiered.
“This show helped diagnose me, which I think is just one of the miraculous things that we hope this the show does for other people as well,” Bartholdi said.
Dr Wendy VanBuren, a radiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, said she was a fan of the musical and its role in raising awareness of a common but underdiagnosed disease.
“Cells that are similar to but not identical to the cells that comprise the lining of the uterus, the inside of the uterus, are located outside the uterus,” said VanBuren.
“When they’re outside the uterus, there isn’t the right environment to deal with that. So basically, what you get is bleeding, and then you get inflammation.”
Roughly one in seven women live with the disease, and receiving a diagnosis can take nearly a decade.
Johnson & Johnson has offered an estimated US$5.5bn settlement covering about 76,000 claims that its talc products caused ovarian cancer.
The proposed agreement could end a contentious legal dispute over the company’s baby powder and other talc-based products that has lasted around a decade.
Johnson & Johnson said the settlement covers claims consolidated in a federal court in New Jersey and related cases in state court.
The claims represent nearly all the remaining talc cases against the US multinational, according to the company.
Johnson & Johnson has previously settled most claims alleging that its talc contained asbestos and caused mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma is a rare cancer affecting the lining of organs, most commonly the lungs, and is usually linked to asbestos exposure.
Law firms representing claimants confirmed the proposed deal, describing it as a good resolution after around 10 years of litigation.
The agreement must be accepted by 95 per cent of ovarian cancer claimants in state or federal court before it becomes final.
Erik Haas, vice-president of litigation at Johnson & Johnson, said the claims were “meritless” and that the company was willing to settle to bring the litigation to a close.
“While we are confident the company would have ultimately prevailed with further litigation, as it has in the vast majority of cases tried to date, this resolution allows the company to put this matter behind it and remain focused on its mission to develop medicines and devices that save lives,” Haas said.
The company expects to pay US$3bn in 2027, with further payments due in 2028.
The deal could be worth more, depending on how many people take part in the settlement.
Chris Seeger, a lawyer representing around 2,500 clients with talc claims who helped negotiate the agreement, said Johnson & Johnson could ultimately pay US$7bn or more.
The settlement assigns specific values to qualifying ovarian cancer claims but does not cap the company’s total payout.
“We got a fair settlement, and our clients are going to be happy with it,” Seeger said.
Johnson & Johnson reached the agreement after a series of court victories, including wins in individual trials and successful efforts to disqualify claimants’ lawyers from the litigation.
The company also secured court rulings against experts used by claimants to support their cases.
A federal judge last week questioned whether individual claimants could prove that talc had specifically caused their ovarian cancer.
Johnson & Johnson has consistently denied that its talc products caused cancer, maintaining that the products were safe and did not contain asbestos.
The company stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the US in 2020 and switched to a cornstarch-based product.
Litigation resumed in March 2025 after being paused for more than three years while Johnson & Johnson pursued a bankruptcy strategy known as the “Texas two step”.
The company filed three bankruptcies through a shell-company subsidiary in an attempt to settle the cases. Each bankruptcy was dismissed.
Before the bankruptcy attempts, Johnson & Johnson had a mixed record in talc trials.
These included a multibillion-dollar verdict for 22 women who said baby powder caused their ovarian cancer, alongside trials won by Johnson & Johnson and other verdicts later reduced on appeal.
Unlike the proposed bankruptcy settlements, the latest agreement applies only to existing claims and does not cover future lawsuits.
Seeger said excluding future claims made more money available for current claimants than the bankruptcy proposal and would allow all claims to be paid within 18 months rather than over more than a decade.
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