Bus du Coeur 2022 report

Three questions to Pr Claire Mounier-Vehier and Thierry Drilhon, co-founders of Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes. They give a very positive assessment of the development of the Women's Heart Bus in 2022, thanks to the coordinated support of towns, local healthcare professionals, institutional partners and funding partners. Without them, nothing would be possible.

Why this commitment to women's cardiovascular health?
Claire Mounier-Vehier: 8 out of 10 women are primarily concerned with the health of their loved ones, and neglect their own. 2 out of 3 put off consulting a doctor and treat themselves alone, even though they rarely miss a medical appointment for their loved ones. Many women have difficult jobs, and some bring up their children alone, with a heavy mental burden. And psychosocial stress is a major risk factor. So, the message is essential: listen to yourself, listen to your body! We set up Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes nearly three years ago to raise public awareness of these issues and get important messages across.
Thierry Drilhon: Since its launch in September 2021, almost 5,000 women have benefited from free screening on the Bus du Coeur des Femmes, which has made stops in 20 stopover towns. We've brought with us the towns, major players like the Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Maladie, and public and private partners, all of whom have given us an exceptional welcome. We brought together more than 500 health professionals to volunteer at each stage, giving everyone a sense of collective action in the service of those who need it most. We trained them in the specificities of women's cardiovascular risk, with the aim of ensuring that good practice continues once the Bus has left.

What lessons have you learned from the Bus 2022 tour?
Thierry Drilhon: The success of our action relies on the strong involvement of towns and cities, the expertise of local healthcare professionals and the ecosystem of local associations. It restores meaning, links, positive listening and benevolence to the nursing profession. The Women's Heart Bus is a success beyond our wildest expectations. It will hit the road again on March 8, 2023, for a 3rd 15-stop tour of France.
Claire Mounier-Vehier: We want to create synergies with the advances made by the Ministry of Health and Prevention, and contribute to the prefiguration of prevention action models to be developed in the medium term. We have entered into a partnership with the Eduprat training organization, which trains 20,000 healthcare professionals a year for the Agence Nationale du Développement Professionnel Continu.
This will enable us to include cardiovascular risk, and especially women's cardiovascular risk, in the official certification training program.

What are your medium-term objectives?
Thierry Drilhon: To develop our action as long and as far-reaching as possible by sharing these best practices internationally! When you consider that in women, traditional risk factors such as weight, high blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and stress have a more deleterious impact on their arteries, it's easy to understand the urgent need to develop these screening campaigns, with priority given to women in economically or socially vulnerable situations, for whom all the figures are in the red. Saving a life means detecting at least one cardiovascular or gynaecological risk factor, and thus avoiding a sometimes fatal complication. Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes had an initial target of saving the lives of 10,000 women over 5 years. Given the results of the Women's Heart Bus, we're convinced it will be much more!
Claire Mounier-Vehier: Staying in a city for three days a year is obviously not enough. That's why screening is carried out by local health professionals at each stop on the Women's Heart Bus, in partnership with the health and social services of the towns that pre-register the women. Once they have been screened, these women are put back on a care pathway with scheduled appointments. The Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie, which is contacted in each town, helps to update women's entitlements and find them a GP if necessary. Only collective action, rooted in a given area and mobilizing local players, can be truly effective in the long term.

Download document