In November, thanks to our partner Keralty, the CARAMEL project was showcased at two major events held in Bogotá, Colombia. On November 5, we participated in the 1st Digital Health Summit (I Summit Salud Digital), followed by the 12th International Internal Medicine Congress (XII Congreso Internacional de Medicina Interna) on November 5–6. While the first event brought together a diverse range of healthcare professionals, the second was targeted specifically at clinicians.
The presentations followed a consistent format: first, Iván Macía, CARAMEL Project Coordinator, introduced the project’s core concepts and objectives; then, Kelly Chacón, Clinical Coordinator at Keralty, presented early findings from the CARAMEL Women Study and shared key insights from the Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) activities. The audience response, particularly among middle-aged women, strongly resonated with CARAMEL’s mission and vision.
Among the preliminary findings shared by Kelly Chacón, it emerged that many women in Bogotá have little to no awareness of menopause-related health risks, and 35% expect their clinicians to proactively inform them about their cardiovascular risk. These findings reflect an urban population; it is anticipated that knowledge gaps and disparities could be even greater in rural areas.
Feedback from the CARAMEL PPI Committee session held on October 25 at Keralty highlighted that women often perceive menopause as a stigmatized and difficult life stage. Participants expressed a need for better education, women-centered solutions, and digital tools that are useful, intuitive, accessible, and secure: all qualities embedded in the CARAMEL digital health strategy.
The CARAMEL presentation at the XII Congreso Internacional de Medicina Interna was framed in a session titled “Women’s Cardiovascular Health: A XXI Century Commitment – From Problem to Solution” and was preceded by a brilliant talk by Dr. María del Pilar Morales (Cardiologist) and Dr. Claudia Anchique (Cardiologist), which addressed several topics very relevant to CARAMEL. These interventions served as a valuable prelude to Iván and Kelly’s presentation, which concluded with an engaging Q&A session.
One central theme was awareness. Many women associate serious health risks primarily with breast cancer, while often underestimating the threat of cardiovascular disease, despite it being the leading cause of death in women. The session also noted that healthcare professionals tend to overlook sex- and gender-specific cardiovascular risks, and that risk management should begin earlier, before the onset of menopause. The importance of self-awareness and self-assessment, key pillars of CARAMEL’s approach, was also emphasized.
Another central theme was risk management and risk calculators. Beyond imaging tests, the importance of women-specific risk factors was not duly considered or well-known between professionals, with enough evidence supporting some of them being treated as risk modifiers, such as those related to pregnancy outcomes and early menopause. In response, CARAMEL aims to move beyond the monolithic approach to risk calculator, integrating multiple data sources and AI models into a dynamic assessment within its personalized prevention scheme as more information becomes available. As Iván Macía explained, CARAMEL also wants to understand women’s biological differences, for instance, through high-resolution lipoprotein profiling in its Observational Study (N=3000), as well as better quantifying the impact of women-specific risk factors.
Overall, these were a set of very productive meetings that reinforced CARAMEL vision and its ambition to build an active, informed community around women’s cardiovascular health and menopause, now extending to the Colombian context.
