The Future Research Agenda for Women’s Health Stacie E. Geller, Ph.D. Director, UIC Center for Research on Women and Gender and The National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health

What is Women’s Health? It’s more than maternal health It’s even more than reproductive health Preservation of health and wellness across the lifespan/prevention of illness Thinking about women’s health in the broadest terms –Life-course perspective Broadly defined women’s health research agenda

Building Upon the Past Establishment of ORWH of NIH –Women in clinical trials (WHI) Increasing allocation of $$ to disorders that affect women (NIH, CDC, FDA, DHHS) Medical journals devoted to women’s health (JAMWA) National Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health (OWH/DHHS)

National Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health Models of health care at 21 academic health centers to improve the health of all women across the lifespan. Overall goal is to transform the institutional culture of academic health centers –To become agents of change in improving the health and health care of girls and women from diverse communities

The CoEs Integrate: State-of-the-art comprehensive & integrated health care services Multidisciplinary research to promote an extensive women’s health research agenda Professional education, training & materials to educate tomorrow’s health care providers Community partnerships & linkages for health services & educational programs Key leadership positions in academic medicine

Much Work yet to be Done… Different profile of morbidity and mortality –Chronic health conditions 50,000 more women than men die of CVD each year LupusDepression –Domestic battering Women’s Health Report Card –In 2004, the status of women’s health in the nation still falls short of meeting national goals Met 2 benchmarks and missed 25 –The greatest decline has been in federal programs

Much Work yet to be Done… Proportion of resources spent on women’s health is low –In 2004, NIH spends $28 billion on research –$41million is allocated to ORWH (0.14%) compared to $118 million to NCCAM –$29 million to OWH of DHHS –$3.6 million to OWH/FDA

Much Work yet to be Done… Politics over science –David Hager to chair the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory committee –Amendment to the House to restrict federal funding to the NIH for sexuality research –FDA refusal to approve EC (Plan B) to be OTC –Abortion-breast cancer link debunked!!!!

Much Work yet to be Done… Question the biomedical model of health, disease & research Medicalization of women’s health –Menstruation, Pregnancy and Menopause as disease Challenge current medical & cultural assumptions about WH in the media, in policy debates and in medical professional education –Menopause as an estrogen deficiency disease or as a normal life transition that encompasses the physiological, social, psychological…..

How Do We Move Forward? We have to ask the right questions to get the right answers –Does estrogen make women healthy or do healthy women take estrogen????? New indicators that expand our view of women's health must be incorporated into any research agenda. –Maternal mortality and morbidity surveillance

Validate the Role of Women as Researchers/Scientists Pioneer awards –An NIH program designed “to support individual scientists and thinkers with highly innovative ideas and approaches to contemporary challenges in biomedical research." –NIH will provide $500,000 in direct costs per year for five years to each Pioneer Award recipient, "allowing them the time and resources to test far-ranging ideas with the potential to make extraordinary contributions to medical research."

Pioneer awards All awardees this year are men! !