This week I spoke at a conference at
Women & Infants Hospital on women’s health research, sponsored
by the National Institutes of Health. The ultimate goal: to get women
to incorporate valuable health research outcomes into their daily lives.
Women made up the majority of the room
where I spoke. That’s encouraging, because it’s critical to get
more women entering health professions, leading research and taking
on health policy roles that will make a difference in women’s lives.
We know that there are unique characteristics
to women’s health, and patterns of disease can differ between the
sexes (think heart disease), so the need for gender-specific research
continues. The NIH created the Office of Research on Women’s Health
in 1990—not even two decades have passed since most medical research
focused on men only.
As scientists continue moving their
profession forward, I encourage them to think about how to make their
research understandable to people like me—to think beyond the lab—
so their critical findings can be worked into health care policy as
well as the way women live.
Also exciting to note: This was one
the only NIH conference on women’s health held east of Chicago. With
Women & Infants as a center of excellence for women’s health,
Rhode Island has the opportunity to be a leader on the issue nationally.