PolicyLab

The Biden Administration recently hosted the first White House Conference on Women’s Health Research, bringing together researchers, funders, investors and advocates with a shared mission: improving women’s health. The conference was part of the release of a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) highlighting the longstanding disparity in research on women’s health.  

Over the past decade, funding for women’s health research has dwindled in its proportion of the growing NIH budget, now accounting for just under 8% of total research spending. While health research has progressed during this time, these advancements have largely left behind issues of women’s health. Case in point: maternal mortality in the U.S. has consistently exceeded peer nations, and among Americans stark disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality outcomes prevail based on race, income and geography. NASEM’s report outlines a path forward, offering recommendations for increased funding, reorganization and strategic prioritization to help research in women’s health progress.

This is an essential first step toward reforming the way the U.S. funds and prioritizes women’s health research, including for conditions that disproportionately or uniquely impact women, which is critical not only to improving outcomes for women but also for advancing the health and well-being of families.

This new vision for women’s health research presents an exciting opportunity to create lasting change, but also comes at a moment when the NIH is soon to be under new leadership. We will be watching how they respond to these important recommendations.

This post is part of our “____ in 200 Words” series. In this series, we tackle issues related to children’s health policy and explain and connect you to resources to help understand them further, all in 200 words. If you have any suggestions for a topic in this series, please send a note to PolicyLab’s Communications Manager Laura Cavello.