ORWH Publishes Trans-NIH Strategic Plan
Photo: ORWH
The Office of Research on Women’s Health recently published Advancing Science for the Health of Women: The 2019-2023 Trans-NIH Strategic Plan for Women’s Health Research. The plan provides a framework for coordinating NIH efforts to advance science for the health of women while keeping pace with rapid changes in science and technology, evolving public health needs and legislative mandates.
Developed in consultation with NIH institutes, centers and offices, external stakeholders and the public, the 5-year plan represents a multipronged approach to advance a vision “in which sex and/or gender influences are integrated into the biomedical research enterprise; every woman receives evidence-based disease prevention and treatment tailored to her own needs, circumstances and goals; and women in science careers reach their full potential.”
The plan paves the way toward scientific and workforce efforts that ultimately benefit the health and biomedical research careers of women. Population health indicators over the past two decades reveal substantial inequalities between the sexes and demonstrate even greater disparities between women and men in the United States than in peer nations, including a life expectancy for U.S. women lower than that in high-income peer countries. Additionally, maternal mortality rates have risen for some populations of U.S. women, even as these rates decline in other high-income countries. The strategy represents NIH’s commitment to address these alarming trends. For details, see orwh.od.nih.gov/sites/orwh/files/docs/ORWH_Strategic_Plan_2019_02_21_19_V2_508C.pdf.