WOMEN, RESEARCH, AND THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH - COMMENTARY

Women's physiologic and pathologic processes are capturing the national consciousness in what Dr. Bernadine Healy, the first woman director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has called a "new awakening." As she has pointed out, women have unique medical problems, but research focused on women's diseases has been inadequate. Our knowledge of too many common diseases is based almost entirely on studies of men. Unfortunately, most biomedical research has assumed women are just like men. Now, we witness a dramatic shift in perspective. Not just professional and scientific journals, but newspapers, television and radio productions, community and religious organizations, and even social conversations convey the urgency of women's health concerns. You have probably seen newspaper headlines and titles of journal articles like these: "Women's Reproductive Health: A Chronic Crisis," "The Gender Gap in Drug Tests," "Reproductive Problems Are a Major Killer of Women," "The Gender Gap in Heart Disease; Women Die Far More Frequently Than Men Who Undergo Artery-opening Procedures," "Rumble in the Ranks: Sexism May Be Fact of Medical Life, But Women Physicians Are Fighting Back," "Women's Health, Public Welfare," "Preventing Heart Disease in Women; Another Role For Aspirin," "America's Neglected Weapon: Its Educated Women." In fact, women's community, academic, and other advocacy groups have placed women's health at center stage. Moreover, the federal government is now also emphasizing women's health. The 1985 report of the Public Health Service Task Force on Women's Health Issues stated: "Biomedical and behavioral research should be expanded to ensure emphasis on conditions and diseases unique to, or more prevalent in, women in all age groups."1 Full implementation of this directive has only recently, however, become a priority of the medical and scientific communities.