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In This Issue:
From left: BWH's Paula Johnson, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, BWH's Betsy Nabel and Bank of America Global Strategy and Marketing Officer Anne Finucane
On March 3, in a packed ballroom at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Boston, BWH Women's Health leaders, state and national representatives and distinguished guests came together to discuss an urgent problem in biomedical science.
"We must face the hard truth: research in women's health and gender differences lags far behind the research in men's health care," said U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who provided keynote remarks. "And too often the policy conversation around women's health lags as well. This must be addressed."
Although 20 years have passed since the National Institutes of Health's Revitalization Act became federal law-requiring the inclusion of women and minorities in clinical research studies and the analysis of results by sex--a major gender gap still exists in medical research.
WBUR's Tom Ashbrook (far right) moderates a panel on "Progress and the Data Gap" with (from left) Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, Dr. Vivian Pinn and Dr. Rita Redberg.
Convened by Paula Johnson, MD, MPH, executive director of BWH's Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology, "Charting the Course: A National Policy Summit on the Future of Women's Health" explored the current state of medical research and how it is failing women.
"Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women in the U.S. today, yet only one third of the participants in related clinical trials are women, and only one quarter of those trials report outcomes by sex," said Johnson. "We can do better."
Added BWH President Betsy Nabel, MD: "This is urgent. As our report states, women's health, everyone's health, can't wait. We are here to advance this conversation for the benefit of women and men today and for generations to come."
Lung cancer, depression, Alzheimer's-these diseases and conditions all disproportionately affect women; however, studies either fail to include enough women or fail to report outcomes by sex.
Lesley Stahl, of CBS's "60 Minutes," poses a question to panelist Dr. Margaret Hamburg (at right), FDA commissioner.
"This is an equal rights issue as important as equal pay," said Johnson. "Research on sex and gender differences must become the norm, not the exception, for us to achieve health equity and to improve health outcomes for women and men, now and in future generations. When we fail to routinely consider the impact of sex and gender in research, we are leaving women's health to chance."
The summit opened with the release of a research report entitled Sex-Specific Medical Research: Why Women's Health Can't Wait, coauthored by Johnson; Therese Fitzgerald, PhD, MSW, Connors Center director of Policy and Advocacy; Jill Goldstein, PhD, MPH, Connors Center director of Research; Alina Salganicoff, PhD, of the Kaiser Family Foundation; and Susan Wood, PhD, of the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health at George Washington University. The report draws on numerous sources and, for the first time, aggregates existing evidence regarding scientific practices and sex differences.
From left: BWH friend and donor Jack Connors, Betsy Nabel, Paula Johnson, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. BWH's Mary Horrigan Connors Center, host of the event, is named for Jack Connors' mother.
The report states that the science that informs medicine--from basic science through clinical trials and evaluation--routinely fails to consider the crucial impact of sex and gender. It lays out a Women's Health Equity Action Plan, which includes holding federal agencies accountable and promoting transparency and disclosure regarding the absence of sex-based evidence in research, drugs and devices. The plan also calls for the expansion of sex-based research requirements and the adoption of clinical care practices and training that incorporate a sex-based lens in care and research.
According to Johnson, one of the simplest things women can do to take action is to ask their health care providers if a condition they have presents differently in men and women, or if a medication they are receiving affects men and women in a different way.
During her morning remarks, Sen. Warren shared a personal story about her mother, who died due to coronary disease that had gone undetected because "she was a woman" and heart disease "was considered a man's disease," said Warren.
"I have two granddaughters, and that will not be the world they live in," Warren said.
To read the report or to learn more about the event, visit bwhevents.org/whs.