2023 marks the 30th Anniversary of the NIH Revitalization Act, which was signed into law on June 10, 1993, directing the NIH to establish guidelines for inclusion of women and minorities in clinical research.
AMWA was one of the leaders of the women’s health movement and among the organizations who advocated for this legislation. But more work remains. Women still face heathcare disparities with regards to the diagnosis and management of disease; women are still not adequately represented in clinical trials, and women’s health research still remains underfunded. And the gender gap in healthcare leadership remains, despite the fact that women make up 75% of the healthcare workforce. Within medicine, women are now an entering majority in U.S. medical schools.
Coming out of a pandemic which witnessed a rollback in the gains that women achieved in the workplace and a year punctuated with growing restrictions in reproductive rights for women, we must find hope in the work that is being carried out. Leading agencies and organizations like the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR), and Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM) are addressing gaps in women’s health and the equitable inclusion of women in research trials. A 2022 report by PhRMA identified “more than 600 medicines in development for diseases impacting women.” A booming femtech sector is harnessing the power of tech solutions to improve healthcare for women – and drawing in venture capital funding to achieve those goals.
The future for women’s health is promising – and we want to encourage medical trainees to help advance our work in this field. To that end, AMWA is launching a Women’s Health Champions program that will include education and advocacy with a capstone project. This self-paced program can be completed in a three-week intensive block or spread out over 6 months. Our hope is that more trainees will be inspired to choose careers in women’s health and be our future leaders in the field.
