The role of the NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health

Abstract

The Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was created in 1990 to carry out three major mandates: (1) to strengthen, develop, and increase research into diseases, disorders, and conditions that are unique to, more prevalent among, or more serious in women, or for which there are different risk factors for women than for men; (2) to ensure that women are appropriately represented in biomedical and biobehavioral research studies, especially clinical trials, that are supported by the NIH; and (3) to direct initiatives to increase the number of women in biomedical careers. One of the ORWH's first accomplishments was a 1992 report that serves as a basis for the ORWH's research agenda; its recommendations focus on scientific issues affecting women's health from birth to old age. To implement these recommendations, the ORWH does not fund studies directly but instead provides funds through NIH institutes and centers to augment new research initiatives, to expand ongoing studies to address high-priority areas concerning women's health (14 of which were identified for special consideration in FY 93), and to increase the participation of women in clinical studies. In addition, the ORWH is playing a key advisory role in the NIH's Women's Health Initiative, a long-term study of over 100,000 women to examine the major causes of death, disability, and frailty--heart disease and stroke, breast and colorectal cancers, and osteoporosis--in older women of all races and from all socioeconomic strata.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)