NIH Releases Strategic Plan on Research on Health of Women

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), in partnership with the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) housed within the agency, has released a NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for the Research on the Health of Women. The strategic plan outlines five goals, including:

• Advancing research on biological, behavioral, social, structural, and environmental determinants of women’s health with an emphasis on innovative research that prioritizes and mitigates health disparities experienced by historically marginalized women;
• Encouraging the use of various forms of data collection, including using methods such as statistical modeling, data visualization, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), in research to prevent and treat conditions affecting women;
• Elevating women’s health training and education through providing sex and gender training programs that accelerate biomedical research as well as facilitating opportunities and eliminating barriers for women entering the biomedical research workforce;
• Supporting mechanistic, basic, and translational research on the study of the biology of underlying sex influences and its intersection with disease and health preservation in women across the life course;
• Prioritize community-engaged science through developing culturally responsive communication and support to foster the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based solutions to improve the health of women.

Further, the report underscores the importance of utilizing behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) when addressing women’s health by affirming that “continued and expanded support for BSSR can enhance understanding of factors that influence the health of women and can facilitate the development of actionable interventions that address health disparities and advance equity for women.”

More information about the report can be found on the NIH-ORWH website.