Women comprise approximately half of the world’s population, yet their role in the global health care ecosystem is often underrepresented or inadequately considered. Women also face unique challenges over the course of their lifespans, due to biological sex differences and gender-related influences on health and disease.
During “Women’s Unique Health Needs and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” a program during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79) Science Summit this fall, the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) and ECHAlliance will seek to identify key opportunities to advance women’s health research, care, and policies through a series of panel and keynote discussions. “Featuring women’s health as a major focus at the International Science Summit is essential for addressing global health disparities, empowering women, and fostering innovation in health care,” said Nicole Althaus, U.S. Ambassador for ECHAlliance. “By prioritising women’s health and supporting female leaders in the field through this program, we contribute to achieving global health goals, promoting gender equity, and ensuring that half of the world’s population receives the attention and resources they deserve.” “Addressing women’s health needs should not be an addendum to the SDGs but interwoven in all its strategies at national and global levels,” said SWHR Chief Science Officer Dr. Irene Aninye. “This event is so important because it is a collaborative effort to get leaders across the world to actively think about women’s health needs.”
Attendees can join the event in-person in New York City, NY, or virtually on September 24, 2024. Takeaways from the event will be published in a summary report, but ahead of the event, you can get a sneak peak of the proceedings here:
The event will begin with a call to action on women’s health presented by Ru-fong Joanne Cheng, MD, FACOG, Director of Women’s Health Innovations at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Cheng will set the stage for the day’s conversations and highlight the need to integrate women’s health prominently into each SDG.
Health care often finds itself focusing on disease treatments and being reactionary to address interventions that haven’t gone well, particularly when it comes to women’s health. During “Transitioning Women’s Health from Treatment to Prevention,” speakers will look at how health care leaders can position themselves domestically and globally to provide better preventive care, spanning from immunisation and vaccines to cancer screenings, cardiovascular health, and bone health. Speakers at this session will include:
- Capt. Aisha K. Brooks, DNP, MPH, RN, FAAN, Senior Health Policy Administrator at the U.S. Public Health Service
- Anuradha Gupta, President, Global Immunisation at Sabin Vaccine Institute
- Rachel Sturke, PhD, MPH, MIA, Acting Deputy Director at NIH Fogarty International Center.
During the session “Ensuring Accountability: Women in Research, Health Care, and Policy Leadership,” leaders with firsthand experience navigating the science policy space will present how they use national priorities and infrastructure to address women’s health needs in research. They’ll answer questions like, how you position your nation to be a leader on a global level, and how you position your constituents to improve the health of women in your jurisdiction. Speakers for this session will include:
- Janine Austin Clayton, MD, FARVO, Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health
- Carolyn Harris, Labour MP for Neath and Swansea East in the UK Parliament.
Hosts are also dedicating time to hear about the career journeys of notable women in science and medicine. “Perspectives from Women Leaders in Women’s Health” aims to provide deeper, personal insights into what it means to promote women’s health in science and policy spaces that are often male-dominated. Speakers for this conversation will include:
- Michele Barry, MD, FACP, Director for Center of Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University
- Eleanor Nwadinobi, MBBS, EMA, FAAC, President of the Medical Women’s International Association.
- Janine Austin Clayton, MD, FARVO, Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health
The event will close with two roundtables in the afternoon, discussing diversifying training in maternal health and the rise of femtech innovation, concurrently. These sessions are by invitation only, but key outtakes from the roundtables will be shared in the final summary report. “I am excited about the timeliness of this program,” said Dr. Aninye. “We are at a very interesting time in women’s health, particularly in the United States, following the White House Initiative for Women’s Health Research that was announced around this time last year. This Initiative has had a ripple effect in really framing women’s health as a mainstream topic. It has brought so many players in to join us, who might not have previously considered the importance of women’s health.” Nicole Althaus agrees about the significant timing around and momentum possible from this event. “I hope participants leave with a deeper understanding of the unique health challenges women face and the critical need to address these issues through research and health care practice. We want participants to depart with a sense of urgency and commitment to advancing gender equity in health, recognising that improving women’s health benefits everyone,” she said.
This event underscores the deep commitment of both SWHR and ECHAlliance to “address the challenges women face and to disrupt the status quo in women’s health care,” Nicole Althaus said.
“Change requires collaboration, and we are excited to model this in our collaboration with ECHAlliance for this event,” added Dr. Aninye. “We are crossing an ocean to work together to address these major gaps and issues in women’s health, and we’re hoping to see this global partnership replicated during the event.”
Learn more about “Women’s Unique Health Needs and the SDGs” and register for the program here.
Thank you to the sponsors of this event, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, and the media sponsor Journal of Women’s Health.
ECHAlliance is the Global Connector for Digital Health connecting 78 Countries and 4.4 billion people. As a member organisation, ECHAlliance brings its global community together in a network of ecosystems that match need and solution, break down silos, transform healthcare, transfer best practices and lessons learned and create economic opportunities. We connect the healthcare dots across the globe.
The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) is a national nonprofit and thought leader dedicated to advancing women’s health through science, policy, and education while promoting research on sex differences to optimize women’s health. Founded in 1990 by a group of physicians, medical researchers, and health advocates, SWHR is making women’s health mainstream by addressing unmet needs and research gaps in women’s health. Thanks to SWHR’s efforts, women are now routinely included in most major medical research studies and more scientists are considering sex as a biological variable in their research.
