Underrepresented issues in women’s health, from menopause to LGBTQ, came to the forefront in a national public hearing at Northwestern on Wednesday afternoon.
The National Institutes of Health is bringing professionals and the public together at the Feinberg School of Medicine with the hope of setting priorities for the future of women’s health research.
The conference, called Moving Into the Future: New Dimensions and Strategies for Women’s Health Research, is a three-day event being held Wednesday through Friday at the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center. Its mission: to update the NIH’s Women’s Health Research Agenda for the next 10 years. More than 100 people attended Wednesday’s public hearing where a wide range of public health advocates, physicians and researchers delivered prepared remarks. A panel of NIH members and scientists listened to the testimony about the health issues, which speakers said deserve more federal research funds.
The NIH, the Office of Research on Women’s Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services teamed up to organize the public hearing. Dr. Andrea Dunaif, the Charles F. Kettering Professor of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Molecular Biology at Feinberg and a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, moderated the testimonies.
The hearing began with a video tribute from television personality Tavis Smiley, who spoke about the death of his executive producer and close friend to breast cancer at the age of 42.
“I’ll emphasize to everyone that it’s so very important for researchers and scientists to hear from the public,” Smiley said in the video. “The research they can do has the power to make the difference in real people who are suffering all over the world.”
Health professionals who spoke at the hearing offered testimony on issues ranging from psychological to reproductive health. Dr. Naomi Lynn Gerber, director of the Center for Study of Chronic Illness and Disability, discussed the need to educate women on living with disabilities.
Gerber framed her testimony around two central questions: how to prepare women for the future with regard to health care and how to do it in the most cost-effective manner.
Several speakers discussed issues facing the LGBTQ community. Simone Koehlinger, director of the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health at the Chicago Department of Public Health, echoed the sentiments of several speakers when she said there is not enough comprehensive data on the health of women within the LGBTQ community.
“The health department’s ability to advocate for lesbian, bisexual or transgender health is severely hindered by a significant dearth of accurate and reliable scientific information about these populations,” Koehlinger said.
Milos Lazic, a Feinberg graduate student, said the testimonies reminded him of the importance of thinking about medicine outside the lab.
“As a researcher in the lab, it’s sometimes hard to see the big picture – if you have a problem, you try to solve it in the lab,” Lazic said. “It was interesting to see how policies can influence public health… It was beneficial for me to know these meetings exist.”
In setting the agenda for women’s health research, Gerber said an individual approach to medical care is a necessity.
“We are facing an exceedingly complex time in the history of medicine and medical care,” she said. “I do know that the buzz out there is very much on personalized medicine, individualized medicine and the needs of addressing the individual.”
