Focus Areas

Focus areas for the UCSF conference were chosen to reflect areas that promise benefits specific to improving women’s health. Areas are broadly defined and are meant to complement each other in their scope.

During Days 2 and 3 of the conference, work groups for each area developed recommendations for future ORWH and NIH funding priorities related to women’s health research. These recommendations were presented to Dr. Vivian W. Pinn, director of the Office of Research in Women's Health at the NIH during the final day of the conference.

Each of the six areas and corresponding work group chairs are listed below.

Global Health

Even though 85% of the global burden of disability and premature mortality occurs in the developing world, less than 4% of global research funding is devoted to the communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional disorders that constitute the major burden of disease in developing countries. Women carry a disproportionate amount of the global disease burden that result in high levels of morbidity and mortality, yet are less likely to seek or get care for themselves.

Biological, social, political, and economic factors combine to put women, especially those in the developing world, at risk for disease and harm in many phases of their life. Pregnancy and childbirth can be life-threatening events for women in developing countries: more than one-half million women die of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every year, 99% of whom are in developing countries; for every woman who dies, another 30 are estimated to suffer long-term disabilities related to reproductive maternal causes.

Young girls in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to risky or unwanted sex, and to sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. Research on improving access to women-controlled methods of birth control and reproductive planning and safe pregnancy and childbirth are critically needed.

There is a need to identify cost-effective interventions for diseases that account for a high burden among women in developing countries, including biomedical research to create new drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and medical appliances. However, the high rates of maternal and infant mortality, malnutrition and infectious diseases suffered by women in developing countries are often avoidable with simple, effective and cheap interventions that are already known, but the capacity is often lacking to deliver these interventions and to make them accessible and affordable to all people.

How to devise the best and most effective means to get interventions to people who have so far been excluded from its benefits is an important goal for global health research in women, including examination how effectively systems and interventions are working on the ground and how they can be improved. Social science and behavioral research is needed to increase understanding of the factors that determine health and affect health-seeking behavior in women. Interested participants will define research priorities for the future of global women’s health research with the goals of advancing the health and well being of women and their families.

Co-chairs:
Paula Tavrow, PhD (UCLA)
Amy Levi, PhD, CNM (UCSF)
Warner Greene, MD, PhD (Gladstone/UCSF)
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD (UCSF)
NIH Co-chairs:
Linda Wright, MD (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)
Lynne M. Mofenson, MD (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)
Gray Handley, MSPH (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

Stem Cells

By exploring the potential of stem cells for future ground-breaking clinical and basic science applications, interested participants will define key stem cell research priorities with direct relevance to Women’s Health, including but not limited to gender-related stem cell function, tissue degeneration/regeneration, design and optimization of stem cell therapies that preserve women’s reproductive health and pregnancy, and stem cell research addressing mechanisms and therapy of women-specific cancers.

Co-chairs:
Susan Fisher, PhD (UCSF)
Zena Werb, PhD (UCSF)
NIH Co-chairs:
Pamela Robey, PhD (National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research)
Nadya Lumelsky, Ph.D (National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research)

Women’s Health and the Environment

There is increasing recognition that toxicants in our environment can adversely affect women’s health. Environmental toxicants are chemicals, metals and physical agents, such as ultraviolet radiation, that women may be exposed to in their daily environment, their work place, and throughout their lives that may affect their health.

One major area of concern is how these environmental exposures affect reproductive health broadly defined—including effects on puberty, ability to conceive and carry a pregnancy, and pregnancy quality and outcomes. We also suspect that some toxicants may increase risks of diseases primarily affecting women such as breast cancer and uterine fibroids. Also, it is thought that there may be important windows of susceptibility—periods of time across the lifespan when women and girls are most vulnerable to short and long term possible effects of environmental toxicants, such as during fetal development or puberty. Finally, climate change and other factors can lead to changes over time in what people are exposed to. Interested participants will define priorities for future health research that that will yield scientific discoveries that have the potential to prevent or treat disease, reduce its consequences, and inform both health and environmental policies to promote healthy environments and healthy women.

Co-chairs:
Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH (UCSF)
Larry Kushi, ScD (Kaiser)
Eveline Shen, MPH (Reproductive Justice)
NIH Co-chairs:
Kris Thayer, PhD (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)
Estella Parrott, MD, MPH (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)
Deborah Winn, PhD (National Cancer Institute)

HIV/AIDS and Women

For women and families that are affected by HIV, the disease is likely only one of several major health and social issues they face. Interested attendees will define research priorities for the future of women’s HIV research to include innovation in basic science, models of care that address barriers and community-based programs.

Co-chairs:
Ruth Greenblatt, MD (UCSF)
Dawn Smith, MD, MS, MPH (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
NIH Co-chairs:
Susan Plaeger, PhD (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
Anissa Brown, PhD (Office of AIDS Research, OD)

Women in Science and Health

To achieve our goals in women’s health research, we must champion the interests of and support the career advancement of women in science, technology, engineering and math and across all disciplines and sectors of the health professions and the intersection with public health/policy. Interested participants will define strategies and approaches aimed to break down barriers and create opportunities to ensure that women in these fields can achieve their full potential

Since there will be a working group on career development at each of the four strategic planning meetings, we will be examining prior ideas and recommendations and building, augmenting, and prioritizing recommendations gleaned from prior meetings.

As part of this effort, in addition to these goals, this working group will also address the particular career advancement issues facing women of color and women in non-medical disciplines, including, but not limited to MD, PhDs, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, psychology, engineering, and mathematics.

Co-chair:
Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS (Harvard Medical School)
Elena Fuentes-Afflick MD, MPH (UCSF)
NIH Co-chairs:
Joan Schwartz, PhD (Office of Intramural Research, OD)
J. Taylor Harden, PhD (National Institute on Aging)

Information Technology

Innovators in the field will identify research priorities for the development of information technologies and data systems to advance research in women’s health and the study of sex/gender differences; promote scientific discovery through inter-disciplinary collaborations; accelerate the translation of new knowledge into innovative clinical research; enable research on personalized approaches based on an individual’s biology, health risks and clinical response; promote better access for women to information regarding clinical trials, and evidence-based information regarding health prevention and health care for themselves and their families.

Co-chairs:
Laura Esserman, MD, MBA (UCSF)
Sue Dubman (Genzyme)
NIH Co-chairs:
Milton Corn, MD (National Library of Medicine)
Barbara Rapp, PhD (National Library of Medicine)

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