Brown event to help set NIH agenda

Women & Infants Hospital and Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School are co-hosting a conference Monday through Wednesday, Sept. 21 to 23, as part of a major effort by the National Institutes of Health to help shape the future of women’s health research.
The event, sponsored by the NIH Office of Research in Women’s Health, is free and open to everyone, with opportunities for both clinicians and the public to listen and to testify.
“This is the chance of a lifetime to really have a say in the future of research for sex and gender differences, and at the same time meet and network with key scientists and researchers from the NIH and the region,” said Dr. Joanna Cain, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the medical school and assistant dean for women’s health programs.
Cain, who serves as obstetrician and gynecologist-in-chief at Women & Infants, is one of the regional organizers of the conference, which will feature several regional and national-level speakers and is expected to draw an array of scientists, clinicians and policy experts.
Much of the focus will be on new ways for scientists to collaborate and also to bring the latest discoveries to patients, said Dr. Maureen Phipps, another organizer, a Brown professor and director of research in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Women & Infants.
Such approaches are crucial to addressing “significant women’s health issues,” Phipps said.
The goal of the conference is to help the NIH set its agenda for women’s research and keep it focused and cutting-edge. The Providence event is one of four nationwide; others were held in March at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., and in May at the University of California–San Francisco. A final one is scheduled next month at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. A final NIH women’s health meeting is planned for next spring to collect the findings and get additional input from NIH researchers, and a final document representing strategic research priorities for the next decade will be made public next September, around the time of the Office of Research in Women’s Health’s 20th anniversary.
The Brown event begins with remarks Monday by Dr. Vivian Pinn, director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the NIH; Constance A. Howes, president and CEO of Women & Infants;, and Dr. Edward Wing, Brown’s dean of medicine and biological science.
Pinn will also help launch Tuesday’s round of scientific workshops, along with Clyde Briant, vice president for research at Brown University. Other program leaders include Terrie (Fox) Wetle, associate dean of medicine for public health and public policy at Brown.
Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, the Massachusetts secretary of health and human services, will give the keynote address on policy gaps that identify research gaps in women’s health.
Several other government officials are also expected to attend and speak, and clinicians and the public will have a chance to testify during a four-hour public hearing on Monday. Congressional members and staff from the region and members of the advisory board to the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health will receive the testimony.
Anyone wishing to testify may register online. That link also offers more details about the conference agenda.