The Society for Women’s Health Research has called on President Bush to sustain vital health research following last night’s State of the Union Address, where he made no mention of health care research. If the president’s 2008 budget does not match inflation and make up for recent cuts, the pace of scientific advances and medical breakthroughs will slow, delaying health gains for all Americans.
“The recent health gains we have seen in cancer and heart disease are the result of our long term national investment in health research,” said Martha Nolan, vice president of public policy for the Society, a Washington, D.C., based non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the health of all women through research, education and advocacy. “The president’s budget decisions the last few years have had a negative impact on the nation’s premier research institutions. Current efforts to improve disease prevention and treatment are suffering. It is time for the president to do the right thing and renew our national commitment to strong health research funding.”
The Society says the value of strong funding support for the National Institutes of Health and other federal health research agencies is clear based on the Women’s Health Initiative, a 15-year federally-funded research program to address the most common causes of death, disability and poor quality of life in postmenopausal women.
“Investment in biomedical research at NIH is critical to advance women’s health,” Nolan said. “Funded by NIH, the WHI is the most definitive, far reaching study of post-menopausal women ever. The study has had a huge impact on how we view heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis, and it continues to be a warehouse of invaluable data for researchers working to prevent and treat disease.”
Data from the WHI is being used in a new interdisciplinary collaboration among NIH, academic, and industry scientists called the Women's Health Genome Study, which will analyze the genetic variations in the DNA of 28,000 women to ascertain whether similar genetic variations are present in women who have developed serious illnesses. The results will help physicians determine a woman’s risk for disease and design more effective treatments.
“This genome study demonstrates the critical importance of federal funding for women’s health research,” Nolan said. “Without NIH support, we would not have the WHI or its data that is fueling new projects among interdisciplinary scientists.”
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For more information, go to http://www.womenshealthresearch.org
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