Over the past year, the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) has coordinated the development of a new 5-year plan that will set an updated agenda for expanding research on the health of women.

Working at NIH, I often see the amazing advancements and achievements made by the biomedical research enterprise. One recent important advance is not a scientific finding or new technology, but a strong stand on principle made by NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins.

At the 46th meeting of ACRWH on October 23, 2018, ORWH Director Janine Clayton, M.D., addressed increases in maternal mortality, decreasing life expectancies for women, and the effects of the opioid crisis on women’s health.

On November 28, 2018, ORWH hosted the annual meeting of the BIRCWH program, which connects junior faculty (BIRCWH Scholars) to senior faculty mentors with shared research interest in women's health and sex-differences research.

On November 8 and 9, 2018, ORWH Director Janine Clayton, M.D., attended the second annual WLGH Conference, hosted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The WLGH Conference convenes leaders from health, policy, and other sectors to discuss and promote gender equity in health leadership and thereby improve health for all.

ORWH Director Janine Clayton, M.D., and fellow ophthalmologist Claude Cowan, M.D., spoke on gout and inflammatory eye disease at the 14th Annual Kenneth Austin Rheumatology Symposium at Howard University Hospital on April 6.