In 2015, ORWH sponsored a workshop on women’s health issues that was jointly organized by the Committee on Population and the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The objective of the workshop was to highlight a challenge: that the health of women in the United States is significantly worse than the health of women in 16 peer countries. The workshop reached across sectors, disciplines, and areas of expertise to highlight what is known and what needs to be known. It served to identify key factors at the system, federal, state, patient, and provider levels that might explain the comparative deficiency of the health of women in the United States.

The workshop identified key research areas to decrease mortality and morbidity, for both the short and long term. It also identified some areas in which small interventions that are relatively inexpensive could have large effects. The challenge now, is to communicate, educate, disseminate information to journal editors and colleagues and get the word to all women in the United States. When the health of women in the United States improves, the health of the United States improves.

View and download the workshop summary "Improving the Health of Women in the United States."