Last week Women’s Health Innovation Coalition and Springboard in cooperation with G2G Consulting organized a congressional briefing to educate lawmakers, staff, agencies and the public on the need to advance health outcomes for women and minorities.
Speakers included Avestria’s Linda Greub, Aspira Women’s Health’s Valerie Palmieri, Q2Q Health’s Roberta Powell, and Society for Women’s Health Research’s Kathryn F. Schubert. Opening remarks by Rep. Maedeleine Dean, Co-Chair of the Women’s Caucus.
Why this Briefing?
There are biological and genetic differences that impact women’s health, and the underrepresentation of women and minorities in research is contributing to a lack of data, understanding, investment and innovation to address diseases/conditions that exclusively, disproportionately or differentially impact women.
Adverse drug events are twice as common for women, and approximately a fifth of new drugs approved between 2008 and 2013 demonstrated differences in exposure and/or drug response across racial/ethnic groups, according to the FDA. In addition, little to no research is conducted on improving health outcomes for women who are pregnant, postpartum and throughout the entire first year of her newborn’s life.
African American women across the socioeconomic spectrum are dying from preventable pregnancy-related complications at three to four times the rate of non-Hispanic white women, while the death rate for Black infants is twice that of infants born to non-Hispanic white mothers, according to the CDC. These are just some of the systemic obstacles contributing to significant and avoidable safety and efficacy issues for female and minority populations.
Some Highlights
Watch Full Congressional Briefing
If you missed the Congressional Briefing last week, you can catch up here.
