New White House initiative expands research into health issues specifically affecting women

March 18 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order to expand research into women's health issues.

Administration officials said a lack of scientific and biomedical research on health issues germane to women is what spurred the president to establish the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research in an executive order issued Monday.

For too long, scientific and biomedical research has "excluded women and undervalued the study of women's health," Biden's executive order reads. "The resulting research gaps mean that we know far too little about women's health across women's lifespans, and those gaps are even more prominent for women of color, older women and women with disabilities."

The executive order places the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research within the office of first lady Jill Biden and includes a "wide array of executive departments and agencies ... to accelerate research that will provide the tools we need to prevent, diagnose and treat conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately or differently" than men.

Biden says the intent of the women's health initiative is to:

• Advance women's health research
• Close health disparities between women and men
• Ensure viable clinical benefits for women
• Provide women with access to evidence-based health care

"It is time, once again, to pioneer the next generation of discoveries in women's health" and "fundamentally change how we approach and fund women's health research in the United States," Biden said in his executive order.

The women's health initiative is part of the "bold, transformative investment of $12 billion" that Biden called for during his recent State of the Union address.

The investment would create a fund for women's health research controlled by the National Institutes of Health. Biden said he will seek a $200 million appropriation for the NIH in fiscal year 2025 to streamline funding for women's health research.

The executive order also requires the Environmental Protection Agency to prioritize funding for grants and contracts that investigate environmental factors that affect women's health.

The National Science Foundation will identify engineering research opportunities, such as in biomechanics, microfluidics, computational modeling and artificial intelligence to create new applications that positively affect women's health.

The NIH also would standardize women's health research data to improve knowledge of women's health, under the new health initiative.