Innovations for Addressing Research Gaps and Promoting the Health of Women Experiencing Health Disparities

Council Date: February 2, 2024

Objective

1. To support entrepreneurial research and the development of innovative products that alleviate barriers in health research and interventions, focusing on promoting the health of women experiencing health disparities throughout the life course.
2. To lead across NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) in creating a pathway for developing commercialized solutions that address health equity and reduce the burden of health disparities in women.

Download the full concept paper

Description of Initiative

In partnership with Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) and other NIH institutes, this concept will utilize NIMHD research priorities, the pillars of health disparities research, and the research framework for supporting women-centric and community-centered evidence-based solutions to overcome barriers to women's health in populations experiencing health disparities.

This concept will also allow other NIH IC's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs to support entrepreneurs in their products and services to meet their research and health care needs for women experiencing health disparities.

This concept aims to engage small businesses, entrepreneurs, and institutions from diverse backgrounds such as human services, health and clinical research, data and technology, allied health, engineering, science, and business in developing technologies, services, and products for women’s health innovations among populations experiencing health disparities.

This concept will also help bridge gaps in women’s health-related research through specific digital health, devices, product development, and services that can address economic, health care access, workforce, and health literacy and cultural competency barriers. These focused interventions will help reduce racial and ethnic, geographic, disability, and socioeconomic status disparities in women’s health and promote women’s health equity in populations experiencing health disparities. Leveraging the NIMHD and NIH’s SBIR/STTR program will encourage commercialized solutions to develop innovative and culturally responsive solutions to further the understanding of women’s health across the lifespan and address inequities of research, prevention, and treatment in women experiencing health disparities.

Research Areas of Focus:

• Support multidisciplinary research that focuses on evidence-based and patient-centered technology, services, and products for early diagnosis, surveillance, and treatment for addressing women’s unmet health needs, including approaches that address disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity, cervical cancer, and other chronic debilitating diseases in women;
• Develop targeted solutions-based approaches to address the continuum of a woman’s health throughout her life course - Pre-pregnancy, In Utero, Childhood and Adolescence, Adulthood, and Old Age; and
• Utilize implementation science and community-engaged methods to ensure women’s equitable inclusion in research, address women’s health disparities by race and ethnicity and socio-economic status and promote the implementation of evidence-based interventions that improve women’s quality of and access to care and address social determinants of health.

Page published April 18, 2024