Women’s health is tied directly to the health and wealth of our country, our workforce, and our economy. During Women’s Health Week 2022, Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM) Founder and CEO Carolee Lee says we must make women’s health research funding matter more!
Research Should be Top of Women’s Health Week Agenda
This Women’s Health Week, May 8th-May 15th I am asking: How is it possible that the percent of research funding focused specifically on women’s health is in the low single digits when women comprise over half our population?
Women are over 50% of the population, nearly half the workforce. They are the drivers of our economy controlling 60% of personal wealth and 85% of consumer spending decisions. Yet women are disproportionately impacted by deadly diseases, and research about their health is still just a small share of funding.
For example, heart disease is the number one killer of women, and yet just 4.5% of research focuses specifically on women.
Better science for women’s health, means a better long term investment
Without comprehensive knowledge of how to diagnose and treat women’s health, we will continue to suffer economic hits. We urgently need to accelerate funding for women’s health research. The WHAM Report shows that women’s health is not just good science, it’s a better investment.
Doubling the current research focused on women in just three disease areas, adding $300 million, will yield over $13 billion in economic returns. Attained through greater quality of life, economic gains, and reduced healthcare costs. In order to truly celebrate women’s health, we must first invest in it.
Focus on the economic issue we can’t afford to ignore
So this Women’s Health Week let’s consider the bottom line. If we invest $300 million in women’s health research across just three diseases, we will get $13 billion in returns to our economy.
About the author Carolee Lee
AccessCircles was founded in 2007 by Carolee Lee, the former CEO and founder of Carolee Designs, one of the world’s leading accessories brands. After the sale of her business in 2001, Carolee focused her passion and energy on women’s health and life planning with a vision to create AccessCircles. This is a global by-invitation network for women providing connectivity, knowledge and access to thought leaders, resources and experiences that transform our lives. AccessCircles is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of women. In July, 2018, Carolee launched WHAM (Women’s Health Access Matters) as a donor-funded, non-profit, dedicated to improving and elevating women’s health to 21st century standards by applying precision medicine in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and outcomes.
By transforming their medical care through the discovery, dissemination, and integration of sex and gender-based differences and the application of this knowledge to the delivery of care. The focus is on building awareness of Gender Precision Medicine to impact issues related to women’s health and gender biology and for advocating for changes in public policy to improve the health of women by advancing the new field of Gender Precision Medicine.