WHAM was created in response to the considerable funding gap, historical exclusion, and underrepresentation of women in health research.
Women have been an understudied species since 1993. Many inequities and biases still exist. While some progress has been made since 1993, when the National Institutes of Health mandated that women and minorities be included in any government-funded health research, there’s still a long way to go. And it wasn’t until 2016 that female mice were mandated by NIH to be included in clinical research.
How is it possible that 52% of the population has been left so far behind in medical research?
In 2018, WHAM was founded by Carolee Lee, who convened a group of businesswomen motivated to create an innovative dialogue and establish data that could impact this situation. And how could we continue to make decisions based on information that excludes half of our workforce, 2/3 of our wealth holders, nearly all of our spenders, and those who make majority of healthcare decisions?
It became apparent to us that we lacked evidence; we lacked data about the economic costs, benefits, and social impacts of attention to sex and gender in health research. And in our experience, change starts with data. In order to create change, we commissioned the RAND Corporation in January 2020 to begin a rigorous, focused study to quantify the costs and socio-economic benefits of increased research funding focused on women.
WHAM, Women’s Health Access Matters, was registered as a 501c3 in January 2021 to catalyze accelerated research and investment in women’s health research.
WHAM is committed to making an impact in diseases and conditions that exclusively, differently, or disproportionately affect women across our four primary disease verticals:
Autoimmune Disease
Brain Health
Cancer
Heart Health
WHAM is bringing new awareness, voices, resources, and partners to drive change by working with leading, economists, scientists, research institutions, business leaders, and public health experts.
The lives of women and men will vastly improve through research that is equally inclusive of women and men in trials – and female and male animals in preliminary research. By conducting research in parity and reporting gender outcomes separately, health breakthroughs will be accelerated, and health outcomes around the world improved.
As women benefit from this research and reduce their burden of disease, they will improve their own wellbeing, which is directly connected to the wellbeing of our economy.
Join the Community
Join us on twitter: @WHAMnow
Our new website is live! Check it out: http://www.whamnow.org
You’ll find new resources, up-to-date news, and ways to get involved in our work to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases and conditions that exclusively or disproportionately affect women.
Did you know cardiovascular disease kills 1 in 3 women per year, but only 38% of participants in clinical cardiovascular trials are women? Heart disease can affect women at any age, so it is vital to prioritize women in health research! #WomensHealth https://thewhamreport.org/report/heart/
🚨Our new website is live! Join WHAM as we take action to advance women’s health research in our focus areas:
- Autoimmune disease
- Brain Health
- Hearth Health
- Cancer
Discover how you can help advance women’s health research today. Visit: https://whamnow.org/
Welcome to the newest members of The WHAM Collaborative! These leaders are making huge strides to advance women’s health research. We’re excited to see the Collaborative grow as we pursue our mission to advance women’s health everywhere. https://whamnow.org/news/ten-leading-medical-experts-and-scientists-join-wham-collaborative-to-advance-womens-health-research/
A new study shows that female scientists aren’t getting the credit they deserve, significantly impacting their careers – they are “13 percent less likely to be named as authors on articles and 58 percent less likely to be named on patents [than men].”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/22/women-scientists-authorship-credit-study/
“The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in women to men is 3 to 1. For lupus it’s 10 to 1.” Post-Roe, women with autoimmune diseases are being denied methotrexate, the ‘gold standard' treatment for many debilitating conditions.https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-11/post-roe-many-autoimmune-patients-lose-access-to-gold-standard-drug
Women make up 57% of the workforce and make 83% of spending decisions—yet despite our economic significance, women still aren’t represented at the level necessary to make a critical difference in medical research and outcomes.
https://insights.northerntrust.com/story/elevating-women-magazine-women-and-wellness/page/4/1
Happening today! Tune in at 9am PT/12pm ET for a conversation with our CEO @Caroleewham on innovations and opportunities for women’s health at the FemAging Era Exchange. Don’t miss it: https://www.femaging.com/femagingera/
#femaging #femtech
“To ensure that results of clinical research benefits all the individuals affected by a disease, clinical trial populations should align more closely with the demographics of the population affected by disease,” says @BrighamConnors Dr. Primavera Spangolo.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-06-23/women-still-underrepresented-in-many-clinical-trials
This Thursday, July 21 at 9am PT/12pm ET join the virtual conversation with our founder and CEO @caroleewham during the FemAging Era Exchange! Register now: https://www.femaging.com/femagingera/
#femaging #femtech
Have you designed a product or service focused on women’s health beyond fertility? Apply by July 21 for the Fast Pitch competition to win $10,000 cash to fund your innovation.
Apply here: https://www.femaging.com/femagingera/
#FemTech
"It's a female-specific finding -- perhaps one of the strongest associations of a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's in women.” New sex-specific research gives us clues why more women than men are diagnosed with the disease. Sex-based research matters!
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/30/health/female-alzheimer-gene-discovered-wellness-scn/index.html
Did you know heart disease is the #1 killer of women? Yet, only 1 in 3 clinical trial participants are female.
Excluding women in health research is fatal. At WHAM, we’re sounding the alarm to prioritize women’s health research. Sign up for updates: https://thewhamreport.org/#signup
Like almost every disease, opioid use can present differently depending on sex and gender. We have to tailor our care to effectively and accurately treat all patients. Thank you WHAM Collaborative member @mcgregormd for this important research!
#sexandgenderlens is crucial for effective patient care @laurenwalter @SAEMonline @AcademicEmerMed #oud
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aet2.10756
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