Phyllis Greenberger
February 21st, 2008
The Society for Women’s Health Research was established in 1990 to address the inequities in women’s health that we felt emanated from the fact that women were not traditionally included in medical research. And we were the first to ask the question: if most research was being done on young, healthy, white men, how do we know that the results of it would be relevant to women? We knew that there were differences in prevalence of certain diseases, we knew there were differences in the number of people affected, and in some cases the symptoms, but nobody had ever looked at it and asked why.
I think the Society’s work has brought attention to the fact that children are different, that there are ethnic differences, that elderly people are different. It is no longer one size fits all. It’s not that far back in 1990 when really, everyone was treated the same. The more we understand about the mechanisms of diseases, the more we can treat both sexes, and ethnic minorities more appropriately. For more information, visit: http://www.womenshealthresearch.org/site/PageServer. Phyllis Greenberger is the President & CEO for the Society for Women’s Health Research.
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