NIH push for women's health

Article Abstract:

The recently created Office of Research on Women's Health, headed by Bernadine Healy of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is promoting a major effort to expand research on women's health. One major project, the largest epidemiological analysis ever in the US, will be a 10-year-long study of between 60,000 and 70,000 postmenopausal women who are at risk for heart attack, cancer, or disability. The effects of diet, hormone-replacement therapy, calcium and vitamin D supplements, and exercise will be evaluated. The Office of Research on Women's Health was created in response to pressure from the Women's Health Caucus of the Congress. An underlying assumption of the focus on women's health is that findings that are relevant to men's health cannot necessarily be generalized to women. Ethnic differences between groups of women are to be recognized as important in health issues. Although a greater proportion of funding in 1987 by NIH went for research on problems unique to women (13.5 percent) than to men (less than 7 percent), research on some important diseases has excluded women. For instance, heart disease kills more than 750,000 people annually, of whom almost half are women, but most major clinical trials of drugs to prevent heart attack are carried out with men. Recent studies in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that heart disease in women is treated less aggressively than in men. Sex differences are also to be considered when researchers apply for funding, via a clause in clinical trials applications that mandates inclusion of an adequate number of women unless a reason for their exclusion can be given. A recent NIH workshop to develop specific research plans for the next decade put together a list of needs, but no concrete projects. The needs were wide-ranging and included every stage of female development from birth to death. Emphasis was placed on research aimed at behavior modification to prevent disease. A focus on behavior, rather than medicine, would reflect a change in the approach taken traditionally by NIH. However, what is still needed is innovation scientific research. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Planning, Political aspects, United States. National Institutes of Health, Women's health services

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Optimistic, independent, aggressive: Texas shoots for the top in science

Article Abstract:

Texas's research institutions want to make their state the major center of scientific activity in the US. Statistics indicate that such institutions as the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and others have succeeded in expanding the scope of research in Texas. For instance, the percentage of US scientific papers published in Texas increased from 5.6 to 6.3% since 1981. Such figures attest to the state's emergence from the scientific backwardness of 50 years ago. Biotechnology is likely to be a main focus of Texas research in the years to come.

Research institutes

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San Antonio fills research park by making offers that scientists cannot refuse

Article Abstract:

The establishment of the Institute of Biotechnology outside San Antonio, TX, reflects a widespread conviction that biotechnology is indispensable to a prosperous future. The city built the research park on 1,500 acres of donated land with the aid of financial support from various parties including $15 million from Ross Perot. Perot was also instrumental in attracting top-notch scientists to work at the park including molecular biologist Wen-Hwa Lee from the University of California.

San Antonio, Texas, Biotechnology laboratories, Research parks

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