Trump Signs Women’s Health Initiative With First Lady…
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday establishing a new Women’s Health Division within the National Institutes of Health and a White House task force to address longstanding gaps in medical research affecting women.
First Lady Melania Trump spearheaded the initiative, meeting with physicians and medical experts to push the administration toward addressing understudied women’s health conditions. The executive order creates both the NIH Women’s Health Division and the White House Women’s Health Task Force, which will be co-chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
What the Initiative Includes
The Department of Health and Human Services must establish the new NIH division within 90 days, working alongside the existing Office of Research on Women’s Health rather than replacing it. The division will focus on conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, autoimmune disorders, osteoporosis, endometriosis, maternal health and menopause.
The order calls for increased participation of women in clinical trials and stronger enforcement of requirements that federally funded research account for biological sex differences when appropriate. It also directs the use of artificial intelligence technologies to improve understanding of female biology.