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Women's health research covers the gamut of care, across the lifespan. As more Women Veterans enter midlife, they will need access to gender-specific health care like breast cancer screenings and treatment for osteoporosis. (Photo for illustrative purposes only. ©iStock_MonkeyBusinessImages)
November 8, 2024
By Erica Sprey
VA Research Communications
"VA has implemented several new actions in response to the White House Executive Order that will further accelerate its women's health research program."
One year after the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research was first announced, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has delivered on the Initiative’s mission to “pioneer the next generation of discoveries in women’s health.”
In energizing and transforming its approach to women’s health, the VA Office of Research and Development is inspiring scientists to conduct cutting-edge research on Women Veterans’ health throughout their lifespans, involving more Women Veterans in research, and improving collaborations with other federal agencies to further accelerate research, all with the goal of improving the health and wellbeing of Women Veterans.
In November of 2023, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council announced the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. In March 2024, the White House subsequently signed an Executive Order on Advancing Women’s Health Research and Innovation, which directed VA and other federal agencies to advance and integrate women’s health across the federal research portfolio, close research gaps, and make investments to maximize the nation’s ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat health conditions in women.
“VA has been committed to improving the health of Women Veterans through its research program for decades,” said Dr. Amanda Borsky, VA Scientific Program Manager for Women’s Health Research. “Building on this work to ensure Women Veterans have access to the cutting-edge care that they deserve, VA has implemented several new actions in response to the Executive Order that will further accelerate its women’s health research program. These initiatives include implementing research into practice and policy, improving collaboration with other federal agencies, and building synergies surrounding women’s health research.”
More than 2 million Women Veterans live in the United States today. By 2040, their numbers are predicted to grow to nearly 18% of the Veteran population. As a group, they are ethnically and racially diverse, and as they age, they will need specialized health care that differs markedly from that of male Veterans. For example, as more Women Veterans enter midlife, they will need access to gender-specific health care like breast cancer screenings, menopause care, trauma-focused mental health care, and treatment for osteoporosis.
VA has a long history of prioritizing women’s health research. Areas of research that are pertinent to women’s health include: suicide prevention, firearm safety, rural health, sexual and gender health equity, reproductive health, military sexual trauma, military exposures, mental health, post-deployment health, and women’s primary care.
Such research is possible in part through funding from Congress. The total congressional appropriation for VA medical and prosthetic research was $916 million in fiscal year 2023. Approximately $40 million of that amount was used to support VA research on health issues that affect Women Veterans across their lifespan.
VA has also invested in its Women’s Health Research Network (WHRN). Formed in 2010, WHRN is a national initiative to systematically transform VA’s capacity to examine and reduce gender disparities in health care and use research to increase delivery of evidence-based care tailored to Women Veterans. WHRN has helped build VA’s research capacity in the area of women’s health and partners with the VA Office of Women’s Health, frontline staff, and Women Veterans.
“We are making progress in areas of women’s health research that have long been neglected, including women’s midlife health and aging,” said Dr. Elizabeth Yano, director of the WHRN Consortium. “For example, we have now established a Menopause Workgroup through the WHRN and supported early and mid-career researchers in advancing their work. As investigators embedded in the VA health care delivery system, we are highly committed to generating research to improve the health and quality of life of Women Veterans and are thrilled about the new steps we have been able to implement so far.”
VA Research has taken several steps to deliver on the charges outlined in the Executive Order and accelerate progress in women’s health research.
In September 2024, VA Research released the first dedicated Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) on Women’s Health Research. The announcement supports new research focused on women’s health that spans multiple scientific disciplines including biomedical, clinical, rehabilitation, genomic, health systems, and data science. Examples of priority research areas include health care for midlife and older Women Veterans and post-deployment care interventions that account for military experiences and exposures. More than 6,000 VA investigators are eligible to apply to this intramural research opportunity.
This NOSI was made possible in part by forming the VA Women’s Health Research Integration Workgroup (RIG). The overarching goal of the RIG is to facilitate women’s health research across scientific disciplines. Members include scientific administrative staff, field investigators, and clinical and health systems leaders. The RIG aims to bring together stakeholders across VA to identify potential pathways to enhance translation and implementation of evidence-based care for Women Veterans.
In order to conduct research that improves the health and well-being of Women Veterans, it is critical to ensure that women are adequately represented in VA’s research. To this end, VA has expanded the dissemination of existing VA resources—specifically the Women’s Enhancement Recruitment Process (WERP) Toolkit—to provide researchers with tools to improve the representation of women at each stage of their research study.
In addition, VA has improved several research and data standards. For example, there is now an updated “inclusion of women section” in VA’s funding announcements, which encourages applicants to include women in their study populations and consider reporting sex and/or gender differences. In addition, there are now updated criteria for scientific reviewers to consider when reviewing applications.
VA Research has also been able to advocate for Women Veterans’ needs through collaborations with other agencies. One such collaboration is the newly established Department of Defense-VA Women’s Health Research Collaborative. This Collaborative is now a formal sub-workgroup of the VA/DoD Women’s Health Workgroup of the Health Executive Committee Clinical Care Business Line. The Collaborative was charged with exploring opportunities to further advance how women’s health can be improved across the lifespan, from active military duty into civilian status. The new collaborative was featured in a recent event held at the Uniformed Services University to celebrate progress in health care for Women service members and Veterans.
Work has begun to include VA in the National Institutes of Health Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program, which is another example of VA’s commitment to interagency collaborations. Created in 2000, BIRCWH is a mentored career development program designed to connect junior faculty, known as BIRCWH Scholars, to senior faculty with shared interests in women’s health and sex differences research. Planning efforts are underway for including VA investigators in this program to grow the research workforce in women’s health.
VA, including the WHRN, has engaged in many activities to raise awareness about research on Women Veterans’ health issues. First, VA has disseminated research findings through its Cyberseminar series and WHRN research snapshots, which highlight recent high-impact research topics in Women Veterans’ health, such as intimate partner violence.
In addition, VA’s Evidence Synthesis Program has summarized the literature on Women Veterans’ health from 2016-2023 in a publication that will soon be available. These efforts in collaborating and raising awareness across the scientific disciplines have identified critical gaps in research. Identifying knowledge gaps is key to ensuring that future research reflects the most pressing issues in Women Veterans’ health and will focus on improving their health.
“VA is a national leader in women’s health care as a result of evidence-based policies—many of which have resulted from VA women’s health research initiatives that have enhanced our understanding of the unique health care needs of Women Veterans,” said Dr. Sally Haskell, Acting Chief Officer, VA Office of Women’s Health.
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