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Sue W. Goldstein, The NIH and Beyond—Turning Baby Steps Into Giant Steps, The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Volume 6, Issue 9, September 2009, Pages 2345–2348, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2008.01440.x
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Extract
I recently had the privilege of representing the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH) at a town meeting sponsored by the Office of Research on Women’s Health (OWRH). This was the second of four public hearings and scientific workshops to update the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Women’s Health Research Agenda for the coming decade. One of the symposia was on community-based participatory research (CBPR), and at the end of the conference, I realized that the entire process of the town meeting was an example of CBPR. I had the chance to listen to others, make myself heard, and contribute to the final product presented to the NIH. The whole experience was inspirational and rewarding, particularly because it was one more step in our long journey for recognition of sexual medicine.
Let me take a step backwards to explain… . Almost 20 years ago, the NIH, the funding body for much of the research performed either in the United States or by American researchers, recognized both the inadequacy of research in women’s health and the paucity of women researchers. The OWRH was founded within the office of the director of the NIH. The mandate was both to work with the various institutes to ensure that women were not an underrepresented population group within any given area of research, and to fund grants promoting research by women. Toward the close of the 20th century, a document was developed that was meant to provide direction for research for the new millennium, but as we near the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it has become clear that the guidance document is already defunct. So, the ORWH is developing a new guidance document designed for the next decade to be published next year. To assess the needs and interests of the community (scientists, professional organizations, patient advocacy groups, and the general population), a series of town meetings have been organized across the country. I was honored to represent ISSWSH on May 27–29, 2009 in San Francisco.
