NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH)

ORWH was established in September 1990 in response to congressional, scientific, and advocacy concerns that a lack of systemic and consistent inclusion of women in NIH-supported clinical research could result in clinical decisions being made about health care for women based solely on findings from studies of men-without any evidence that they were applicable to women. ORWH is part of the Office of the Director of NIH, and works in partnership with the 27 NIH Institutes and Centers to ensure that women's health research is part of the scientific framework at the NIH-and throughout the scientific community.

The establishment of the Office heralded earnest efforts by NIH to develop a research agenda addressing gaps in scientific knowledge about women's health across the lifespan and to increase the number of scientists pursuing investigations with a scientific design that would reveal sex/gender differences in outcomes. These aims were articulated in the first ORWH agenda-setting report, Report of the National Institutes of Health: Opportunities for Research on Women's Health (commonly referred to as the Hunt Valley report).

In 1997, ORWH undertook a second systematic program of collaborative planning and convened a series of public hearings and scientific workshops that culminated in the publication of the Agenda for Research on Women's Health for the 21st Century. That agenda expanded the vision for NIH, going "beyond Hunt Valley" to highlight the importance of promoting interdisciplinary, collaborative research; studying and addressing the health differences and needs of all populations of women; and increasing the diversity of the biomedical workforce.