A $6.5 million grant to advance research on women's health has been awarded to the School of Medicine by the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation of West Hartford, Connecticut.
"The Donaghue Foundation's generous grant will enable Yale to enhance its leadership role in women's health significantly," said President Richard C. Levin at a Feb. 5 news conference to announce the gift. "With this grant, we will establish The Ethel F. Donaghue Women's Health Investigator Program at Yale, which will support original and interdisciplinary research projects on women's health. This research will result in practical benefits in health care for women." Joining Levin for the announcement were Raymond S. Andrews Jr. and Sheilah B. Rostow of Fleet Bank, trustees of the Donaghue Foundation, and Dr. David A. Kessler, dean of the medical school.
Carolyn M. Mazure, associate professor in psychiatry and the principal investigator for this grant, pointed out that "improvement in the health of women starts with and depends upon new-found scientific knowledge.
"Historically, women have not been adequately represented in research which would provide new knowledge, in part due to concern about exposing women to experimental risk during childbearing years but also due to the complexities that women subjects can bring to research studies as a function of hormonal changes related to the reproductive life cycle," she explained.
"Ironically, despite the under-representation of women in research studies due to the biological factors that set us apart from men, the assumption frequently was made that the treatments and procedures which were developed for men also would work for women," she added. "We have a growing body of scientific evidence that has caused us to revisit that assumption, and to alert us to the importance of considering the biological and psychosocial effects of gender on health, disease, prevention and treatment outcome."
According to Kessler, the new Donaghue initiative "will build on and expand the medical school's exemplary program in women's health."
The University's program was selected in 1996 as one of six National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health. As such, it serves as a national model for improving the health care of American women. Dr. Janet Henrich, associate professor of medicine and of obstetrics and gynecology, is director of the center, and Mazure is the center's director of research.
The Ethel F. Donaghue Women's Health Investigator Program at Yale will support the investigation of biological and psychosocial effects of gender on all facets of health. It will also help foster interdisciplinary collaborations in basic science and clinical research, innovative new directions in studying women's health, examination of the influence of social class on women's health,and the rapid transfer of scientific findings to the medical community and general public."
"Because the program will encourage research that crosses both disciplines and institutions, physicians, scientists and other health professionals outside the Yale faculty will be invited to collaborate with Yale-affiliated investigators," explains Mazure. Within the next two months, the program will announce an "Request for Applications," which will provide specific directions for all funding applications.
Further information about Yale's women's health program is available on the following website: www.info.med.yale.edu/womenshealth/.