[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 26 (Tuesday, February 10, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6647-6648]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-2760]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Office of Research on Women's Health; Notice of Meeting; Moving 
Into the Future--New Dimensions and Strategies for Women's Health 
Research for the National Institutes of Health

    Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research on Women's 
Health (ORWH), Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, 
Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the 
Center for Women's Infectious Disease Research, Washington University 
School of Medicine, will convene a public hearing and scientific 
workshop on March 4-6, 2009, at Washington University, Edward P. Newman 
Education Center, St. Louis, Missouri.

Purpose of the Meeting

    With rapid advances in science and wider global understanding of 
women's health and sex/gender contributions to well-being and disease, 
the purpose of the meeting is to ensure that NIH continues to support 
cutting edge women's health research that is based upon the most 
advanced techniques and methodologies. The conference format will 
promote an interactive discussion involving leading scientists, 
advocacy groups, public policy experts, health care providers, and the 
general public. The St. Louis conference is the first in a series that 
will be convened throughout the Nation to assist the ORWH and the NIH 
to move into the next decade of women's health research.
    As science and technology advance and fields such as computational 
biology demonstrate the power of interdisciplinary research, it remains 
critical for sex and gender factors to be integrated into broad 
experimental methodologies and scientific approaches, such as genomics 
and the Human Microbiome Project, to maximize the value of these 
comprehensive and powerful approaches. Biomedical and behavioral 
research are also necessary to understand how cultural, ethnic, and 
racial differences influence the cause, diagnosis, progression, 
treatment, and outcome of disease among different populations, 
including women of diverse geographic locations and socioeconomic 
backgrounds. Furthermore, health disparities among diverse populations 
of women remain a critical area in need of continued focus and 
attention.
    The ORWH challenges all conference attendees to assist it and the 
NIH in defining the women's health research agenda of the future and to 
think beyond traditional women's health issues. The attendees need to 
identify creative strategies that are best poised for advancement, 
address innovative ways to approach persistent issues of health and 
disease, and explore new scientific concepts and investigative 
approaches. The attendees need to pay attention to new areas of science 
application, new technologies, or continuing basic science 
investigations. The attendees should also consider clinical questions 
that are not currently the focus of research priorities to ensure that 
women's health research is optimally served and that the ORWH can 
continue to provide leadership for the benefit of women's health, 
nationally and internationally.

Conference Format

    The Conference will consist of public testimony followed by 
scientific panels and six concurrent workshops. Specifically, on March 
4, individuals representing the full spectrum of organizations 
interested in biomedical and behavioral research on women's health 
issues will have an opportunity to provide public testimony from 2-6 
p.m. On March 5, the intersection of health care, public policy, and 
biomedical research will be addressed in a keynote speech designed to 
stimulate discussion by subsequent panels. The panels will focus on 
emerging issues and trends in health care that will be facing the 
Nation and on research paradigms of the future. The six concurrent 
afternoon sessions will focus on a range of research areas, including 
metagenomics/microbiome, chronic pain, urogenital disorders, the brain 
and neuropsychiatric disorders, urogenital infection, and obesity and 
eating disorders. On March 6, the morning session will be devoted to 
reports from the workshop co-chairs on the deliberations of the 
workshops.
    Throughout the sessions, conference attendees will be encouraged to 
assist the ORWH and NIH in shaping the future of women's health 
research and, by extension, informing health care policy. The 
conference will adjourn at 1 p.m. on March 6.

Public Testimony

    The ORWH invites individuals representing organizations with an 
interest in research areas related to women's health to provide written 
and oral testimony on these topics and/or on issues related to women in 
biomedical careers. Due to time constraints, only one representative 
from an organization or professional specialty group will present oral 
testimony, with presentations limited to 5-7 minutes. Similarly, 
individuals not representing an organized entity but a personal point 
of view will have the same time constraint. A letter of intent to 
present such testimony should be sent electronically to http://www.orwhmeetings.com/newdirections/ or by mail to Ms. Jory Barone, 
Educational Services, Inc., 4350 East-West Highway, Suite 1100, 
Bethesda, MD 20814, dc.com">joryb@esi-dc.com. The date of receipt of the 
communication will establish the order of presentations at the March 
meeting.
    Testimony should include a brief description of the organization; 
is limited to no more than 10 pages, double spaced, 12 point font size; 
and should be forwarded to the Web site listed above no later than 
February 20, 2009.
    Individuals and organizations wishing to provide written statements 
only should send two (2) copies of their statements, electronically or 
by mail, to the above Web site or address by February 20, 2009. All 
written testimony will be made available to the conferees prior to the 
March 4 meeting date. Logistics questions related to the March 
conference should be addressed to Ms. Jory Barone at ESI, while 
program-specific questions should be addressed to Dr. Jennifer Stine 
Elam at Washington University, 314-747-0729, [email protected].
    This conference is the first of four regional public hearings and 
scientific

[[Page 6648]]

workshops of similar design to be convened by the ORWH. At the 
conclusion of the regional conferences, the ORWH will hold a meeting at 
the NIH to develop a summation of the deliberations from the regional 
conferences. The resulting report to the ORWH and the NIH will ensure 
that women's health research will incorporate vigorous new ideas and 
approaches in the next decade.

    Dated: February 3, 2009.
Raynard S. Kington,
Acting Director, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. E9-2760 Filed 2-9-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P