President Trump has issued an executive order creating a new division within the National Institutes of Health and establishing a corresponding White House task force focused on women’s health initiatives. The announcement was made Monday by first lady Melania Trump, who stated the effort aims to advance research into diseases that have been understudied in women, improve diagnostic innovation, and enhance treatment standards.
The new NIH division is to be established within 90 days and will work alongside the existing Office of Research on Women’s Health to expand and coordinate research on understudied women’s health conditions across all life stages, improve diagnosis and treatment options, strengthen the inclusion of women and girls in clinical trials, and increase accountability for considering sex as a biological variable in federally funded research. The Department of Health and Human Services will cover the administrative costs associated with the task force, though specific funding details for the new division have not been disclosed.
The White House task force will be led by chief of staff Susie Wiles, with membership including several cabinet officials and health agency leaders. The task force held its initial session Monday. According to medical research literature, women historically have faced significant gaps in health research and care, including higher rates of misdiagnosed heart conditions and adverse drug reactions compared to men, as well as less effective treatment protocols for chronic pain conditions.
The initiative comes amid heightened scrutiny surrounding federal funding for scientific research broadly, with recent discussions about the adequacy of investment in women’s health. An emergency medicine physician at Yale noted in published commentary that reframing women’s health through evidence-based frameworks could address a healthcare system built on incomplete science. The effort represents an attempt to address what researchers have characterized as chronic underinvestment in understanding health conditions that disproportionately affect women.
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