Women's Health Research Gains Ground, But Gaps Remain

To ensure that messages are clearly conveyed—and understood by the public—the committee recommended that the Department of Health and Human Services appoint a task force to develop strategies to better communicate research-based health messages to women. These messages should: reach a diverse audience of women; increase awareness of women's health issues and treatments, including preventive and intervention strategies; and decrease confusion regarding complex and sometimes conflicting findings, the committee said.

The committee also suggested calling for all federally funded studies to develop and include a plan for disseminating findings to the public, providers, and policymakers, and establishing a national media advisory panel to explain the research findings to a variety of audiences.