Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Meeting Showcases Progress of Scholars Dedicated to the Health of Women

On November 28, 2018, ORWH hosted the annual meeting of the BIRCWH program, which connects junior faculty (BIRCWH Scholars) to senior faculty mentors with shared research interest in women's health and sex-differences research. BIRCWH has funded 700 Scholars since its inception in 2000 and currently supports 60 Scholars through grants awarded to 20 institutions.

ORWH Director Janine Clayton, M.D., spoke on interdisciplinary team science and introduced the keynote speaker of the Ruth L. Kirschstein Memorial Lecture Series, Jeanne-Marie Guise, M.D., M.P.H. Dr. Guise, the Principal Investigator of a BIRCWH grant awarded to the Oregon Health & Science University, spoke on the value of mentorship in scientific research and stressedmultigenerationalresearch andmultidirectionalmentoring to address the complexity and scope of today’s scientific problems. A panel discussion on NIH’s Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV) policy as well as SABV curriculum development and training followed. Four presentations by BIRCWH Scholars concluded the meeting, and abstracts for these presentations are available in the Journal of Women’s Health(November 2018, Vol 27[11]) .