First Lady Jill Biden Tours Cedars-Sinai Women’s Health Research Labs, Training Center
Visit Underscores White House, Cedars-Sinai Commitment to Improving Women’s Health Research
First Lady Jill Biden highlighted the new White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research during a visit to Cedars-Sinai on Friday as she toured research labs and met with scientists.
Biden visited Cedars-Sinai because of the organization’s longstanding commitment to research and clinical care aimed at improving women’s health. While women comprise half the world’s population, most medical research has focused on men, leaving women-focused research underfunded.
“Today, we heard about the amazing progress that can happen when we focus on women. And you told me that in some ways, the work has only just begun,” First Lady Jill Biden said during her visit. “That’s why we have to start now – because women deserve better, today. And through this new White House initiative, we will help women’s health research catch up to where it should have been all along. We will write new stories about women’s healthcare.”
Cedars-Sinai President and CEO Thomas M. Priselac welcomed Biden and guests, including U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu and wife Betty Lieu, and journalist Maria Shriver.
“When President Biden announced that you and the White House Gender Policy Council would lead the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, a very loud cheer came from our Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center, our Center for Research on Women’s Health Sciences, our Smidt Heart Institute and so many others throughout Cedars-Sinai who know that biomedical research can change the world—when the right forces align,” Priselac said.
The Women’s Guild Simulation Center for Advanced Clinical Skills was the first stop on Biden’s tour. The facility uses the latest healthcare technology and robotic surgical tools—including lifelike mannequins—to train physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals and to improve healthcare outcomes and patient safety.
Biden also visited the Van Eyk Laboratory in the Smidt Heart Institute. Its director, Jennifer Van Eyk, PhD, is an expert in proteomics, the study of proteins, and her work focuses on understanding how protein alterations are different in women with heart disease than men with heart disease.
Biden was joined on the tour by C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center in the Smidt Heart Institute. The women’s heart program is playing a leading role in identifying female-pattern heart disease, developing new diagnostic tools and advancing specialized care for women. Bairey Merz' research has deepened the understanding that a second “X” chromosome influences heart disease. This knowledge informs more tailored treatments for women who are at risk of cardiac conditions.
Bairey Merz also co-leads Cedars-Sinai’s Center for Research in Women’s Health Science, which seeks to understand how diseases affect women differently than men. The center’s goal is to increase health equity by conducting research on a range of conditions affecting women, including autoimmune diseases, cancer, cardiovascular health, maternal-fetal medicine, neurology, OB-GYN and reproductive health, and orthopedics.
“We recognize the tremendous honor it is to have Dr. Biden highlight her women’s health initiative at Cedars-Sinai,” Bairey Merz said. “Our institution has spent decades studying how women are affected by various diseases and conditions, and we are eager to see such a vested interested in this work from the White House.”
Read more in Discoveries Magazine: Research Highlights Sex-Related Health Differences