Improving the health of women
Mayo Clinic Women's Health Research Center is a leader in providing the evidence to improve health care for women, and in educating the next generation of investigators and health care providers in topics of women's health.
Overview
The mission of the Mayo Clinic Women's Health Research Center is to advance scientific discoveries to improve the health of women through all life stages.
The Women's Health Research Center is creating a new era in women's health. The female body isn't simply a smaller version of the male form. Women and men have different chromosomes and hormones. Thus, risk of some diseases, their diagnoses and responses to treatments — including response to some medications — differ between women and men.
Yet, current medical treatments are often based on research that was conducted mainly on men or that, when women were included, did not account for differences between women and men.
Change is needed and is on the way!
Mayo Clinic is transforming women's health by advancing research and studies specifically focused on the female body through all stages of life — and we are seeing exciting results.
Investigators in the Women's Health Research Center are studying why certain illnesses occur only in women, manifest differently in women compared with men or are more prevalent in women compared with men. Armed with this information, physicians can better prevent, diagnose and treat some of today's most debilitating diseases.
For 150 years, Mayo Clinic has spearheaded research that has changed the face of medicine, enabling physicians around the world to provide lifesaving care to millions of people. Now, Mayo is advancing research focused on women's health so that medical care can be personalized for women and men.
Right now, there are more than 1,400 research studies related to women's health across Mayo Clinic campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. Mayo researchers are dedicated to tackling the health issues that continually plague women to improve their health and quality of life.
Mayo Clinic Women's Health Research Center
The current Mayo Clinic Women's Health Research Center Director Kejal Kantarci, M.D., and former director, Virginia Miller, Ph.D., and her colleagues discuss how Women's Health Research Center projects investigate diverse areas of sex-differentiated conditions with the aim of translating findings into improved diagnosis and treatment.
Center leadership
- Kejal Kantarci, M.D., is the director of the Mayo Clinic Women's Health Research Center and a professor of radiology.
- Chrisandra L. Shufelt, M.D., the center's associate director, is a professor of medicine as well as the chair of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida.