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Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc., reaffirms its commitments to advancing women’s health research and protecting patient privacy. Hadassah celebrates bipartisan efforts to safeguard and expand funding to help identify and address the unique health challenges faced by women. At the same time, technological innovation poses great opportunities as well as new risks for women’s health. Hadassah believes it is critical to ensure the safety and confidentiality of women’s health data, including information about reproductive and sexual health.
Historically, women’s health has been under-researched, which has led to devastating gaps in women’s healthcare and negative patient outcomes. Women are still underrepresented in clinical trials, while research focused on conditions unique to or predominant in women remains underfunded. Hadassah believes the US must continue to expand research and care for women’s health through investments, research, inclusive clinical trials, inclusive drug trials, education and tailored care models.
New technologies open the door for patients and providers to monitor symptoms, track and assess clinical and personal medical data and personalize treatments in countless new ways. Precision medicine, artificial intelligence tools and adoption of digital health platforms can expand access to lifesaving treatments, while also amplifying data security concerns. Many health apps collect highly sensitive personal data and activity metrics that they share with third parties for advertising and other purposes, often without transparency. With widely varied reproductive health laws across states, the misuse or exposure of reproductive and sexual health data could have serious, even life-altering consequences for users.
As an organization committed to advancing women’s health, Hadassah is deeply concerned that gaps in women’s health research and weaknesses in digital data protections threaten the health, safety and autonomy of women nationwide.
Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, strongly urges:
- US policymakers to expand federal investments in women’s health research and dedicate funding to study conditions that disproportionately or differentially affect women.
- Federal agencies and research institutions to strengthen requirements for balanced representation of women in clinical trials, ensuring that sex-based differences are studied, understood and incorporated into standards of care.
- State and federal policymakers to enact comprehensive digital privacy protections for health data, including reproductive and sexual patient health information, and enhanced data security and maintenance protocols around the collection, storage and sharing of sensitive health information.