Picture this: Your doctor prescribes you a medication, but they can’t tell you exactly how it might affect you because the drug was never properly tested on people like you. This isn’t a hypothetical scenario — it’s the reality many Americans, particularly women, have faced for decades. And recent changes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) threaten to turn back the clock on the progress we’ve made in medical research.
Last week, the NIH’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was placed on leave. As a physician, I’ve witnessed firsthand how this department’s work has been instrumental in transforming medical research and patient care. When we talk about DEI efforts in healthcare, we’re talking about the work required to know whether a medication will work for you, whether a treatment plan is based on research that includes people like you, and ultimately, whether you’ll receive the most effective care possible.
The implications of this government change will affect every American’s healthcare, whether they realize it or not.
Consider this startling fact: Before 1993, women were largely excluded from clinical trials. This means most medications developed before then were tested primarily on men despite fundamental biological differences between the sexes. The consequences? Women have historically experienced nearly twice the rate of adverse drug reactions compared to men. Perhaps even more concerning is how conditions that exclusively affect women have been historically understudied. Take menopause — a medical transition affecting a woman’s life that affects half the population. Despite impacting millions of women’s quality of life, careers, and overall health, menopause remained severely understudied until recent years. Only through sustained advocacy and research initiatives has this vital women’s health issue finally received the attention it deserves.
The pattern of overlooking women’s health needs isn’t isolated. A recent study from UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago found concerning gender gaps in drug dosages for 86 FDA-approved medications. A great example is sleep medication, such as zolpidem, also known as the trade name Ambien. Women metabolize this drug differently than men, leading to higher blood concentrations and longer elimination times. It wasn’t until women started experiencing serious side effects, including increased traffic accidents the morning after taking the medication, that the FDA finally mandated different dosing guidelines for women.
The NIH’s DEI division has been instrumental in addressing these disparities, ensuring that clinical trials include diverse populations in order to learn more about how genetic disorders affect different genders. Their work isn’t about politics. It is about understanding how diseases and treatments impact different populations and producing medical research that serves all Americans effectively and safely. It involves researching the differences between gender, genetics, and environmental conditions that can impact your overall health and the probability of developing a disease. As a medical professional, I’ve seen how inclusive research practices have led to breakthrough discoveries about how diseases manifest differently between men and women and how gender can impact how one responds to treatment. This knowledge hasn’t just improved medical care — it has saved lives.
The current changes at the NIH represent more than a policy shift; they pose a fundamental challenge to the quality and effectiveness of American healthcare. Without dedicated oversight ensuring diverse representation in clinical trials, we risk returning to an era when medical research failed to recognize and study conditions like menopause.
The path forward requires us to recognize that inclusive medical research isn’t optional — it’s essential for advancing healthcare for everyone. As these changes unfold, Americans need to understand what’s at stake: their health, their families’ health, and their children’s health. Science and medicine take time. In fact, it takes about 17 years for scientific evidence to make it into your doctor’s office and impact the care you receive.
Our health shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Whether you’re a man or woman, young or old, from any background, ethnicity, or community, you deserve to have medical treatments that have been properly studied. The NIH’s DEI division has been instrumental in making this a reality. Its absence threatens to undermine decades of medical research and patient care progress.
The question we must ask ourselves isn’t whether DEI belongs in healthcare — it’s whether our health should take a step back into the past of studying males only and forgo all of the progress we have made to advance women’s health. The answer, I believe, is clear.
