Using women's health research to develop women leaders in academic health sciences: The National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health

While the number of women entering U.S. medical schools has risen substanti ally in the past 25 years, the number of women in leadership positions in a cademic medicine is disproportionately small. The traditional pathway to ac ademic leadership is through research. Women's health research is an ideal venue to fill the pipeline with talented women physicians and scientists wh o may become academic leaders in positions where they can promote positive change in women's health as well as mentor other women. The Office on Women 's Health (OWH) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has con tracted with 18 academic medical centers to develop National Centers of Exc ellence in Women's Health. Emphasizing the integral link between women's he alth and women leaders, each of the Centers of Excellence must develop a le adership plan for women in academic medicine as part of the contract requir ements. This paper describes the training programs in women's health resear ch that have developed at five of the academic medical centers: the Univers ity of Wisconsin, Magee Women's Hospital, the University of Maryland, Medic al College of Pennsylvania Hahnemann University, and the University of Illi nois at Chicago. We discuss some of the challenges faced for both initiatio n and future viability of these programs as well as criteria by which these programs will be evaluated for success.