Abstract. Although women's health research expanded greatly in the past 10 years, significant gaps in knowledge remain. Prioritization and promotion of research will help assure continuing progress in closing such gaps and improving the health of women. Although a comprehen-sive agenda for the new millennium has been developed at the national level, the process for establishing a local research agenda is not well defined. The purpose of this study was to de-scribe criteria for and barriers to establishing a local research agenda in women's health. A secondary aim was to describe mechanisms for identifying women's health researchers and for facilitating multidisciplinary research. Directors of Research at National Centers of Ex-cellence in Women's Health (CoEs) (n 5 18) were surveyed by mail for this information. The results indicate that the local research agenda should emphasize health issues that are preva-lent in women, research that is likely to establish treatment, psychosocial/cultural factors, and quality of life issues. The process of setting a research agenda should include input from the communities served as well as from scientists. Critical evaluation of scientific strengths and weaknesses is an essential preliminary step in prioritizing research opportunities in order to implement and evaluate a research agenda in women's health.

Reprinted with permission from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (Journal of Women's Health and Gender-Based Medicine, 2001 Vol 10 No 10, pp 927-935.) Single copies of this article may be downloaded for personal research and study.

Current as of May 2004