Hudson News Winter 2024: Director’s message

Advancing women’s health

Every day we are reminded that women’s health conditions don’t receive the funding or priority in medical research that they should. Women are more likely to die from a heart attack, twice as likely to have a hip replacement fail (prosthetic hips have been developed for the male body), more likely to be over medicated (women are frequently excluded from clinical trials) and less likely to have their pain taken seriously.

For example, endometriosis is a common inflammatory condition affecting the lives of 1 in 7 women, yet the cause is unknown and there is no cure for this debilitating condition.

Hudson Institute researchers are fighting to increase awareness to address the unmet medical needs of health conditions affecting women, but these are often conditions no-one talks about, which makes it difficult to attract funding.

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a prominent example. You probably know at least one person who lives with POP, but you have probably never heard it discussed.

Conditions like POP, which affects up to 40 per cent of all women who have experienced childbirth, can lead to debilitating, lifelong symptoms. We desperately need more attention and more funds in order for medical researchers to produce effective treatments and interventions for POP.

We know that every dollar invested in women’s health research is repaid many times over in reduced healthcare costs, increased productivity and improved quality of life. Unfortunately, these benefits don’t always translate into funding when it comes time for research grants to be allocated.

Exploring every avenue

That is why it is so important for us to explore every possible avenue for research funding and why every dollar you commit to our work makes such an important difference.

We are seeing the benefits of those funds, not only in our work on endometriosis, but also in ovarian cancer, where Hudson Institute-developed technology is now being used to create the next generation of diagnostic tests.

We all know that high-quality research requires significant funding, and it takes years to bring an idea from the lab into the clinic.

At Hudson Institute, we continue to strive for something better for women and their health conditions. We have a long way to go, but two things are certain: we will continue to strive to overcome these challenges and your help will make a major difference to achieving these goals.

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Thank you for your support.

Professor Elizabeth Hartland
Director and CEO