Last Update: 10/20/2006 Printer Friendly Printer Friendly   Email This Page Email This Page  

Women's Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) Career Development Program

WRHR LogoThe WRHR Program was initiated by the NICHD in 1998, through the Reproductive Sciences Branch in response to concerns about the need for greater numbers of obstetrician-gynecologist physician scientists performing research on women's health. The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health and the National Cancer Institute collaborated with NICHD to support this program. Dr. Estella Parrott is the Program Officer. This ongoing initiative addresses a continued need for bridging clinical training with an independent career in research addressing women's health concerns. Program sites provide departments of obstetrics and gynecology an opportunity to build a talented pool of junior investigators in women's health research.

Investigators with established research programs covering a broad range of basic and applied biomedical and biobehavioral science, in obstetrics and gynecology departments and collaborating departments, form an intellectual and technical research base for mentoring WRHR Scholars. The emphasis is on research relevant to obstetrics and gynecology and/or its subspecialties: maternal-fetal medicine, gynecologic oncology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. Related fields such as adolescent gynecology and urogynecology are also included. Mentors with established research programs, together with collaborating departments, form the intellectual and technical base for mentoring junior faculty accepted into the program.

There are 20 active WRHR Centers in departments of obstetrics and gynecology throughout the nation with the primary goal of increasing the research capacity of clinically trained obstetricians and gynecologists. Thus far, 106 Scholars have been appointed to faculty positions. They represent a diverse group of physician scientists from several subspecialty and emerging areas in obstetrics and gynecology. They are pursuing a broad range of basic science, translational and clinical research topics. The NICHD funded 10 new and competing continuation WRHR Program sites in 2004. An additional 10 new and competing continuation Programs were funded in 2005. This program uses the NIH Mentored Research Scientist Development Program Award (K12) mechanism.

For further information on the WRHR Program, please contact Dr. Estella Parrott. You can also visit http://www.wrhrscholars.org/ for more information.