First lady Melania Trump set five goals for women's health on Oct. 19 as President Donald Trump signed an order to create a division at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), emphasizing affordability and artificial intelligence.
At the White House signing, she called for new treatments to be developed faster and for medical advances to be affordable for women. She also urged the use of artificial intelligence to speed discoveries, the direction of research funding toward cures for conditions that disproportionately affect women, and more open discussion of women's health.
The president credited the first lady with proposing the NIH division. The order also establishes a White House Women's Health Task Force. White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said the task force would address research gaps and strengthen care for women at different stages of life.
The new division is to coordinate with NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health, established in 1990. The order also revokes a 2023 presidential memorandum creating a White House women's health research initiative and a 2024 order that asked agencies to consider stronger research standards and grant priorities.
CBS reported that the amount of funding for research, new therapeutics and affordability measures was not yet clear.
Within 90 days of Oct. 19, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must establish the division under the president's order creating the NIH unit.
