Promoting XXcellence in Women’s Health: Optimal Management of Women and Girls with Bleeding Disorders and Blood Disorders
By Kerry Funkhouser, Executive Director, Foundation for Women and Girls with Blood Disorders

The Foundation for Women and Girls with Blood Disorders (FWGBD) has announced the call for applications for its 2019 Promoting XXcellence in Women’s Health: Optimal Management of Women and Girls with Blood Disorders and Bleeding Disorders research fellowship awards.

The overarching purpose of these awards is twofold: to assist new faculty or fellows in conducting research in hematology and/or in obstetrics/gynecology in the area of bleeding and other blood disorders affecting women and girls, and to further and sustain their research interest in improving the lives of these women and girls.

The specific objectives of the FWGBD Research Awards are to:

• Create and sustain interest/knowledge of the next-generation of healthcare providers, i.e., physician-researchers working in bleeding and other blood disorders affecting women/girls,
• Foster collaboration between two core disciplines for WGBD—the Obstetrician/Gynecologist and the Hematologist, and
• Provide an opportunity for junior faculty or fellows to conduct research in this important area

Since 2016, the program has awarded $160,000 to six recipients. Selected through a rigorous application process, past recipients have participated in research in the following areas: monitoring of reduction of hemoglobin during the menstrual cycle in symptomatic Hemophilia A or B carriers; coagulating disorders in menstruating adolescent females; vaso-occlusive pain associated with menstruation in women with sickle cell disease; and women with antiphospholipid syndrome.

The 2018 award winners and their research projects were:
Special Award Focus Area: Bleeding Disorders Affecting Women and Girls ($35,000) – This Award was made possible through a medical education grant from Shire.

Julia Coleman, MD, Trauma Research Fellow at the University of Colorado in Denver
Project Title: Sex Dimorphisms in Trauma-Induced Coagulopathy: A Mechanistic Exploration of a Sex-Specific Survival Benefit

Award Focus Area: Blood Disorders – all Blood Disorders ($15,000, FWGBD)

Tazim Dowlut-McElory, MD, MS
Project Title: Use of Levonorgestrel-Releasing Intrauterine Device for the Treatment of Heavy Menstrual Bleeding in Adolescents with Bleeding Disorders

Additional information on these awards and the recipients is located on FWGBD’s website at http://www.fwgbd.org/about/research-fellowship-awards

To apply for a research award, eligible applicants must:

• Submit a complete application (see criteria and application online, fwgbd.org)
• Be an MD or DO who is an early-stage investigator, or a current fellow in Hematology or Obstetrics/Gynecology
• Have a research mentor who is senior faculty at the applicant’s home institution for the duration of the award
• Demonstrate active, working collaboration with a peer in the related discipline—Obstetrics/Gynecology for the Hematology applicant and Hematology for the Obstetrics/Gynecology applicant
• Have an approved or pending IRB approval at the time of grant application submission

In 2019, three awards will be given – two with a special focus on bleeding disorders and one in the area of all blood disorders. More information can be found at http://www.fwgbd.org/fwgbd-research-awards. Entries will be accepted for the 2019 award through Friday, April 26, 2019.