Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at Amazon Web Services IMAGINE: Nonprofit Conference

Arlington, VA

Thank you, Allyson. 

Amazon Web Services has changed the way our world works – transforming how companies do business. That innovation and the ideas it has sparked are now part of the fabric of our lives. And I know they’ve also changed so much for non-profits like the ones in this room.

Thank you for investing in these organizations and finding ways to help them grow. And as you do, you push forward the cutting-edge technology that will help make people’s lives better.

I’m honored to join all of you today.

In the early 1970s, researchers in the U.S. studied estrogen’s effect in preventing heart attacks.

You see, it was observed that women who had gone through menopause – therefore who had lower levels of estrogen – were more likely to have heart attacks.

So, a study was conducted asking whether estrogen prevents heart attacks.

8,341 people were selected for that study.

All of them men!

This is just how things were done.

Women’s health research has been overlooked and underfunded. Too many of our medications, treatments, and medical school textbooks are based on men.

So, in November, Joe and I launched the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, with a clear goal: to fundamentally change how our nation approaches and funds research on women’s health.

When our non-profits come together with universities, entrepreneurs, investors, and city and state leaders to drive innovation you’ve proven there’s nothing that’s beyond our capacity.

I encourage you to harness that same spirit of discovery and ambition to take on the next great health care challenge of our time – finding innovative solutions in women’s health.

It’s the right thing to do, and it could be the “next big thing” for your bottom line.

In 2021, the women’s health market was estimated to be $9 billion. The Boston Consulting Group estimates that, in just eight years, that number will grow to $29 billion.

Amazon’s Chief Technology Officer recently announced his top four predictions for 2024. He predicted that “FemTech finally takes off… Women’s health care reaches an inflection point as FemTech investment surges.”

McKinsey and Company estimates that investments addressing the women’s health gap could boost the global economy by $1 trillion annually by the year 2040.

Women’s health is having a moment. And to help it grow, we need to transform the way we approach women’s health research.

Women in this country live longer than men, but what are those years like?

Many women spend their later years struggling with chronic diseases that we don’t know enough about and that don’t have effective treatment options…because medical studies have often left out women.

This is the result of a choice – one that’s been made over and over for decades.

President Biden is making a different choice.

Just two days ago, as part of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, he signed the most comprehensive executive order ever to expand and improve research on women’s health. Joe is directing his administration to find ways to use artificial intelligence and other technology to advance research on women’s health.

And, in his State of the Union address, Joe called on Congress to make an unprecedented $12 billion investment into that work.

ARPA-H, the agency Joe created to pursue breakthrough health research at lightning speed, launched its first-ever “sprint” for women’s health, which will invest $100 million in life saving research on women this year.

These historic actions will make sure that women’s health is no longer overlooked or left behind.

And when we combine that momentum with the possibility of technology, we can imagine a new world for women’s health – for all the women who leave doctor’s offices with more questions than answers, who are told “it’s all in your head,” or “it’s just stress,” who spend their lives fighting diseases we don’t know enough about.

Because the solution they need could be the watch on their wrist or the app in their pocket.

It could be getting access to specialized care, quickly, through a virtual doctor’s appointment.

It could be artificial intelligence that analyzes more information, faster, to predict and prevent diseases.

Or things that, as of yet, still lie beyond the limits of our imaginations. Thank you.

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