Blueprint to Close the Women%E2%80%99s Health Gap 2025

Breast cancer has more registered clinical trials than all other female-specific selected conditions combined – 1,697 in total. In comparison, 44 trials for post-partum haemorrhage were registered. The prevalence of breast cancer is close to 500 per 100,000 population, and the prevalence of post-partum haemorrhage is 320 per 100,000 population.109 This highlights a one-third higher prevalence of breast cancer compared to post- partum haemorrhage, and a near 40-fold difference in the number of trials for breast cancer compared to post-partum haemorrhage. In UMICs and HICs, ensuring diverse access to clinical trials – across race, ethnicities and geography – and decentralizing clinical trial enrolment may provide equitable access to innovative research while helping to make sure the results of clinical trials are more broadly applicable. Ensuring that innovative research and clinical trial enrolment reaches all women in all countries is dependent upon access to appropriate, high-quality care and care delivery systems. Even when evidence to support best practices exists, translating the findings from evidence-based research into clinical guidelines and subsequently adopting them into clinical practice is challenging.110 CPGs are evidence-based, nationally recognized and standardized recommendations for healthcare professionals – doctors, nurses or other healthcare practitioners – on how to diagnose and treat specific medical conditions. Evaluation of CPGs can illuminate the clinical standard set by a country and reveal whether that standard is reflective of evidence-based practice. Examining CPGs for the selected conditions in 15 countries across all income levels helps to create a scalable blueprint for all countries and all conditions that drive the women’s health gap.Evaluating a country’s CPGs for the selected conditions helps clarify whether evidence- based, high-quality clinical guidelines are being recommended. Outdated, incomplete or missing guidelines can act as proxies to assess whether a country’s care delivery system is prioritizing the condition and spectrum of care associated with it. Yet this metric is only the first step: while CPGs are meant to reduce variability in care delivery, the implementation of guidelines may differ due to lack of resources or insufficient or different care delivery environments. In well-resourced countries, CPGs may not encourage the best interventions available, and instead aim for universally applicable recommendations (the lowest common denominator). When better technology and interventions are available (e.g. imaging technology), CPGs could encourage them and women could benefit from them.2.3 Care for women More than a third of the women’s health gap stems from disparities in care delivery. Blueprint to Close the Women’s Health Gap: How to Improve Lives and Economies for All 22