Experts discuss women’s health, homelessness, other pressing public health issues at summit

Harvard Chan School's Shruthi Mahalingaiah makes a point at panel on women's health
Harvard Chan School's Shruthi Mahalingaiah makes a point at panel on women's health

October 23, 2024 – Dozens of public health, business, and faith leaders gathered at a community bookstore in Boston’s South End on Oct. 17 to discuss innovative health solutions at a summit titled “Better Health for All: Connecting Science, Business, and Communities for Change.”

The event was co-hosted by the SALA Series, which brings together leaders from disparate sectors to engage on important societal issues, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Held at More Than Words bookstore, the event featured several panels with Harvard Chan School faculty. Topics discussed focused on a difficult but essential question: How do we drive better health for all?

One panel addressed the lack of adequate investment into women’s health issues, which account for only around 10% of funding from the National Institutes of Health. Even that funding is too often overly focused on the “bikini areas”—breast and gynecological health—rather than holistic challenges facing women, said Kathryn Rexrode, chief of the Division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

“Those are very important areas for women,” she said. “However, the health of women is so much more than that—there are so many ways that diseases affect women differently, present differently, should have different treatments.” She praised the Biden administration’s recent White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research—aimed at making such research a priority—as a step in the right direction. “This is a bipartisan issue,” she added. “Everyone has a woman somewhere in their life … so I’m hoping that [this research is] protected no matter what happens in the White House or Congress going forward.”

Other topics addressed by panelists included support for doulas as a cost-effective and evidence-based solution for OB-GYN services, and the emergence of so-called FemTech—companies focused on technological innovations to improve women’s health, such as apps focused on postpartum depression or breast pump technology that mimics a baby’s tongue. “There’s so much potential innovation in the FemTech space,” said Shruthi Mahalingaiah, assistant professor of environmental, reproductive, and women’s health. At the same time, she expressed concern that the information provided on apps may not always be accurate. “It’s a balance … it’s really exciting to see the kinds of barriers of access to knowledge being taken down,” she said, while noting the importance of asking, “Where is that knowledge coming from?”

Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership and faculty chair of the Initiative on Health and Homelessness, spoke on a panel that addressed housing and health equity. “Think of the word ‘home,’” he said. “What are the thoughts that come to mind?” After audience members suggested answers including food, a warm bed, love, and security, Koh said, “Every night in this country, 650,000 people don’t have that—and every year in this country, best estimates are that several million people don’t have that [at some point].”

Koh offered an example of a community success story in addressing homelessness: In Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, as part of the redevelopment of an old YWCA building, more than 100 supportive housing units were set aside. Although initial discussions about the project with the Back Bay Neighborhood Association were acrimonious, Koh said, neighbors eventually found common ground with the developers, with the help of the Pine Street Inn, a local shelter. The supportive housing units opened in March 2024.

Howard Koh
Howard Koh

“If every community in America could do this … and at least bring people together and start the conversation, we’d be in much better shape,” he said, contrasting that approach with a recent Supreme Court decision, Grants Pass v. Johnson, which has made it easier for law enforcement to fine and arrest people sleeping outside. Such criminal justice approaches might work in the short term, Koh said, but only a “housing first” public health approach can provide a long-term solution. “But as it’s also said in the field, ‘housing first’ is not ‘housing only,’” he added. “It’s not just putting people in apartments. You’ve got to keep protecting people and offering them human services and medical services … that’s the way forward.”

In addition to homelessness, panelists also discussed how affordable housing, public housing, and zoning can affect health. Other panels at the summit focused on topics including the loneliness and mental health epidemic; the future of health care; and climate and health equity, which included Mary Rice, director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) and Rebekka Lee, lecturer on social and behavioral sciences.

Panelists, from left: Rebekka Lee, Harvard undergrad Osasenaga Idahor, Mary Rice, David Cash of the EPA
Panelists, from left: Rebekka Lee, Harvard undergrad Osasenaga Idahor, Mary Rice, David Cash of the EPA

Michael Blanding

Photos: Joe Mikos, Sarah Unninayar