First Lady Pool Reports of December 8, 2023

Pool report #1: Tour of Women's Health Research at Cedars-Sinai

Jill Biden, the first lady, arrived at 1:50 p.m. at the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center and Smidt Heart Institute. She wore a fuchsia skirt suit and beige pumps.

The First Lady was greeted by accompanied on the tour by:

• Congressman Ted Lieu
• Betty Lieu, Spouse of Congressman Ted Lieu
• Thomas M. Priselac, President and CEO, Cedars-Sinai
• Dr. Shlomo Melmed, executive vice president of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Medical Faculty, Cedars-Sinai
• Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center
• Maria Shriver, Founder, the Women's Alzheimer's Movement and Former First Lady of California

They began a tour of the research laboratories of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center and Smidt Heart Institute. The tour is part of the White House's efforts to improve women's health research.
At the Simulation Center, the First Lady and other participants talked to Cedars-Sinai researchers who talked about their use of advanced imaging to study differences in the heart and brain between men and women. The funding for the study, they said, comes from the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, and the Department of Defense, or DoD.
The First Lady asked how women are chosen for the WORRIER program which stands for Women's IschemiA Treatment to Reduce Events In Non-obstructive, or CAD.
The meeting participants:

• Dr. Martha Gulati, Director of Preventive Cardiology, Smidt Heart Institute
• Dr. Pascal Sati, Associate Professor of Neurology, Cedars-Sinai
• Dr. Janet Wei, Cardiologist, Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center

At the Van Eyk Laboratory, the First Lady and other guests learned from researchers how the study of female genes, proteins, and vascular cells leads the way to understanding women's heart disease and the development of specific diagnostics and therapeutics.

The First Lady asked one of the researchers, Dr. Sarah Parker, associate professor at Cedars-Sinai, when was she due and congratulated her on her pregnancy. Dr. Parker said she was due in January.

The briefing participants;

• Dr. Jennifer Van Eyk, Director of Basic Science Research, Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center
• Dr. Kirstin Washington, Postdoctoral Scientist, Cedars-Sinai
• Dr. Sarah Parker, Associate Professor, Cedars-Sinai

After the tour, the First Lady spoke in an auditorium about the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research launched by the President and the First Lady in November 2023.

"Research on women's health has been underfunded for decades and many conditions that mostly and only affect women or affect women differently have received limited attention like those debilitating migraines and undiagnosed heart attacks," Dr. Biden said as she stood in front of an audience of about 300 people.

She added that "because of these gaps we understand far too little about these conditions and how to help the millions of women who struggle with them. And these gaps are even greater for communities that historically have been excluded from research, including women of color and women with disabilities."

The First Lady added "When I talked to Joe about this issue a few months ago, he listened and then he took action. And that is what Joe does. He learns about the problem and then he gets to work tackling it. That's why last month, we leaned the White House initiative on women's health research."

The First Lady departed at 3 p.m.