The Women's College Research Institute has been charged with a new mandate: to maintain our abiding focus on women's unique health needs, while moving care outside the hospital and into our communities. To that end, we have set out four broad research priorities:

1. Understand women's unique health needs at every stage of their lives. When it comes to their health, women and men are not the same. What's more, women's health needs change throughout their lives. At our research institute, we investigate conditions that affect women disproportionately or differently. We design tools and resources to make that knowledge accessible to women and their health-care providers. We are also responding to demographic shifts in the population with a revitalized focus on the challenges of aging.
2. Explore the complex health needs of women in the context of their lives. Improving women's health means dealing with complexity. It requires an understanding of how conditions and medications interact. It requires an exploration of the long-term consequences of these conditions. It requires programs that consider the social context of women's lives - culture, income, identity and family responsibilities - not just the medical consequences of illness. Our scientists conduct cross-disciplinary research to devise real-world responses to complex challenges.
3. Reinvent systems of health care using ambulatory models. What is ambulatory care and how can it transform our health system? How can we link health resources, better support front-line care providers, and address inequities in health-care delivery? Our scientists are working to reinvent our health-care system by developing and implementing innovative care programs that will be both sustainable and responsive to the needs of women and their families.
4. Recruit, support and celebrate the world's best women's health leaders. We are already home to outstanding women's health research leaders who are changing the face of women's health research. As importantly, they are also attracting, training and nurturing the next generation of exemplary researchers and trainees. After all, the future of women's health will be built on today's best young minds. And at the Women's College Research Institute, we see our young scientists as the future of care.