Field of medicine: Internal medicine and women's health.

Format: Hardcover book.

Audience: Women's health researchers and health policy specialists.

Purpose: To define a research and policy agenda.

Content: This book includes sections on the history of women's health research, current knowledge about women's health, political policy, and women as investigators.

Highlights: A comprehensive definition of women's health research and fascinating insights into the ways in which policy has evolved and may evolve in the future are included. This book should help women's health researchers gain valuable understanding about political decision-making processes that affect funding. The section on funding gives an overview, interesting facts, and valuable tips.

Limitations: The book sometimes falls short in defining a research agenda. For example, some of the chapters surveying women's diseases fail to highlight recent findings or suggest the next steps. The chapter on funding may be disappointing to investigators because it provides few details and focuses on governmental sources of funding. It would have been interesting to know the authors' prognosis for women's health research funding in the future.

Context: This book is unique in combining an all-encompassing definition of and introduction to women's health research with a thorough discussion of related policy. In contrast, Stanton and Gallant's The Psychology of Women's Health (American Psychological Association, 1995) includes an extensive discussion of biological, psychological, and social factors in women's health but only one chapter on women's health care policy. Reframing Women's Health, edited by A.J. Dan (Sage Publications, 1992), contains the second largest collection of writings on women's health research policy but covers the latest developments in women's health across disciplines only in selected areas.

Reviewer: Shirley Hartlage, PhD, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Commentary: The authors assert that the public and the U.S. Congress are influenced when research needs are clearly defined and explained by authorities whom they respect. This book is needed to help ensure that women's health becomes a permanent priority for U.S. policymakers.