6th Annual SWHR Medtronic Prize Winner Announced

Below is an excerpt from Dr. Zolnoun's acceptance speech:

When Michael Rubinstein, a physicist from Virtual Lung Project, shared his view on science he said, “When nature creates something it is just science-it’s not split into biology, physics, or chemistry.  To understand the full complexity of nature one has to break it into parts of the picture and then pull it all back together again.”

I want you to imagine a world in which you are tasked with understanding nature with no tools or fundamental concepts of biology, physics, or chemistry.  You look into the faces of people whom you are entrusted to care for with nothing to offer but a sympathetic hand. This was my reality, and nearly fifteen years ago I decided that empathy alone was not good enough. Thus, I set out to understand the nature of pain in gynecology, and today I humbly stand before you having developed tools to parse out and isolate the source of pain, which of course is only just the beginning.

So why does sex matters? It matters because our scientific knowledge is meager in women. For example, we now have developed methods for identifying nerve pain, but the course and variations of pelvic nerves between men and women are unknown.  Equivalent nerves and their clinical implication are relatively well described in men; however, some necessary details are omitted in women.

To understand the science of medicine in mankind, we must break it down to its individual pieces and pull it all back together in both genders; one without the other is incomplete.

Breaking down science into parts of the picture requires collaboration among scientists, which is ultimately contingent on enabling infrastructure.  I am here as a testament to your investment in higher education, and of your vision in leveling health disparities. I am earnestly indebted to my colleagues, mentors and mentees who rise up to the challenge of parsing out and putting together the pieces of the picture.

On behalf of millions of women with intractable pelvic pain, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all of you and the Society for Women’s Health Research for their support of sex difference research while championing a higher standard in women’s health.

Read more about the SWHR and the award....