Women's Health

Columbia Engineering’s Women’s Health Initiative brings an engineering lens to advance women's health and well-being through innovative design thinking, technical skills, and a focus on practical solutions.

We are focused on bringing a systems-based, user-centered engineering approach to improve women’s health, developing tools whereby women can self-manage and partner proactively with practitioners.

The Initiative seeks to apply its deep understanding of mechanobiology, imaging and data science to shed light on critical societal challenges such as preterm birth, cancer, endometriosis, and a maternal morbidity record that is not only the worst among developed countries but getting worse.

The Initiative brings together a multidisciplinary community of engineers, physicians, and professionals to drive innovation for women’s health by utilizing woman-centered design from ideation through the delivery of effective and equitable tools.

Columbia Engineering Women’s Health Initiative Fund

Fuel engineering-driven breakthroughs in women’s health at Columbia. Your gift advances practical tools and technologies to improve diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for women—from preterm birth to cancer.

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Kristin Myers looking over the shoulder of a researcher in a lab

Proactive Research

Together, our teams will advance evidence-based solutions, including transformative medical technologies, treatments, and public health interventions that significantly improve women's lives.

Research Areas

Mammograms — Researchers have focused on improving mammograms (left) by applying an approach used when imaging Earth to breast tissue (right) in an attempt to better view tiny but important medical details. Credit: Bartron Medical Imaging

An image from Krysin Myers' Lab — Krysin Myers' Lab was featured on Netflix’s Sex, Explained. Credit: Netflix

Cervical Length Diagram — Cervical length is clinically measured as the portion of the cervix that is closed. Effacement progresses in normal pregnancy when the fetal head descends and shortens the cervix. Credit: The Journal of Biomechanics

(Left) Myers shows Vink 3D computer simulations of the cervix. (Right) Vink pipettes solution into slides containing cervical smooth muscle cells. Understanding the forces that lead a healthy cervix to open and close at the right times may be key to preventing some premature births. Credit: Adrienne Grunwald for NPR

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Faculty

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Kristin M. Myers

Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Christine P. Hendon

Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering; Vice Dean for Engagement; Provost's Senior Faculty Teaching Scholar

Helen H. Lu

Percy K. and Vida L.W. Hudson Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Professor of Dental and Craniofacial Engineering (in Dental Medicine); Senior Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs and Advancement