2024 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize Announcement
Dr. Ai-Ling Wang was announced the winner of the 2024 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize on the margins of the 14th APEC High-Level Meeting on Health and the Economy on August 15, 2024 in Lima, Peru.
Winner of the 2024 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Dr. Ai-Ling Wang (China) is the Director of the Maternal Health Department at the National Center for Women and Children's Health, China CDC. Her study focused on early screening and integrated intervention strategies to reduce mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of diseases including HIV, syphilis, and HBV in China. Dr. Wang’s ongoing research has informed strategies adopted by the Chinese government that have prevented approximately 16,000 HIV cases, 140,000 congenital syphilis cases, and 3 million HBV cases among children from 2011-2023. The approaches outlined in Dr. Wang’s study provide a model for APEC economies to enhance women's and children's health and economic well-being.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Wang's research.
Runners up for the 2024 Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Dr. Sok King Ong (Brunei Darussalam), a public health consultant at the Brunei Darussalam Ministry of Health and an adjunct professor with the Universiti Brunei Darussalam, conducted research on cervical cancer indicators and the barriers to Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and cervical cancer screening across 21 Asian economies. The research findings revealed significant disparities in HPV vaccination rates and cervical cancer screening practices in the region - the majority of cervical cancer cases and deaths are in the low- and middle-income economies - and highlighted the need to ensure accessibility and affordability of health services for women, address sociocultural barriers, and strengthen the healthcare system and continuum of care.
Dr. Yana Rodgers (United States) is a Professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University; Dr. Amanda Guimbeau (Canada) is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Université de Sherbrooke; Dr. Xinde James Ji (United States) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida; and Dr. Nidhiya Menon (United States) is a Professor of Economics at Brandeis University. Their study challenges the typical perception of mining as a male-dominated space by showing that proximity to mining sites in India, especially those with higher female labor participation and profit-sharing mechanisms, meaningfully reduces women's tolerance of domestic violence and improves access to healthcare. This evidence suggests that the mining industry can enhance women's agency and drive inclusive economic growth, offering valuable insights for APEC economies with significant mining sectors.
2023 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize Announcement
Dr. Jason Junjie Huang was announced the winner of the 2023 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize during the 2023 APEC Women and the Economy Forum on August 18, 2023 in Seattle, United States.
Winner of the 2023 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Dr. Jason Junjie Huang (Hong Kong, China) is the Deputy Director and Research Assistant Professor at the Centre for Health Education and Health Promotion (CHEHP) of Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His study, in collaboration with the NCD Working Group in Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), investigated the global burden of endometrial cancer, one of the most common cancers affecting women, and found that many of the risk factors that contribute to endometrial cancer are lifestyle choices, including smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity. Dr. Huang stressed that education campaigns are a critical tool for raising awareness of the modifiable risk factors to endometrial cancer, and investing in preventive measures and early detection can further reduce the incidence.
Click here to hear more about Dr Huang’s research.
Runners Up for the 2023 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Ms. Rahayu Mohamad (Singapore) is the Chair, Research and Engagement Department as well as the Immediate Past President of the Singapore Muslim Women’s Association, one of the founding members of the Singapore Alliance for Women in Ageing (SAWA). Ms. Mohamad and her colleagues at SAWA conducted research responding to the frequent exclusion of older women in policies and action plans focused on women’s needs and economic participation. SAWA emphasized that older women require a platform where their needs and concerns – on topics from discrimination in the workplace to adequate support for senior caregivers – can be heard.
Ms. Weiyu Zhou (China) is a student in the School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Ms. Zhou’s research underscored the importance of education campaigns to protect against preventable disease that affects working-age women. Her study investigated a new pilot program on HPV immunization involving mothers and the girls aged 9-14 in Shanghai, China. When economies invest in education campaigns to increase parental HPV-related knowledge, the uptake of vaccination among girls increases.
2022 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize Announcement
Dr. Ruimin Zheng was announced the winner of the 2022 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize during the 2022 APEC Women and the Economy Forum on September 7, 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Winner of the 2022 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Dr Ruimin Zheng (China) is the Director of the Women's Health Care Department at China’s National Center for Women and Children's Health. Her innovative study addressed the high incidence of maternal depression among women in low-income and middle-income regions. Dr. Zheng’s evidence-based strategy included recommendations such as the implementation of routine depression screenings across the entire birth process in order to reduce women’s disease burden and economic loss due to depression during childbirth.
Runners Up for the 2022 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Dr. Bach Tran (Viet Nam) is an Associate Professor at Hanoi Medical University, Viet Nam. His research examined the direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on pregnant women’s quality of life, emphasizing the urgent need for policymakers to incorporate evidence-based interventions – such as expanded telehealth services and counseling, enhanced familial and social supports, and community-based health education strategies – to improve maternal health outcomes and care satisfaction.
Dr. Jaime Z. Galvez Tan, MD, MPH (Philippines) is the Chairman of Health Futures Foundation, Inc. and former Professor at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. He studied the causes and effects of adolescent pregnancy in regions with the highest incidence of teenage pregnancy, incorporating his findings into evidence-based solutions for early childhood intervention – including school-based comprehensive sexuality education – to improve women's health, well-being, and empowerment.
2021 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize Announcement
Mr. Chen-Wei Hsiang, along with co-authors Dr. Ming-Jen Lin and Dr. Kuan-Ming Chen, were announced the winner of the 2021 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize during the 2021 APEC Women and the Economy Forum on September 24, 2021 by New Zealand’s Minister for Women Jan Tinetti.
Winner of the 2021 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Mr. Chen-Wei Hsiang (Chinese Taipei) is currently pursing his PhD at University College London. His co-authors Dr. Ming-Jen Lin and Dr. Kuan-Ming Chen are respectively affiliated with the National Taiwan University and the National Bureau of Economic Research, U.S.A. Their study found that the effect of long-term care needs on women’s economic participation varies widely depending on a number of variables, including marital status and the number of children one has, and calls for targeted support for women who might otherwise drop out of the labor force.
Runners Up for the 2021 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Dr. Ying Yang (China) is an Associate Professor at the National Research Institute for Family Planning. Her research explored ways to alter the screening and interventional window periods of thyroid function in pregnant women, and recommends advancing both from early pregnancy to pre-pregnancy to reduce the risk of complications resulting from maternal thyroid disfunction.
Ms. Nurliyana Binte Daros (Singapore) is a Lecturer at Nanyang Technological University. Her research studied the experiences of illness and complications related to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in low-income women, and the importance of coordinating care between health and social workers in order to remove barriers to care.
2020 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize Announcement
Dr. Fanghui Zhao was announced the winner of the 2020 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize during the virtual High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy meeting on September 30, 2020 by Malaysia’s Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, Datuk Seri Rina Harun.
Winner of the 2020 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Dr. Fanghui Zhao (China) is Director of the Department of Cancer Epidemiology, National Cancer Center and Cancer Hospital with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Her research provides a comprehensive analysis on how to tailor the approach to cervical cancer prevention in lower-middle income economies to make it more accessible and affordable. She and her fellow researchers found that in order to be effective cervical cancer screening programs must be tailored to the needs of the target population. In rural China, screening coverage is low, and women may not return for separate diagnosis and treatment visits. The research evaluated various screening protocols under real world conditions, and came to the conclusion that combining services (self-sampling, PCR HPV test and triage based on HPV16/18 genotyping, followed by colposcopy and immediate thermal ablation in a single visit) could be the most efficient screening cascade for underserved populations who may not return for separate diagnosis and treatment visits. This plan reduced costs while increasing compliance for follow up care.
Runners Up for the 2020 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Dr. Lih Rong Wang (Chinese Taipei) is a Professor in the National Taiwan University's Department of Social Work. Dr Wang’s research explored the positive impact of family-oriented work policies like flexible work schedules and paid parental leave. Her research provided evidence that modern HR policies should adapt win-win strategies, including flexible work schedule, flexible workplace, flexible leave and others workplace flexibility arrangements, and that policymakers need to develop new policies and programs to encourage employers in developing organizational flexibilities in their HR programs without sacrificing employees’ social security benefits, job security and other benefits.
Dr. Dorothy Chan (Hong Kong, China) is Assistant Professor in the The Chinese University of Hong Kong's Nethersole School of Nursing. Dr. Chan's research studied how the efficacy of health programs can be improved by involving stakeholders who can incorporate cultural and socio-environmental components in future interventions. Dr. Chan and her fellow researchers examined how incorporating stakeholders from the South Asian community in Hong Kong into cervical cancer screening programs improved cervical cancer screening uptake among the South Asian community. This type of intervention is particularly important for health programs aiming to deliver better health outcomes for ethnic minorities in communities.
2019 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize Award Ceremony
The Award Ceremony for the 2019 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize took place on October 1 in La Serena, Chile, on the margins of the Women & the Economy Forum. Photos from the event can be found here.
Winner of the 2019 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Dr. Veronica Ramirez (Philippines) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific and the Bank of Philippine Islands Professional Chair for Migration and Overseas Filipino Work. She submitted a research article that investigates common health problems of women Overseas Filipino Workers. The study she conducted finds that foreign employers, migrant associations, health agencies, and practitioners all have a role to play to promote the health of Overseas Filipino Workers, and identifies different ways that each stakeholder can contribute. For example, she suggests that the Department of Health should provide treatment and monitor cases of diseases common among women Overseas Filipino Workers, such as HIV, TB, and Hepatitis, and that the Philippine government should improve coordination with foreign employers to ensure proper working conditions for women Overseas Filipino Workers. The health of women Overseas Filipino Workers is particularly salient in the Philippines, where remittances from abroad constitute a significant source of income for Filipinos residing there. But Dr. Ramirez’s research on ensuring the health of overseas workers is also relevant to the APEC economies, as well as economies writ large, since migration is expected to play an increasingly vital role in population growth in the coming decades. A PowerPoint presentation on Dr. Ramirez's research can be found here.
Runners Up for the 2019 APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize
Ms. Paula Poblete (Chile) submitted a report she completed as Research Director of ComunidadMujer, an organization that promotes gender equality in the fields of education, labor, and politics, and promotes the creation of public and corporate policies for sustainable development. The report contains a longitudinal study that examines gender inequality across three generations of women and men in Chile. Ms. Poblete identifies work-life balance, and its effect on women’s ability to enter and stay in the workforce, as a key issue. Her study recommends the implementation of policies that should encourage women to enter and remain the workforce, such as modernizing the pension fund system by paying men and women equally, irrespective of the difference in life expectancy between men and women. Currently, women receive lower payouts through the pension system due to the fact that women have higher life expectancies than men. A PowerPoint presentation on Ms. Poblete's research can be found here.
Dr. Hong Jiang (China) is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Global Health Institute at Fudan University. The research that she submitted considers whether episiotomy, a surgical procedure to prevent tears during childbirth, should be conducted only if needed or as part of routine management of childbirth. Her research assesses the effects of both policies on mother and child, and concludes that the restrictive use of episiotomy should be advocated, as it leads to fewer women having severe perineal trauma following childbirth. The article has been cited about 100 times since it was published in February 2017, and was used as evidence by the World Health Organization for its recommendations of intrapartum care for a positive childbirth experience. A PowerPoint presentation on Dr. Jiang's research can be found here.
**The term “National” and the names of public or private institutions used in the text do not imply the political status of any APEC Member Economy**