Dr. C. Everett Koop, former U.S. surgeon general, visited the School of Medicine in May to celebrate women's health at Yale and to celebrate Dr. Florence Comite's efforts both in founding the Women's Health Program at Yale and in helping to create the Time Life Medical Series of patient education videotapes.
Dr. Comite, associate professor of medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics, serves as the deputy medical director for the series, which offers consumer-focused medical information and is designed to complement the physician-patient relationship. Dr. Koop serves as medical director of the series.
In preparing the series, Dr. Comite played an instrumental role in mobilizing more than 1,000 leading medical experts and 100 medical organizations to help conceptualize, develop and integrate the program's medical content. More than 40 Yale medical faculty members served as either principal editors, on-camera physician sources or reviewers. They provided medical expertise on subjects ranging from cataracts and osteoporosis to skin cancer and infertility.
A number of the videotapes focus on women's health, including menopause. Other topics in the series include asthma in children, anorexia, bulimia, depression and stroke. The videotapes have been available nationally since March in pharmacies.