The Women's Health Program at Yale has been selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as one of six medical centers to establish a National Center of Excellence in Women's Health that will serve as a national model for improving the health care of American women.
The national centers, announced Oct. 1, "are just one step in a broad cooperative effort to improve our health research and services for women, and to improve the career prospects for women in the health professions." according to HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala. The centers will integrate health-care services, research programs, public education and health-care professional training, and will forge links with health-care services in the community. "Until six years ago, women's health was seriously neglected in research, health-care service delivery, and public and health-care professional education," adds Dr. Susan J. Blumenthal, deputy assistant secretary for women's health and assistant surgeon general. "Our new national focus on women's health is brightening the prospects for a healthier future for American women. The purpose of the centers is to facilitate this progress through increased knowledge, improved treatment and prevention of diseases in women."
The National Center of Excellence in Women's Health "will strengthen and expand the Women's Health Program at Yale that was established in 1992," states Dr. Janet B. Henrich, who has been named director of the new center at Yale. She also is associate professor of medicine and of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the Women's Health Program at Yale, a joint program of Yale-New Haven Hospital and the School of Medicine.
"Our program strives to improve the quality of health care for women, foster and generate research in women's health, better integrate women's health and gender-related concepts into the medical school curriculum, and enhance the education and training of physicians in women's comprehensive care," she explains.
With the national designation and $330,000 in federal support for women's health, the Yale program will initially concentrate in two main areas:
"By stimulating research in women's health and increasing communication and collaboration across disciplines, we hope to enhance existing research efforts, enable new research directions to be pursued, and foster the development of new research opportunities in women's health," Professor Mazure says. Faculty members who are interested in interdisciplinary research in women's health are encouraged to contact the women's health program office by calling 737-5820 or via e-mail, moira.healey@yale.edu.