Health Care for the Other Half
Center of Excellence Opens the Door to Preventive Care for Women
Utah, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ranks near the bottom of the country in several key areas of women's preventive health: 44th in cholesterol screening; 47th in mammography; 48th in routine checkups; 46th in occult blood screening; and next to last in pap smears. Kathleen B. Digre, M.D., professor of neurology and ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Utah School of Medicine, finds those numbers disquieting.
"We're good at taking care of children," Digre said, "but we have not paid attention to women's health."
With the help of a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), she and colleagues at the health sciences center are changing that. Digre is director of a new Center of Excellence in Women's Health, headquartered in the University's Madsen Health Center. It will be Utah's first clinic to provide integrated, multidisciplinary care for women.
Since HHS established the centers of excellence (CoE) program in women's health in 1999, 20 centers and three demonstration projects have been established nationwide. As the newest demonstration project, the U of U will receive $125,000 annually the next four years. After that, the center will be eligible for permanent CoE designation.
HHS chose the University for several reasons, Digre said. Utah badly needs to improve women's health care. The Intermountain region did not have a CoE. As an academic medical center, the U of U is perfectly suited to provide the multidisciplinary care women need.
The project will involve every school and college in the health sciences center--medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and health--as well as the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library. The group also has partnered with the Utah Department of Health. The CoE will focus on five areas:
-Community Outreach and Public Education
- Clinical Care
- Professional Education
- Research
- Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion of Women Faculty
Within these areas, 13 smaller groups will address issues ranging from adolescent health care to coordination of educational resource centers.
Read the complete article at Health Sciences Report.
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