Harvard University

Harvard Medical School
Brigham and Women's Hospital
1620 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02120

JudyAnn Bigby, M.D.
Director, Office for Women, Family, and Community Programs
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Phone: (617) 732-5759
Phone: (617) 732-7123 Jill Bassett
Fax: (617) 525-7756
E-mail: jbigby@partners.org

Clinical Services Contact: (617) 732-8866

In recognition of the many strengths of Harvard Medical School and its affiliated hospitals (BWH, BIDMC, and MGH), the Office on Women's Health in the Department of Health and Human Services designated the Harvard Medical School as a National Center of Excellence in Women's Health in the Fall of 1998.

The Harvard Medical School's CoE structure reflects the fundamental themes of the CoE mission. The CoE consists of six program cores: (1) Clinical, (2) Research, (3) Academic Leadership, (4) Education, (5) Minority, and (6) Outcomes and Evaluation. Following is a description of the goals and objectives set for each of these components.

Clinical Core

The Clinical Core supports ongoing development and coordination of women's health services at the three HMS teaching hospitals. The CoE Clinical Program has the following objectives:

• Determine how to deliver high quality services more effectively to women of all socioeconomic classes and all ethnic groups.

• Develop outcome measures to assess the clinical services in terms of quality of care and patient satisfaction.

• Expand community-based preventive care and women's health care services.

• Develop culturally-sensitive best practice models.

• Emphasize the whole patient, mind and body.

• Overcome barriers to health care, including financial, transportation, and child care.

• Build on our experience in provision of "one-stop shopping" for clinical services across all sites.

Research Core

The CoE works to enhance communication and encourage collaboration across disciplines and institutions, promote interdisciplinary research projects, and allow explorations of additional areas of synergy. It is intended that this effort extend from basic through clinical research and include investigation into the health services area to ensure optimal health care delivery to all women. Overall research goals include:

• Development and publication of a women's health research agenda and a minority women's health research agenda.

• Implementation of new funding opportunities in women's health research.

• Increased representation of the women's health agenda in institutional infrastructure and educational programs.

• Submission and funding of initiatives addressing participation of women in clinical research.

Academic Leadership Core

The Academic Leadership Core concentrates on the improvement of representation of women and minorities in the Harvard Medical School faculty. The objectives include:

• Developing new and strengthening existing strategies to foster the recruitment, retention, and promotion of culturally-diverse women in academic medicine.

• Developing the leadership capabilities and opportunities of all woman, including minority women, in the health area.

• Increasing the number of medical graduates serving minority communities.

• Expanding efforts to enhance the career development of women in academic medicine and in the biomedical sciences.

• Developing strategies for increasing the preparedness of women to take senior leadership positions such as deans, department heads, and division heads.

• Collaborating and coordinating with the HMS Office for Faculty Development and Diversity.

• Collaborating with the HMS Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs and with the Office of Student Affairs to increase the interest and commitment of minority students to academic careers.

• Implementing recent recommendations of the HMS Joint Committee of the Status of Women and the Partners' Committee on the Advancement and Support of Women as they refer to the academic advancement of women.

Education Core

The CoE works to organize and enhance both medical education and education of women in the community. The CoE focuses on and coordinates curriculum revision in medical education at HMS at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels in order to better provide training for all physicians in the particular needs of women. The CoE also coordinates and enhances the provision of culturally-sensitive, linguistically-appropriate patient education in women's health at all Harvard teaching hospitals by coordinating these varied efforts. In addition, several ongoing unique programs are coordinated by the Harvard Medical School's CoE to enhance patient education.

Committee to Advance the Health of Minority Women (CAHMW)

The minority women's health component is an integral part of the CoE. Therefore, the objectives of the Committee to Advance the Health of Minority Women are combined with and closely related to the objectives of the other cores. The CAHMW has specific objectives tied to:

• Clinical Care: Work with community health centers across the system to develop programs to address all phases of the female life cycle, with a special emphasis on minority women's health.

• Medical Education: Identify knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for physicians to be competent in the care of minority women and develop educational methods for training students and physicians.

• Community Education: Develop a community health agenda and plan in order to expand minority women's knowledge about their health and to increase minority women influence on policies that impact their health. Identify issues of concern for minority women and design culturally appropriate educational opportunities and materials. Develop and maintain linkages and partnerships with various community organizations.

• Research: Identify ways to address barriers to enrolling minority women into clinical trials, develop a minority women's health research agenda, and increase research in minority women's health.

Outcomes and Evaluation Core

The Outcomes and Evaluation Core works closely with each CoE core to effectively evaluate all components of the CoE, thus ensuring our goals are being reached. The CoE is working to achieve the objectives related to the evaluation of the effectiveness and outcomes of the following:

• Clinical services;
• Research agenda;
• Education program;
• Academic career advancement plans; and
• Minority inclusion efforts.