Biomedical Frontiers: Winter 1994, Vol.1, No.2
New Center for Women's Health

Because the health needs of women require expertise from OB/GYN, medicine, surgery, psychiatry, neurology, and other disciplines, CPMC is opening a Center for Women's Health to coordinate all these specialties to deliver care to women.

To be located at CPMC's new facility on 60th Street, between Madison and Park Avenues, in Manhattan, the center's mission is to bring women's health care into the 21st century. To do that, the center is unifying and consolidating the medical and surgical disciplines to serve women better. The center also does outreach to educate women about disease prevention, and conducts research in women's health.

"This center is unique in this country because it approaches women's health in a multidisciplinary fashion and serves women of all ages," says Dr. Elsa-Grace Giardina, professor of clinical medicine and center director of medicine. "By providing one place for a woman to address all her health needs, we minimize time away from the home or the office," says Claudia Holland, assistant clinical professor in OB/GYN and center director of OB/GYN.

Education programs include breakfast seminars and interactive videotapes on medical subjects of interest to women. Research is ongoing to test new drugs to prevent and reverse osteoporosis in women. To prevent hypercholesterolemia in women, certain dietary modifications are under investigation. The effect of eating disorders in women, such as bulimia, on the autonomic nervous system and its influence in sudden cardiac death is another research interest of the center. By coordinating women's health research activities, the center provides a patient base for large scale studies that will defray research costs and enable better comparisons when analyzing research results.

"The center will draw upon CPMC's strengths, including our ground- breaking work on cancer, particularly breast cancer, heart disease and preventive cardiology, osteoporosis and bone disease, gynecological services, and psychiatry," says Dr. Myron Weisfeldt, chairman of medicine.

Selected Basic and Clinical Women's Health Research Grants at Columbia: -----------------------------------------------------------------------

INVESTIGATOR DEPARTMENT SUBJECT(S)

John Bilezikian Medicine, Specialized Center for Pharmacology Research in Osteoporosis

Hyperparathyroidism (part of grant deals with postmenopausal women)

Michel Ferin Physiology and Adrenal-Gonadal Axis Cellular Biophysics and the Menstrual Cycle

Marilie Gammon School of Public Breast Cancer in Women Under Health Age 45

Adenocarcinomas of Esophagus and Gastric Cardia in Men and Women

Henry Ginsberg Medicine Study of Responses of Plasma Lipids and Lipoproteins to a Special Diet in Men and Women

Anne Golden School of Public Causes of Hip Fractures Among Health Black and White Women

Sally Lederman School of Public Body Composition of Health Pregnant Women

John O'Connor Pathology Urinary Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Expression in Pregnancy Loss

Ralph Sacco Neurology, Stroke Incidence and Prognosis School of Public in Men and Women in a Mixed Health Ethnic Region

Nancy Van Devanter School of Public Epidemiology Research and Health Study of AIDS and of AIDS and HIV Infection in Men and Women

Carolyn Westhoff Obstetrics & Infertility in Women Gynecology and Ovarian Cancer