More wonderful links!

Rachel Walden, a biomedical librarian at Vanderbilt, has written about us on her amazing blog, Women's Health News. We are so happy to be mentioned and are so glad that she enjoyed Diana Whitten's lecture. Check her blog out for all kinds of cool links and interesting articles.

We're famous!

The fabulous Diana Whitten came in to NashVegas last night, and we had a wonderful small group discussion at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Howard Jones (Dr. Jones is the chair of ob/gyn at Vanderbilt).
Today Diana showed clips of her film, Vessel, and talked about some of the issues surrounding abortion internationally.
She also mentioned us in her blog! Check it out, give her donations, and watch the clips.

I'm about to go take her to the airport, but today has made me very excited for the rest of the week!

Pathology Training Session

One of the wonderful resources that Vanderbilt is able to offer is the Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment (CELA), which uses simulations to teach medical students.

As you know, women's health week culminates in a service project on Saturday where under the supervision of attendings and residents, we provide free well woman exams and medical care to uninsured women in Nashville. We train the students in CELA during the week to prepare for Saturday.

We have just booked Dr. Kelley Joggerst, a fourth year pathology resident, to provide a pathology workshop to the students who sign up.

Many thanks to Dr. Joyce Johnson and Dr. Kelley Joggerst for making this possible!

Speakers Update!

Due to scheduling difficulties, we are rescheduling Rebekah Gee for the spring!

We are thrilled to announce we have our final speaker - Beth Huff, Assistant Professor of Obstentrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center speaking on “Reducing Deaths from Cervical Cancer in Tennessee”

This topic is particularly pertinent because of our service project on Saturday, where we provide free pap smears and well woman exams to women in Nashville at Shade Tree Clinic.

Women's Health Week at the White House

Nashville in the Rose Garden! Myself with Dr. Wayne J. Riley, the president of Meharry Medical College and Dr. Joe Stubbs, the president of the American College of Physicians.

I have another picture like this.

I was lucky enough to represent Tennessee at the White House Rose Garden event that President Obama hosted last Monday.

Here is the statement I submitted to the White House - the prompt was "80 words on why you fight for health care reform."

I help organize a service project that recruits doctors and medical students to join together for one day to provide free pap smears, Gardasil, and contraceptive counseling to uninsured women in Nashville. When researching followup care options for these women, I realized there were no options, no places for us to refer these women to continue care. I felt helpless to address the need - Tennessee has a heartbreakingly high infant mortality rate due to the lack of available resources for our women. There has to be a better way.

Learn more about Doctors for America.

Diana Whitten!

Monday, October 26th, Diana Whitten, director of The Vessel, will be coming to speak and show clips of her film. The Vessel is a film about Women on the Waves, a ship that travels around the world and provides safe medical abortions to women in countries where abortion is illegal.

We are so excited to have her and to hear her story of the film, her research, and Women on the Waves.

Check out more info and/or donate to The Vessel here!

Women's Health News

A great blog published by a medical librarian at Vanderbilt on Women's Health issues!

Speaker Announcements!

Carol and I are oh so excited to start announcing our speakers for this year!

The confirmed line up:

Wednesday, October 28th at noon:

Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, Dr. Gloria Richard-Davis, Dr. Kathie Hartman of the Tennessee Women's Health Report Card to give a panel discussion on the state of Women's Health in Tennessee.

Friday, October 30th at noon:

Dr. Rebekah Gee, MD, MPH, co-chair of Women's Health for Obama for America, reproductive rights activist and researcher, and huge girl crush of Carol and Jacci to speak on the state of Women's Reproductive Health and Legislation in the US

Other exciting events:

-women's self-defense training provided by the Vanderbilt Medical School Safety Committee

-training in pelvic exams, STD testing, contraception in CELA

-Shade Tree Service Day!

More updates to come!

New this year to Women's Health Week - focused recruitment

One of the historical issues with women's health week has been recruiting women to actually participate in receiving their well-woman exams. Today Jacci and I met with Lara Bratcher, a fourth year MD/MPH student who will be spearheading our recruitment efforts at local women's shelters. Women's Health Week culminates in a service day at Shade Tree clinic.

In response, we are going to send groups of 2-3 students to each of the shelters 2-2.5 weeks before that Saturday to present to women at shelters: What is a well-woman exam? Why is it important? What resources are available to me in Nashville? Lara is designing the curriculum, and we are putting together gift bags for these women, which will include an informational brochure along with other goodies like makeup and toiletries.

We're pumped about launching this educational component to women's health week!

A tiny, but huge crisis

Tennessee has one of the country's worst infant mortality rates. It's due to a combination of lack of education, low income, lack of access to resources, and low overall health. I don't think you can read this article without tearing up a little.
Check out this Tennessean article on Tennessee's infant mortality rate.


Also, a response from Feministe about the failure of sex education and its impact on the infant mortality rate.


Thanks to Medical Students for Choice for posting this and bringing it to our attention!

2009 Tennessee Women's Health Report Card

The Women’s Health Research group at Vanderbilt released their 2009 Tennessee Women’s Health Report Card.

Take a peek at this important 8 page document.

http://www.medicineandpublichealth.vanderbilt.edu/2009TNWomensHealthReportCard.pdf

Vanderbilt AMWA is selling tshirts!

Support the Vanderbilt Chapter of the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA)!

Our chapter is part of an organization that extends to the national level and strives to advance women in medicine and to improve women's health.

Our tshirts come in grey and pink and are $15 each. Please email AMWA Community Outreach Chair Catie Hawley (catherine.r.hawley@vanderbilt.edu) for more information.

Oregon Health Sciences University

... had hula hooping at their Women's Health Week. How can we top that?

Jacci and I Have Picked a Date and Couldn't be More Excited!

Mark your calendars.

Women's Health Week at Vanderbilt will be October 25th-31st.