Wednesday, October 29, 1997
Women’s-health center receives two-year grant
EXCELLENCE: Award will fund plan to support causes affecting
women
By Kathryn Combs
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center, officially
recognized as a center of excellence nationally, is currently
working on a plan to get more women in medicine.
The center has been developing a two-year plan to utilize the
grant made earlier this month. When it won recognition as a center
of excellence, The U.S. Public Health Service’s Office of Women’s
Health awarded $300,000 to UCLA, only one of two universities
recognized in California.
Among those six others named were universities such as Brown
University and UC San Francisco.
The Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center, a division of the
Department of Medicine, was dedicated in 1995 and aims to provide
comprehensive health care for women while integrating education and
research components.
The university received $300,000 to work at providing a national
model for the improvement of health care of women.
"They wanted a national model for clinical care to be developed
and supported," said Janet Pregler, the center’s director. "It was
very good for UCLA because many other universities applied to
receive this award. It just shows the strength of UCLA."
The center is now beginning to develop its strategy for the next
two years.
Overall, plans include the development of a comprehensive Web
site aimed at educating students and professionals about the
importance of women’s health.
"We will construct a UCLA Web site that will be linked to
different centers in UCLA and those beyond," Pregler said. "It is
going to continue to promote the education of lay people, the
education of students and the education of professionals."
The center plans to further integrate women’s health into the
medical school curriculum.
"We want to develop professional health care training in women’s
health," Pregler said.
According to Medical Center Provost Gerald Levey, women’s health
has not been focused on traditionally.
"The focus on women’s health has really come to the floor in the
1990s," Levey said.
"Before that, women were frequently not part of clinical
research projects. Now it’s recognized that there are enough
differences between women and men that when you study a medical
question, it’s important to study it from two perspectives," he
said.
Pregler also plans to move UCLA’s efforts beyond UCLA and into
the community.
"(We also plan) to develop a considerable education program
where we can reach out to the community groups who have similar
health care concerns," Pregler said.
"Because of our special mission, patients can hear about and
participate in important research focusing on the special health
concerns of women," said Gail Greendale, research director of the
Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center.
A unique component of the center is the Women in Academic
Medicine Leadership Plan.
"The last thing that we are doing is developing a program for
the promotion of women into leading positions in academic
medicine," Pregler said.
"This will be a central location where women faculty can get
information on gender and power abuse on campus and where they can
collaborate with other women," she said.