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| Vol. 24, No. 18 |
| October 1, 2002 |
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TMC Tie Binds Campus and Community Women's Health Advocates By KATHLEEN CHARTER Texas Medical Center News It's official - on Aug. 27, the Women's Health Network was recognized as a sanctioned Texas Medical Center organization and renamed the Texas Medical Center Women's Health Network. "This 'grassroots' organization that has been officially recognized, is a fairly extraordinary thing," said Kathryn Stream, Ph.D., a Texas Medical Center senior vice president and liaison between the TMC and the Women's Health Network, who also serves on the network's board of directors. "When people from this many institutions come together, voluntarily, to pull off a network experience of this type, and an organization to perpetuate it, it is a reason to celebrate." Ground was broken and strides were made in the field of women's health care at an April event to announce the network, attended by approximately 200 people. The incentive for this group came from health professionals themselves -clinicians, researchers, and educators. There are now network representatives from all of the largest TMC institutions, including The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Woman's University Institute of Health Sciences - Houston, and The University of Texas at Houston schools of medicine, nursing and public health. The network founders and co-chairs are Joey Weiner, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Baylor and Kathryn Peek, Ph.D., research professor and director of TWU's Institute for Women's Health. In addition to the TMC representatives, recognized women's health agencies and organizations around the city now have official ties to women's health care professionals in the Texas Medical Center. These groups include the Rose Breast Care Center, Houston-Area Women's Center and Girls Inc. "An affiliation with the TMC offered two advantages the fledgling Women's Health Network," Peek said. "It gave immediate recognition, credibility and validity to what we do, and that we do in fact represent interests that reside within the Texas Medical Center and its institutions. Secondly, it provided a way for our community affiliates to have a TMC tie." "The kickoff meeting indicated the large numbers of individuals who are very interested in this topic," Stream said. "They're either educators or researchers, and this topic is very meaningful to them. These numbers caused us to begin the affiliation procedures to be associated with the Texas Medical Center." This month, the Texas Medical Center Women's Health Network will launch their Web site, which can be accessed at http://www.whn.library.tmc.edu. Until now, the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library has been the "home base" for the network, posting and hosting the network's information on their Web site and server. Stream said the library folks have spent a good bit of time and energy assisting the network with their communication services. Major plans are in the works for the site and what it will do for the group, Peek said. "This Web site is our voice and our public face," said Weiner, who has been instrumental in the site's content and design, "and includes a calendar of city-wide women's health activities; a directory of key TMC and city organization individuals, including researchers, speakers and mentors; opinion articles about current women's health topics; Web casts featuring panels of local experts discussing current topics; and a job search." Future network events include continuation of a free monthly seminar series, which is a networking opportunity for TMC and community groups (attendance at these gatherings has remained high, averaging 40 to 50 attendees each), and an annual women's health symposium, similar to this past spring's inaugural event. In addition, a network editorial board will continue responding quickly, and with insight, into any women's health issues that may arise. "Where do you have more health experts per square inch, than in the Texas Medical Center?" Peek said. "We were able to respond this past summer to the hormone replacement therapy announcement. We had the experts and personnel on hand to timely respond to questions from people all over the country." Weiner said the feedback on the group, so far, has been overwhelmingly positive, and the enthusiasm from the network's participants has been incredible. Peek concurred. "They have contributed resources that we would not have had individually," she said. "None of us could have pulled this network's organization off by ourselves. The shared energy brought to the table by Baylor, TWU, Texas Medical Center and the library really underscores the power of a network like this. It shows just what can be done when resources are pooled." Texas Medical Center Women's Health Network participants are invited from all local health care institutions and agencies. For further information and announcements about upcoming events, subscribe to the network's listserv by sending an e-mail to listserv@lib40.library.tmc.edu. Leave the subject line blank, and in the body of the message, type "Subscribe WHN <first name> <last name>." Free monthly seminars scheduled through December, and held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month in the street-level conference room at the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library, 1133 John Freeman Blvd., include:
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/10_01_02/page_12.html |