A consulting firm dedicated to creating thriving communities by engaging individuals, businesses and systems. Communities thrive when individuals have dignity, purpose and self worth, businesses have happy, healthy employees and the systems that support them are high quality, equitable and efficient.
Dr. Saralyn Mark on The Woman’s Connection® with Barrie-Louise Switzen. Dr. Mark discusses some of the affects that our astronauts have experienced and how these medical/scientific results have enhanced our own health. Additionally, she shares with us how shopping and chocolate can be good for our health. Her book “Stellar Medicine: A Journey through the Universe of Women’s Health” goes into a more in depth discussion on our health. Buy her book
The Woman’s Connection® is about “events shaping women’s lives and helping one gain authentic power on a personal or professional level”. Check out the web site www.womans-connection.com
“The Women’s Health Congress is, year after year, the most exciting and innovative update on the whole gamut of women’s health issues I know. And it’s a tremendous value for CME dollars.” John Partridge, MD, Richmond, VA
“I can honestly say that it was the best medical conference I have ever attended. The quality of the talks was consistently excellent, and the topics were great and on target. Even though there were various types of providers present, there was something to learn from each presentation for NP’s, docs, primary care, and OB’s.” Barbara Gottlieb, MD, MPH, Harvard
“Excellent program…I will definitely spread the word to my colleagues.” Yolanda Hacker, M.D., Atlanta
“The lectures were topical and the discussions were spirited. Befriending some wonderfully dynamic women was an added bonus.” Cathy Sila, M.D., Cleveland Clinic Foundation
“It was a pleasure to hear cutting-edge information presented by high-powered speakers in such a friendly environment.” Ann Morrison, R.N., Johns Hopkins
Tune in to Women’s Health Today hosted by Giovanna Rossi on December 23 at 8am on KUNM 89.9fm or online at kunm.org. The show will feature Dr. Saralyn Mark, sex and gender based health expert and NASA medical consultant, who will discuss her new book “Stellar Medicine: A Journey Through Women’s Health”. Also on the show: important information you may not know about the impact of health care reform on women in New Mexico. Listen to the promo here.
This Profile was compiled at the Women’s Health Office in 2009 and provides great information for New Mexico community members and policy makers. WomensHealthProfileFinal
Gender Impacts Policy, a project of the non-profit Center of Southwest Culture, has submitted a report to the New Mexico Human Services Department under a federal health care reform planning grant on the sex and gender implications of a New Mexico health insurance exchange. The project director was Giovanna Rossi and project adviser was Dr. Justina Trott. Sex-Gender Final Report June 2011
Sex and gender differences in health outcomes are significantly impacted by a person’s environment and cultural practices in diet, geography, education, social practices, and resource availability (especially economic). Consequently, there is need for analyzing the inter-relational impact of diversity and other social determinants of health in implementing sex- and gender-based programs to truly achieve health equity, and that such an analysis must be conducted at multiple levels of intervention (policy, planning, programs, services, and research).
This project utilizes a sex and gender lens to analyze barriers to health coverage, participation in a health insurance exchange, benefits and services, and customer information to assess the differential impact on women to achieve health equity. The benefit package of insurance products sold in a health insurance exchange and other health insurance exchange services will need to be designed to address the needs of and be accessible to populations of both men and women in all of their diversities.
For the purpose of our study and this report, sex and gender stakeholder population is defined as, and this project focuses on, input from diverse populations of women, including ethnicity, socio-economic status, age, abilities, geographic region, and sexual orientation. The stakeholder input methodology is designed to include people in greatest economic and social need, particularly low-income, minority, and rural individuals. The methodology includes four key informant interviews, seven focus groups, a policy forum, and a gender analysis of secondary sex-disaggregated data. A statewide stakeholder participant recruitment plan is developed, which includes input from Native Americans, Hispanic/Latinas, parents of transgendered teens, young women, low-income women, monolingual Spanish speakers, and rural women.
Key Recommendations for Establishing a Health Insurance Exchange
The recommendations presented here are organized around the core areas studied: health coverage, participation in a health insurance exchange, benefits and services, customer service, and gender roles. We then group themes that include cost; family impact; power structures and cultural barriers; information, knowledge and trust; and comprehensive, integrated and colocated services. And given the needs identified in this report, a Basic Health Plan (BHP) in New Mexico would benefit the population studied.
July 13, 2011|By Marissa Cevallos, HealthKey / For the Booster Shots blog
Cancer kills more men than women — some forms more than others, finds a new study.
In the new assessment of cancer data, men are more than twice as likely than women to die from lung, skin, kidney and liver cancers. Overall, not including sex-specific or breast cancers, men’s death rates are 1.9 times higher than women’s, according to the new research.
Scientists already knew men were at higher risk for developing most cancers, but it wasn’t clear if men also died more from cancer. Researchers from the National Cancer Institute pooled together cancer death rates between 1977 and 2006 from a large U.S. cancer database.
They found for the vast majority of cancers, men were more likely to die than women. Only three cancers kill more women than men (well, besides the ones men don’t get): the relatively rare peritoneum, omentum and mesentery; gall bladder; and anus, anal canal and anorectum cancers. The research was published online Tuesday in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
The reason? It’s not necessarily that women are better than men at surviving cancer once they have it. The authors write in their discussion:
“This supports the idea that sex disparities in cancer mortality arise from the sex differences in cancer incidence. … It is feasible that differential environmental exposures and/or physiologic processes, such as sex hormones, could explain the observed sex disparities in survival.”
Such factors include differences in lifestyle. For example, the researchers found that men are more than five times as likely to die from lip and larynx cancers, two cancers linked to tobacco and heavy alcohol use.
