PBN Staff
Brown University and Women & Infants’ Hospital Tuesday have been tabbed as one of six new federal National Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health. Officials said the designation could mean an influx of federal funding for women’s health research and initiatives, and ultimately will improve the health of women statewide.
“The bottom line will be improvement in health programs – and health status – of the women of Rhode Island,” Dr. Maureen Phipps, who will direct the center, said during a celebratory announcement at the hospital Oct. 28. Phipps is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and community health at Brown and associate director of the Division of Research at Women & Infants.
The designation from the federal Department of Health & Human Services does not include an initial influx of grant dollars. However, Phipps said it “leverages us for NIH funding specific to women’s health initiatives.”
Brown and hospital officials said the center for excellence will use a systems approach to improve women’s health by collaborating across medical school departments, hospitals, the Department of Health, community groups and other health care alliances.
That integration will include five key components, Phipps said: research, clinical care, community outreach, professional education and leadership development.
“Initiatives and programs won’t be siloed, but will be integrated so one informs another,” Phipps said.
Goals of the center include:
– Improve quality of and access to care, especially “under-served and vulnerable” women
– Enable women’s health researchers to work more closely on research initiatives, both regionally and nationally
– Provide community education and services to diverse groups of women
– Improve the medical curriculum in women’s health throughout the medical school
– Provide more and better professional opportunities for women medical residents, fellows and faculty.
There are 19 Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health in the country, each based at an academic medical center. The centers serve as demonstration sites, or models for other hospitals on how to provide more innovative, better coordinated, more effective care to women.
“These new centers will help to develop effective approaches for improving women’s health that can be adopted in communities throughout America,” said HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson in a statement.
New England has two centers: Boston University Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.
