Medscape’s Commitment to Health Equity and Women’s Health
March 16, 2023 | Health Equity, Mescape, medical education, women's health
Women’s health is a topic of increasing importance and interest among the medical community. Beyond impacting the individual patient, women’s health is a public health issue in communities around the world.1 In the past 3 years, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health has published more than 700 articles on topics related to women’s health, and societal and environmental issues highlight the need for a greater focus on health issues impacting women. Factors such as climate change and pollution are being shown to have an impact on women and therefore on their babies — many of these issues can have effects that last throughout a child’s life.1
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted women’s health issues. Research is showing that women may have higher levels of long-term morbidity from COVID-19, and during the early days of the pandemic many women were separated from their infants or stopped breastfeeding over fears of infection. During the pandemic, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that women with economic and health challenges experienced worsening health conditions that researchers warned could translate into higher number of severe health issues.2
Social determinants of health also have a significant impact on women’s health. For many conditions, women face higher risks than men due in part to biological factors, but also due to social disadvantages, gender bias in medical research and care, as well as unequal levels of health literacy.3–7 For example, although there is no biological reason, heart disease is the number 1 killer of American women and kills women at a higher rate than men — resulting in 1 in 5 women deaths.8 Proving this, the Journal of the American Heart Association found that women’s survival rate is the same as that of men when they receive the same interventions.9
Research also shows that one third of women — and 40% of pregnant women — will develop anemia, which can raise the risk of stroke in women of childbearing age.1 Although the results from a recent women’s health study demonstrated that bloating and abdominal cramps were 2 of the most bothersome symptoms experienced by reproductive-aged respondents (N = 6141; November 14, 2019 to December 31, 2020),10 the lack of acknowledgment of pain symptoms by clinicians could result in delayed diagnosis of common underlying health conditions, ineffective management, and continued suffering for women.11,12
With all these factors and issues to consider, it is more important than ever that clinicians across specialties and across the care team stay current on the latest treatment and diagnosis guidelines and clinical pearls. Medscape is committed to providing women’s health education that meets learners where they are and provides critical information from leading faculty.
In 2022, Medscape held their inaugural Women’s Health Master Class — a 2-day virtual meeting with a focus on elevating care for women. This meeting helped to translate the latest data into information that clinicians could apply to their practice in order to improve outcomes.
As a part of Medscape’s mission to improve women’s health, more than $18,000 from event registration fees was donated to the Society for Women’s Health Research.
The 685 participants spanned multiple specialties and job titles, including Ob/Gyn, primary care, pediatrics, urology, RNs, NPs, PAs, and MDs, from attending physician level to residents and fellows. The 2-day conference covered topics including unmet needs in women’s health, raising the voice of women in HIV, empowering contraceptive decisions, cervical cancer screening disparities, addressing HPV vaccine hesitancy, and more.
The response from participants was overwhelmingly positive, with the vast majority reporting that the meeting encouraged them to feel more confident and more competent; and that it promoted improvement in their performance and in their patients’ outcomes and collaboration with the healthcare team. With 42% of participants on the second day reporting that the content would benefit 16+ patients per month, the Women’s Health Master Class has the potential to have an impact on a large number of patients and promote better outcomes.
In 2023, the Women’s Health Master Class will be returning for a 2-day virtual event. The event will be held on November 8-9.
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For the US please contact:: Piyali Shin, David Anderson or Jess Dropkin
For Ex-US please contact: Stephen Dunn, Peter Schoonheim or Jelena Spyropoulos
1. Binns C, Lee MK, Wren L. The broad spectrum and continuing needs of women’s health. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19:1446.
2. Frederiksen B, Ranji U, Salganicoff A, et al. Women’s experiences with health care during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from the KFF Women’s Health Survey. March 22, 2021. Accessed February 22, 2023. https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/womens-experiences-with-health-care-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-findings-from-the-kff-womens-health-survey/
3. Buckley RF, Mormino EC, Rabin JS, et al. Sex differences in the association of global amyloid and regional tau deposition measured by positron emission tomography in clinically normal older adults. JAMA Neurol. 2018;76:542-551.
4. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Women’s Health. Osteoporosis. February 22, 2021. Accessed February 22, 2023. https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/osteoporosis
5. Rohmann JL, Rist PM, Buring JE, et al. Migraine, headache, and mortality in women: a cohort study. J Headache Pain.2020;21:27.
6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Women and Stroke. June 28, 2022. Accessed February 22, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/women.htm
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Women and Heart Disease. February 21, 2023. Accessed February 22, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/women.htm
8. Alabas OA, Gale CP, Hall M, et al.Sex differences in treatments, relative survival, and excess mortality following acute myocardial infarction: national cohort study using the SWEDEHEART Registry. J Am Heart Assoc.2017;6:e007123.
9. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health. Diabetes and African-Americans. February 17, 2023. Accessed February 22, 2023. https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=18
10. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HPH). Apple women’s health data. Menstrual symptom data can help end period stigma. March 2021. Accessed February 22, 2023. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/applewomenshealthstudy/updates/menstrual-symptom-data-can-help-end-period-stigma/
11. Marsh EE, Al-Hendy A, Kappus D, et al. Burden, prevalence, and treatment of uterine fibroids: a survey of U.S. women. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2018;27:1359-1367.
12. Ritchey M. Uterine fibroids: raising awareness for an overlooked disease. Published July 8, 2019. Accessed February 11, 2021. https://swhr.org/uterine-fibroids-raising-awareness-for-an-overlooked-disease/
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