Women S Health

It looks more like a library than a hospital.That's exactly the point.Carroll County General Hospital's new Women's Place, set to fully open in October, is designed for a dual mission of teaching and treating female patients -- whom studies have shown are the hottest target group in health care.The outpatient center is on the Westminster hospital's campus and was modeled after other successful women's centers at Greater Baltimore Medical Center and Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, said Teresa Fletcher, director of marketing at the hospital.

In the last decade, the medical community has emphasized that understanding and prevention are fundamental ingredients of sound health. Keeping up with the latest strides in medical technology, though, is easier said than done. Who has time to read the latest medical journals?Friday, the Maryland Science Center debuts a new interactive exhibit that lets visitors peek at the latest advances but adds a spoonful of sugar to the medicine. According to the center, the interactive twist makes "The Changing Face of Women's Health" the first women's health exhibit of its kind.

Sister Helen Amos, who has built strong programs -- and marketed them adroitly -- in eight years as president and chief executive officer of Mercy Medical Center, will become board chairwoman of Mercy's new parent organization July 1.She has led a hospital that has remained independent in a period of mergers, has drawn more patients as the number of patients in the state was dropping, and has thrived downtown while other hospitals were chasing business in...

Any woman alive today who has experienced life-extending medical treatment, from a mastectomy to bypass surgery, can attest to major milestones in women's health. Those same women probably can point to any number of areas that sorely need improvement, from managed care, reproduction issues and gender bias in the medical care system, to sexually transmitted diseases, violence against women and societal obsession with an "ideal" body size.So it makes sense that three respected women's health advocates will speak about these and other crises confronting females of all ages in a lecture series at Maryland Science Center, where the current exhibition, "The Changing Face of Women's Health," recognizes dramatic medical advances of the past 50 years.

Every era has its ideal woman: In the Stone Age, she was compact and strong, a short, squat figure with a large bust and an equally healthy stomach. Today, society's standard of physical perfection often seems to be a long-legged blond with a tiny waist -- 38-18-28, to be exact.In the $3 million interactive exhibit that opened yesterday at the Maryland Science Center, women young and old tell the story of their struggle to make their bodies "perfect."They've deformed their rib cages with corsets and ruined their feet in high heels.

New positionsMcCormick's McCafferty gains development postMcCormick & Co., the Sparks-based spice and flavorings manufacturer, appointed Denise W. McCafferty director of global product development in the company's corporate research and development laboratories. An MBA graduate of Loyola College, the Sparks resident joined the international company as a lab technician in 1975. She is a member of several professional groups, including the American Chemical Society and the Institute of Food Technologists.

Women's health gets a head-to-toe examination in a stand-alone issue of Scientific American . Titled Scientific American Presents Women's Health: A Lifelong Guide, the 120-page magazine, published for summer 1998, outlines new findings in specific age groups from the teens to 70s and older and examines lifelong measures to ensure good health.After years of treating women like "men with a uterus," said editor Carol Ezell, researchers are finding definite gender differences in many areas, including addiction, depression and autoimmune diseases, as well as in reactions to pain and anesthesia.

GBMC merger must protect health choices at life's beginning, endThe Greater Baltimore Medical Center's board of directors is about to make a decision that may affect the health of Baltimore-area women and their families. The hospital has always been the area's leader for women's health care. GBMC was formed by the merger of Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital and the Hospital for Women of Maryland.While we understand that the board believes that a merger with another hospital will build strength and alleviate financial pressures, women of the Greater Baltimore community do not want to be robbed of reproductive-care services.

ATLANTA -- Now for a brief conversation about the pill. Yes, that one, the oral contraceptive that was dropped into midcentury American mores with such an impact that it was forever after known simply as the pill.These days we have discovered a new irony on the prescription pad: The only pill your insurance may not pay for is the one we call the pill.This is the crux of the new conversation about women's health and wealth. How did we get to a place where we treat birth control differently from all other health care?

BOSTON -- Zohra Rasekh spreads her snapshots before me as if she were a tourist and these were pictures she'd taken of the colorful natives. "This is a doctor," she tells me, "and this is a teacher."I nod, although it is hard to tell one of these women from another. They are covered from head to toe under a heavy black burka, looking at the world out of a rectangle of thick netting.It wasn't always like this. Forty percent of Afghan doctors were once women; more than half the teachers were women.

Plan wouldn't fund abortion After a month of right-wing activists employing every scare tactic imaginable at congressional town hall meetings on health reform, columnist Kathleen Parker falsely claimed that health care reform would lead to federally funded abortions ("Abortion issue could thwart Obama's health reform goals," Sept. 9). The truth is that advocates for women's health care, including Planned Parenthood, are focused on achieving affordable, quality health care for all and ensuring that women's broad health needs are met through reform.

Entries sought for Art Bras Challenge The Anne Arundel County Department of Health and the Annapolis Quilt Guild are accepting entries for the fourth annual Cup of the Month Challenge. Contestants will create Art Bras, decorated bras that inspire and support breast cancer awareness, screening and treatment. Entry forms and contest rules are available on the Department of Health Web site, www.aahealth.org. Under Hot Topics, click Cup of the Month Bra Art Challenge. There is no cost to enter, but bras must be submitted by Sept.

* Dr. Carole Miller is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's National Woman of the Year. Miller, a nationally recognized expert in the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma and director of the St. Agnes Cancer Center, was among 195 candidates for the title, which is given to the person who raises the most money for the society. Miller raised more than $122,000, a Maryland chapter record, and $40,000 more than the runner-up. She used a variety of grass-roots strategies for her fundraising campaign, including letter-writing, basket bingo, a casino night and a silent auction.

WASHINGTON -- Saudi King Abdullah's pardon of the "Qatif girl" - who was gang-raped and then sentenced to 200 lashes and six months imprisonment for "improper mingling" - is welcome news. With something less than gratitude, Westerners are nonetheless relieved. It seems obvious that the king's decision was influenced in part by pressures both from the international community, including the United States, and within Saudi Arabia, where some writers and others bravely expressed outrage and embarrassment.

Connie Hewitt was surprised to learn that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the United States. For the past five years, Hewitt has been a volunteer for a women's health conference held by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After learning that she had nine of 10 common risk factors for heart disease at last year's conference, she lost 45 pounds and started exercising regularly and eating a more healthful diet. Yesterday, Hewitt -- along with nearly 1,000 other women -- attended "A Woman's Journey," Hopkins' 13th annual conference focusing on women's health issues.

A 2002 study that led millions of women to throw out their hormone pills may have overestimated the dangers of that medication to women in their 50s, new research suggests. The new study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association found that for women near the start of menopause, the pills do not increase the incidence of heart attacks or other cardiac complications. Findings regarding stroke were less clear cut, but researchers said that the youngest women appeared to be at the lowest risk.

WASHINGTON -- When President Bush nominated Ellen R. Sauerbrey for a top State Department post last fall, outside advocacy groups waged an extended - and ultimately unsuccessful - fight to keep her from getting the job. Now that she's in it, those critics are changing their tune about the outspoken conservative Republican from Maryland. "The bottom line is, our initial impressions are good," said Kenneth H. Bacon, president of Refugees International, who met recently with Sauerbrey, at her request.

If practice makes perfect, the Food and Drug Administration may finally be on its way to regaining confidence in its ability to protect public safety. The conflict-ridden agency - both shill for the pharmaceutical industry and stooge for White House political shop - can hardly afford any more steps backward. In naming veteran FDA official Kathleen Uhl to head the office of women's health, the Bush administration has at least met what would seem to be the minimum requirements for the post: She is a woman and a physician.

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration appointed an agency veteran yesterday to take on the politically sensitive role of advocating for women's health issues as it faces criticism that abortion politics are affecting decision making. Dr. Kathleen Uhl will replace Dr. Susan F. Wood, who resigned as director of the Office of Women's Health in September to protest the FDA's decision to delay approval of over-the-counter sales of the "morning-after" pill. Wood accused the agency of caving in to conservative pressure and ignoring sound science.

Maria Calabrese of Woodlawn has sketched out her peach-and-white wedding colors and designed the perfect gown in her head. After three years of dating her fiance - and having a child with him - she was ecstatic when he dropped to one knee in front of their Pimlico congregation, produced a bouquet of roses that held an engagement ring and proposed marriage. Calabrese, 20, looks forward eating dinner together as a family, talking after the children are in bed, and praying together. She expects her marriage to last, and expects it to make her happy.