The handwritten letter: a thing of the past?
Posted by on January 8, 2012 - 6:13am

Today, I walked by a filled meeting room and overheard someone say,  " I never open my paper mail any more."   It sounded like the group was discussing email banking and other electronic transactions.   Though I still pay my bills by snail mail, I recognize  the potential benefits of the latest phone and computer apps--I'm just not ready for it!    Email and facebook has reconnected families and opened communications lines that enable busy, overworked people to keep you posted on their latest activities.

 

 

 

What does concern me is the loss of the wonderful art of letterwriting.   Does anyone remember when love letters were saved and tied in ribbon?  What about those letters you received at camp or when you first went away to college?   The handwritten letter meant someone was really thinking about you and missed you.  The letter was even more special if the writing itself was beautiful or if the bold print of a child was accompanied by a colorful crayola picture!    Today, many of us still find old letters in boxes that are stored away in our sheds and closets from families and friends.   Somehow, opening a computer file just doesn't work quite the same when it comes to nostalgia and fond memories.

Battling Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Posted by on January 7, 2012 - 6:41am

This time of year, the shorter days and lack of sunlight can cause some people to feel depressed. Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, affects between 10 to 20 percent of Americans, primarily younger adults and women. Although the exact cause of SAD is unknown, experts believe changes in melatonin and serotonin levels, or a disruption in the body’s internal clock may be to blame. John Stracks, MD, from Northwestern Integrative Medicine says there are ways to beat the blues caused by SAD and suggests those who experience symptoms visit their doctor before symptoms become severe.

“SAD is a type of depression that shouldn’t be ignored and can be treated,” said Stracks, who specializes in family medicine and integrative medicine. “With the proper regimen, people who experience symptoms can learn to feel content.”   People who suffer from SAD often experience some or all of the following symptoms.

• Feeling depressed, fatigued or lethargic
• Difficulty waking up in the morning and a tendency to sleep more often
• Increased appetite, especially for foods full of carbohydrates, leading to weight gain
• Loss of interest or enjoyment in activities once enjoyed or with others
• Trouble concentrating

Traditional treatments for SAD include psychotherapy, medication and therapeutic light therapy.

“Light therapy works by mimicking sunlight, which causes a biochemical change in your brain that lifts your mood,” said Stracks. “This is often used in conjunction with visits with a therapist to combat depression.”   Stracks also recommends alternative approaches. “If your symptoms are milder, the combination of good nutrition, natural supplements, exercise and relaxation or meditation can be very effective in improving your mood,” said Stracks.

While he encourages those who believe they suffer from SAD to see a doctor to determine appropriate therapies and treatment, Stracks suggests the following tips that anyone can do to keep their mood balanced this time of year.

• Sleep well - Make sure you wake up at the time same every day, including weekends. Doing so will keep your body’s internal clock in sync.

• Let the light in - Expose yourself to as much sunlight as possible by opening your blinds at home and making sure that your work space has natural or bright light.

• Control your cravings - Eat a balanced diet while limiting the amount of carbohydrates you are eating. Carbohydrates can provide a short-term energy boost but leave you feeling worse later in the day.

• Embrace an exercise routine - Exercise is not only good for your physical health, but also helps relieve the stress and anxiety that can increase the symptoms of SAD. Yoga and Pilates type classes are a good way to relax and exercise at the same time.

• Learn to manage your stress - Take time to relax each day and try to manage your stress so it doesn’t lead to depression and overeating. Make it a point to stay connected to people who are important to you, as they will help you remain calm and happy.

“Good spirits don’t have to disappear as the hours of sunlight dwindle during the winter,” added Stracks. “This time of year should be the most enjoyable, but if you find yourself feeling down, there are things you can do to help.”

Source:  Northwestern Memorial Hospital

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Bring in the New Year with better food safety habits
Posted by on January 5, 2012 - 6:33am

Some people don’t take food poisoning very seriously. Maybe that’s because the symptoms usually are not long-lasting in most healthy people—a few hours or a few days—and usually go away without medical treatment. But foodborne illness can be severe, even life-threatening to anyone, especially those most at risk such as older adults, infants and young children, pregnant women, and people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, or any condition that weakens their immune systems.

Threats to food safety constantly evolve. New disease-causing organisms emerge and known pathogens become more virulent. In addition, consumers increasingly want food that is less processed.  Even though government food safety regulators received important new tools to help protect us in the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, it’s clear that individuals need to take every practical step they can to prevent foodborne illness.

Since it’s traditional at the start of a new year to think about what needs to be changed in one’s life to make it happier and healthier, here are a few suggestions for resolutions to help eliminate foodborne illness from your and your families’ lives.

Clean: Resolve to wash your hands before, during and after handling food. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), handwashing has the potential to save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention. To do it effectively, wet your hands with clean running water (warm or cold) and apply soap. Rub your hands together to make a lather and scrub them well for at least 20 seconds. Air dry or use a clean paper towel.

Separate: If you only have one cutting board, resolve to get another to help avoid cross-contamination. Use one for foods that will be cooked, such as meat, poultry, and seafood, and the other for foods like fruits and vegetables that will be eaten raw. That way the raw foods won’t be contaminated by the juices from the ones to be cooked.  If you do get a new cutting board, get one that’s dishwasher-safe.  The very hot water and strong detergent typically used in dishwashers can eliminate a lot of bacteria.

Cook: Resolve to get a food thermometer, if you don’t have one.  Only a food thermometer can make sure meat, poultry, fish, and casseroles are cooked to a safe internal temperature—hot enough to kill any pathogens that may be present.

Chill: Similarly, resolve to get an appliance thermometer to  be sure your refrigerator is at or below 40ºF. Between 40ºF and 140ºF is the Danger Zone when bacteria multiply rapidly. The more bacteria, the more likely someone will get sick.  Most refrigerators have just a colder/warmer adjustment, so the only way to know the temperature is to put a thermometer inside.

 

 

For more information, check out these resources:

Long-Term Effects of Food Poisoning

Don’t Cross-Contaminate

Making Food Safer to Eat

 

More Knee Replacement Surgery Due to Baby Boomers
Posted by on January 3, 2012 - 12:17pm

Women and men between the ages of 45 and 64 were more than twice as likely to have had knee replacement surgery in 2009 than in 1997, recent data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) show.  The rates among women were even higher. Knee replacement surgery is most common in people whose knees have been damaged by osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis, or injury. Due to their age and fondness for sports, Baby Boomers fit neatly into each category.

The percentage of people who have osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis, grows with age. About 27 million Americans have this condition, and, after age 45, it is more common in women. Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage that coats the end of each bone breaks down. This can cause the bones to rub against each other, causing pain and stiffness.

Knee pain may also be caused by rheumatoid arthritis, a less common form of arthritis that occurs when the membrane surrounding the joint becomes inflamed. Over time, inflammation damages cartilage, resulting in pain and stiffness. Rheumatoid arthritis affects about 1.3 million people—more women than men. It often begins in middle age, but can occur in children and young adults.

Arthritis after a serious knee injury or repeated stress is another reason for knee replacement surgery. Pain caused by ligament tears or bone fractures caused by sports injuries, for example, may be managed non-surgically for years. Over time, however, pain and limited knee function causes some patients to consider knee replacement surgery.

If you have knee pain from one of these causes, you've probably heard about treatments that are intended to relieve pain and even postpone the need for surgery. Some, but not all, of these options work, a review of 86 research reports funded by AHRQ has found.

What has been shown to work?

  • Exercise. Becoming more active—whether through walking, swimming, or water aerobics—can reduce pain and make movement easier. Physical therapy may also help, so ask your doctor if you would benefit.
  • Maintain a healthy weight. A 10 percent weight loss combined with a moderate exercise program reduced knee pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis by 50 percent, a recent study  by Wake Forest University researchers has found.
  • Pain medicines. Medicines can relieve osteoarthritis pain, AHRQ's research review concluded. Your doctor or nurse may prescribe an over-the-counter or prescription medicine.

What has been shown not to work?

  • Glucosamine and chondroitin. Some people take nutritional supplements to help build new cartilage. Studies have found that people who take these supplements report less pain, but people who don't take the supplements report the same result.
  • Joint lubrication shots. This treatment is a gel-like substance given by a shot into the knee. Studies have found that most people who get the shots do not improve very much.
  • Arthroscopic knee surgery. In this procedure, a flexible tool is inserted into the knee, which is used to rinse the joint. It can be helpful for other types of knee problems, but not for knee osteoarthritis.

If conservative treatments don't provide relief from pain, it may be time to consider knee replacement surgery. The good news is that this procedure has been shown to give a better quality of life that makes it worth the cost, a Government-funded study has found. The benefits of this procedure are even better if the surgery is done at a hospital that does a large number of knee replacement procedures.

Before you have surgery, prepare yourself for the best possible outcome by asking questions of your surgeon. You will feel more in control of your health if you have a good idea of what to expect before, during, and after surgery.

Resources
Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A Guide for Adults
Choosing Pain Medicine for Osteoarthritis
Having Surgery? What You Need to Know
Handout on Health: Osteoarthritis
Handout on Health: Rheumatoid Arthritis
Total Knee Replacement Found Cost-Effective for End-Stage Knee OA
Weight Loss Best Medicine for People with Knee Osteoarthritis
Internet Citation: http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/cc/cc010312.htm

 

Eating fish once a week may lower risk of dementia is elderly
Posted by on January 2, 2012 - 7:42am

Eating fish at least once a week could help lower older patients' risk of developing dementia, according to Cyrus Raji, MD, PhD, from the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues reported at the Nov. 2011 Radiological Society of North America meeting.

Those who ate baked or broiled -- but not fried -- fish on a weekly basis had a greater volume of gray matter in areas of the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease than people who didn't eat fish as often.  Preserving brain volume was also associated with lower rates of developing cognitive impairment, he said.

"Fish consumption benefits gray matter volume, potentially reducing the risk of [Alzheimer's disease and dementia] long-term," Raji said during a press briefing.

Although a National Institutes of Health panel decided last year that nothing conclusively prevents Alzheimer's disease, researchers continue to investigate whether a healthy diet, or specific components thereof, can have any beneficial effects.

For their study, Raji and colleagues assessed 260 people, mean age 71, when they enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study between 1989 and 1990. At that time, they filled out questionnaires on dietary intake; 163 reported eating fish at least weekly, and some did so as often as four times a week.

All patients had an MRI 10 years later to assess brain volume, and then had follow-up cognitive testing between 2002 and 2003.

The researchers found that patients who ate fish at least once a week had greater volume in the frontal lobes and the temporal lobes, areas responsible for memory and learning, which are severely affected in Alzheimer's disease, Raji said.

Five years after the MRI, they found that 30.8% of patients who had low fish intake had developed mild cognitive impairment or dementia, compared with just 3.2% of those who had the highest fish intake and the greatest preservation of brain volume.

They also saw that 47% of patients with brain atrophy who didn't eat fish had abnormal cognition five years later compared with 28% of those who ate more fish and had more gray matter volume, Raji reported. "That's an impressive reduction in the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment of Alzheimer's," Raji said.

In further analyses, the researchers found that mean scores for working memory -- a function severely impaired in Alzheimer's disease -- were significantly higher among those who ate fish weekly and those findings persisted even after accounting for potential confounders.

This "simple lifestyle choice" of eating more fish increases the brain's "resistance" to Alzheimer's disease, Raji said, potentially via a few mechanisms: Fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which can help increase blood flow to the brain and can also act as an antioxidant, thereby reducing inflammation, he said.

Omega-3s may also prevent the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain, he added.   He noted that fatty fish like salmon have more omega-3s, while smaller fish, such as cod, have less.

Although dietary intake of fish was measured only twice -- once at baseline and again in 1995 -- Raji said patients tended to maintain their levels of consumption, and he suspects that the observed benefits "are more likely to be observed if eating fish is a long-term habit as opposed to a short-term approach."

Mary Mahoney, MD, of the University of Cincinnati, who was not involved in the study, said that future studies should investigate whether omega-3s specifically are leading to benefits in brain volume.

"We're making the assumption" that fish is a marker for healthy lifestyle, she said. "If we could just cut to the chase and look at the protective mechanism, that would be better."

It's important to note  that the findings are preliminary and should be replicated in a larger sample and sex differences should be included since Altzeimer's is more prevalent in women.  In the meantime, it can't hurt to add fish to your diet...for many reasons!

Source reference:
Raji C, et al "Fish consumption, brain structure, and risk of Alzheimer's disease" RSNA 2011.

Blood pressure changes at middle age raises risk for later heart attack or stroke
Posted by on December 30, 2011 - 6:22am

A hike in your blood pressure during middle age significantly raises the risk of having a heart attack or a stroke during your lifetime, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. The study offers a new understanding on the importance of maintaining low blood pressure early in middle age to prevent heart disease later in life.  Men and women who developed high blood pressure in middle age or who started out with high blood pressure had an estimated 30 percent increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared to those who kept their blood pressure low.

Previous estimates of a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease were based on a single blood pressure measurement. The higher the blood pressure reading, the greater the risk. The new Northwestern Medicine study expands on that by showing a more accurate predictor is a change in blood pressure from age 41 to 55.

“We found the longer we can prevent hypertension or postpone it, the lower the risk for cardiovascular disease,” said lead author Norrina Allen, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Even for people with normal blood pressure, we want to make sure they keep it at that level, and it doesn’t start increasing over time.”

“There hasn’t been as much of a focus on keeping it low when people are in their 40’s and 50’s,” Allen added. “That’s before a lot of people start focusing on cardiovascular disease risk factors. We’ve shown it’s vital to start early.”  People that maintain or reduce their blood pressure to normal levels by age 55 have the lowest lifetime risk for a heart attack or a stroke.

The study used data from 61,585 participants in the Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project. Starting with baseline blood pressure readings at age 41, researchers measured blood pressure again at age 55, then followed the patients until the occurrence of a first heart attack or stroke, death or age 95.

The study did include men and women demonstrating a growing increase in important sex based medicine.   Men who developed high blood pressure in middle age or who started out with high blood pressure had a 70 percent risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared to a 41 percent risk for men who maintained low blood pressure or whose blood pressure decreased during the time period. Women who developed high blood pressure had almost a 50 percent risk of a heart attack or stroke compared to a 22 percent risk for those who kept their blood pressure low or saw a decrease.

Men generally have a 55 percent risk of cardiovascular disease in their lifetimes; women have a 40 percent risk.

“Our research suggests people can take preventive steps to keep their blood pressure low early on to reduce their chances of a heart attack or stroke,” said Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, study co-author, chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern.  “Maintaining a healthy diet, combined with exercise and weight control, can help reduce blood pressure levels and, consequently, your risk for cardiovascular disease later in life.”

The study is published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association

 

A new kind of 'road rage'
Posted by on December 28, 2011 - 7:37am

Remember when road rage was mainly triggered by rush hour traffic?   Recently, I was driving in local traffic near the university when a car in front of me was signaling left and made a sudden move to the RIGHT lane.   Okay, we all get confused.   In the next block the driver all of a sudden moved to the middle of the road between two lanes.  I slammed on my brakes and honked my horn.     When the driver finally pulled into one lane,  I moved up and saw the elderly woman driver clearly on her cell phone.   She looked at me as I motioned "get off your phone" and I don't think she had a clue why I was signaling her.   Within two city blocks I could have not one, but two accidents. Distracted driving is a dangerous and common practice, especially as more drivers are not just talking, they are texting.   According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 3000 people died in car accidents in 2010 because drivers were texting, on the phone, or were distracted by something else  like eating, putting on makeup, etc.    Here are a few more stats:

  • Drivers who use mobile devices are four times more likely to have an accident and injure themselves or others.
  • Using a cell phone while driving is the equivalent of having a blood alcohol concentration of .08%, the legal limit in most states.
  • Using a cell phone can reduce the brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent.
  • Car accidents are the leading cause of teen deaths in the U.S. and 16% of young drivers involved in fatal accidents were driving distracted.

There are laws prohibiting texting and phone use while driving in many states but there is  no simple way to enforce them as many police departments are stretched due to the economy and need to focus on major crime.   So, what can be done to stop this growing and careless habit?    Any ideas?

 

Report provides new insight into risks for stillbirths
Posted by on December 26, 2011 - 8:16am

Half of all stillbirths result from pregnancy disorders and conditions that affect the placenta, according to a new report. Risk factors already known at the start of pregnancy—such as previous pregnancy loss or obesity—accounted for only a small proportion of the overall risk of stillbirth.

Stillbirth is the death of a baby during the second half of pregnancy—at or after the 20th week of gestation. It occurs in 1 out of 160 pregnancies nationwide. Some risk factors had previously been linked to stillbirth, including maternal diabetes or high blood pressure. But the underlying causes of stillbirth remained unknown in as many as half of stillbirths.

To learn more about the origins and prevention of stillbirth, the National Institutes of Health created the Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network.  The network enrolled more than 600 women who delivered a stillbirth in certain regions of the country.

In one of the studies, the researchers compared 614 stillbirths with 1,816 live births. They searched for factors at the start of pregnancy that might raise the risk for stillbirth. The analysis strongly linked stillbirth with several reproductive features, including being a first-time mother or having stillbirth or miscarriage in earlier pregnancies. Other maternal factors linked with stillbirth include being overweight or obese, age 40 or older, AB blood type, a history of drug addiction and smoking 3 months prior to pregnancy. Still, these early risk factors represented little of the overall risk, and so they have limited usefulness as predictors of stillbirth.

The analysis confirmed earlier findings that African-American women are at greater risk for stillbirth compared with white or Hispanic women. The stillbirth risk for African Americans was greatest for deliveries before the 24th week of pregnancy. Further analyses of early pregnancy may yield insights for reducing the racial disparity in stillbirth rates.

In the other study, researchers completed comprehensive medical evaluations of 512 stillborn babies to identify the causes of death. Evaluation included an autopsy of the fetus, examination of the placenta, a karyotype test to check for abnormalities in the baby's chromosomes, and a review of the medical records.     The detailed medical evaluations allowed scientists to identify a probable cause of death in 61% of cases and a probable or possible cause of death in 76% of cases. Earlier studies, which typically were limited to analyzing medical records, could identify a cause of death in only about half of cases.

The researchers found that pregnancy or birth-related complications contributed to the largest proportion of stillbirths (29%). These complications include preterm labor or premature rupture of membranes that hold the amniotic fluid. Another such complication is abruption of the placenta, in which the placenta separates from the wall of the uterus. Other identified causes included abnormalities of the placenta (24% of cases), genetic conditions or birth defects (14%), infection (13%), problems with the umbilical cord (10%) and maternal high blood pressure (9%).

“Our study showed that a probable cause of death—more than 60%—could be found by a thorough medical evaluation,” says study co-author Dr. Uma M. Reddy of NICHD. “Greater availability of medical evaluation of stillborn infants, particularly autopsy, placental exam and karyotype, would provide information to better understand the causes of stillbirth.”

RELATED LINKS:
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/Stillbirth.cfm

Breast cancer patients often skip medications due to side effects
Posted by on December 21, 2011 - 8:34am

Why do so many postmenopausal women who are treated for estrogen-sensitive breast cancer quit using drugs that help prevent the disease from recurring?

The first study to actually ask the women themselves -- as well as the largest, most scientifically rigorous study to examine the question -- reports 36 percent of women quit early because of the medications’ side effects, which are more severe and widespread than previously known. The Northwestern Medicine research also reveals a big gap between what women tell their doctors about side effects and what they actually experience.

“Clinicians consistently underestimate the side effects associated with treatment,” said lead investigator Lynne Wagner, an associate professor in medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a clinical psychologist at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. “They give patients a drug they hope will help them, so they have a motivation to underrate the negative effects. Patients don’t want to be complainers and don’t want their doctor to discontinue treatment. So no one knew how bad it really was for patients.”

The symptom most likely to cause women to stop using the drugs was joint pain. Other side effects women reported as compromising their quality of life were hot flashes, decreased libido, weight gain, feeling bloated, breast sensitivity, mood swings, irritability and nausea.  The drugs, aromatase inhibitors, stop the production of estrogen in postmenopausal women, whose breast cancer cells are stimulated by estrogen. About two-thirds of breast cancers are estrogen sensitive, and aromatase inhibitors reduce the recurrence of cancer in postmenopausal women.

The women at highest risk for quitting the medications before the recommended five years are those who still are experiencing residual side effects from recent chemotherapy or radiation therapy when they start the aromatase therapy, according to the study. Women who had surgery for breast cancer but not chemotherapy or radiation therapy, or who weren’t taking many other medications, were more likely to keep taking the aromatase medication.

“The more miserable they were before they started, the more likely they were to quit,” Wagner said. “By the time they get through chemotherapy or radiation, they have to face five more years of another medication that will make them feel lousy. They feel like they already lost enough time to cancer and have reached their threshold for feeling bad.”

“This is a wake-up call to physicians that says if your patient is feeling really beaten up by treatment, the risk of her quitting early is high,” Wagner said. “We need to be better at managing the symptoms of our patients to improve their quality of life.”

The new research exposes the disparity between clinicians’ reporting of side effects and women’s actual experiences. In a previous study, clinicians reported 5 percent of their patients experienced moderate to severe symptoms as a result of taking aromatase inhibitors. The new Northwestern study surveyed 686 women with a detailed questionnaire about their symptoms before treatment and at three, six, 12 and 24 months after starting treatment. The researchers found after three months of treatment that 33 to 35 percent of women had severe joint pain, 28 to 29 percent had hot flashes, 24 percent had decreased libido, 15 to 24 percent had fatigue, 16 to 17 percent had night sweats and 14 to 17 percent had anxiety. These numbers increased as women were on treatment longer.

Earlier studies also asked women to recall their symptoms after treatment ended, which is less accurate than reporting them at regular intervals while taking the drugs.

As a result of the side effects, 36 percent of women ended treatment before an average of 4.1 years. After two years, 10 percent had quit; the remainder quit between 25 months and the 4.1 years.

“These findings can help us identify women at risk for quitting the therapy, counsel them about the importance of staying on it and provide treatment for troubling side effects,” Wagner noted.

Weight gain can be addressed with nutritional counseling, while mood swings and irritability can be treated with cognitive behavioral therapy or mind-body techniques, Wagner said. Joint pain can be tempered with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or women may be switched to a different hormonal medication. Nausea can be reduced with medication.

This multi-site trial was conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, a national clinical cancer research organization funded by the National Cancer Institute.  Wagner’s research was presented Dec. 9 at the 34th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Institute director wins award for mentoring
Posted by on December 19, 2011 - 1:21pm

Dr. Woodruff (in the red jacket) meets with President Obama

Teresa Woodruff, Director of the Institute for Women's Health Research (creator of this blog site)  and the Thomas J. Watkins Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, received the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring at the White House from President Barack Obama Monday, Dec. 12.

The award was for an Institute program called the Women's Health Science Program for High School Girls and Beyond. The program mentors urban minority high-school girls for college and careers in science and health.

“Meeting President Obama in the Oval Office was a true honor and humbling event,” said Woodruff.   “In his remarks, the president affirmed his deep commitment to science and engineering and the role that basic science plays in the health of our nation. He made time to congratulate us on our efforts and comment on the critical role that science mentorship plays in the development of the next generation of innovators on whom we count to solve our world’s most pressing needs.”

“This award is for the hundreds of faculty, staff and students throughout Northwestern University and Northwestern Memorial Hospital who donate their time to mentorship,” Woodruff added. “Our program focuses on the next generation of female leaders. Our goal is to ensure that the future is filled with a diverse group of problem solvers ready to meet the world’s challenges.”

The Women's Health Science Program for High School Girls and Beyond (WHSP), a four-year-old program, targets primarily African American and Latina girls from disadvantaged backgrounds in Chicago. The young women can study at four different Northwestern academies: cardiology, physical science, infectious disease and oncofertility. The science program is part of the Institute for Women’s Health Research at the Feinberg School.

Carole LaBonne, an associate professor of molecular biosciences at Northwestern and faculty member in the mentoring program, emphasized the importance of increasing the representation of women and minorities in the STEM disciplines.

"The program developed by Dr. Woodruff has had amazing impact and is truly transformative,” said LaBonne, a member of Northwestern’s diversity committee. “It should be used as a model for how universities across the country can address the pipeline problem by helping to educate and excite students from underrepresented groups about science from an early age."

Of the 90 students who have participated in the Women’s Health Science Program from the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School in Chicago, 18 are seniors in high school, 70 are attending college and two have received undergraduate degrees. Of those attending college, 51 percent are pursuing science majors.

WSHP has grown beyond Chicago through Woodruff’s efforts. Similar informal education programs based on the Chicago model have been running in San Diego, Oregon and Philadelphia. Plans also are underway to expand the program to other Chicago high schools.

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