Shifting the Dominant Paradigm in Women's Health Education

How Has Medical Education Been Funded?

  • Societies and foundations have received funding for continuing medical education from the pharmaceutical industry
  • Healthcare compliance (HCC) regulations have put an end to the CME business wave for the pharmaceutical industry

"The Internet has made patients more informed than ever before by providing them an avenue of information access that simply did not exist in the past. The fact that such information is free and accessible from any place in the world is a plus that must be balanced against the minus that accompanies the fact that free Internet information may not be subject to any peer scrutiny whatsoever. It may just be a glorified advertisement."

Christopher Jones
Research Associate, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, Baltimore, Maryland

Louis G. Keith, MD, PhD
Emeritus Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
International Journal of Fertility & Women's Medicine, Jan/Feb 2007

How Has Consumer Health Education Been Funded?

  • Pharmaceutical industry
  • Consumer industry
  • Privately funded health fairs
  • Funding and information source are often the same, causing bias in factual accuracy

What is the Source of Consumer Health Education?

  • Women's magazines, television, Internet
  • Information source, in most cases, is not the physician

 

 

Shifting the Dominant Paradigm in Women's Health Education (cont'd)

Why is this a problem?


Medical Education
Doctors are not getting the whole picture because of HCC regulations, which can impact on how they treat patients.

Consumer Education
Consumers are unhealthy, suffering from obesity, heart disease, diabetes, poor nutrition, and sedentary lifestyle. Adding to this dilemma is that health education to consumers is biased - or worse, inaccurate.

Result
Women are getting the wrong information, further compromising their health.

What is the Solution?


A New Model: Merge Two Unrelated Industries
Supplement activities of medical, non-profit foundation with consumer dollars to produce unbiased medical education programming and accurate health information for consumers








 
Founded in 1951 as the International Fertility Association
Reorganized in 1970s to United States International Foundation for Studies in Reproduction
Restructured in 1992: World Foundation for Medical Studies in Female Health was born, focusing on the total patient