Sharon Hillier, Ph.D.
Director, Reproductive Infectious Disease Research
Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and
Reproductive Sciences
Phone: (412) 641-6416
Phone: (412) 641-1441 Mary Ann Portman, M.D.
Phone: (412) 641-1141 Michele Ondeck
Fax: (412) 641-1133
E-mail: shillier@mail.magee.edu (Sharon Hillier)
mportman@mail.magee.edu (Mary Ann Portman)

Clinical Services Contact:
Donna Hope (412) 641-4747

Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC Health System and the Magee-Womens Research Institute are proud to have been designated a National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health since 1996. At Magee, our Womancare model and the CoE are a philosophy, not a physical space. Women are the center of all we do. Our philosophy of Womancare believes in treating a woman with dignity, empowering her through education, and bringing comprehensive and appropriate care into communities. It encompasses the hospital, seven Womancare Centers in the suburbs and six Neighborhood Health Centers in low-income medically underserved communities.

Accomplishments of the CoE encompass medical education, research, clinical care, community education and outreach. The task force on Women in Medicine has led to the proposed Office for Academic and Career Development at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. A new program in medical education integrates a minor in women's health into all four years of the curriculum. Research projects completed and in progress focus on increasing the detection of domestic violence and depression in primary care settings. Our model for domestic violence training has been disseminated through local, regional and international conferences.

In addition to our leadership in women's health research, Magee's looks to improve all women's awareness of the benefits of participating in research. A public relations plan was implemented in 2000. We are proud that our models for community and outreach education are replicated locally, nationally and internationally in Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. Magee's sex education program has been expanded to include children with mental and physical disabilities. We have seen equal success with a new educational series for mature women, the Bone Health Program. Our African-American Womancare program became a model for the Pick Your Path to Health Campaign of the Office of Womens Health.

Magee-Womens Hospital Center of Excellence objectives for 2001 include:

• Participate in two outcome evaluation projects of the CoE's
• Finalize an education plan for gender-specific medicine that will be mandated in all clinical departments of the medical school.
• Begin a three-year project related to Intimate Partner Violence funded by the Scaife Family Foundation.
• Launch research related to the Magee-Rand Women's Health Initiative
• Open a new clinical site with access for women with disabilities
• Open the Center for Continence & Pelvic Floor Disorders