The Gender Care Initiative® Online Courses are Free! Start Today.

WHF modules with continuing education credits are now available online without charge. To enrich your educational experience and make the program be as "live" as possible, the WHF invested in the technology at the Univeristy of St. Francis Illinois. Educational credits are through the Robert Woood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. To get started on your gender care education, simply click on the course module of interest to you.

1. Multifunction CardioGram^TM* - improving accuracy in diagnosis of heart disease through the science of computational electrophysiology
   
   Course Description:
   Improving the clinicians' ability to respond to chest pain and other symptoms of coronary artery disease is key to patient survival and reserving myocardial function. The diagnosis of ischemic heart disease in women often evades diagnosis with use of traditional non-invasive tools such as stress testing with high rates of false positive and false negative findings. Further, women often experience milder symptoms with a less aggressive response by both the clinician and the patient. Through new computerized web-based technologies with mathematical analysis of digitized electrical signals of the heart that is based on a 2-lead ECG, women can expect 90-95% accuracy at diagnosing their disease, receiving an objective, unbiased report in only 10 minutes. This revolutionaly breakthrough risk-free inexpensive technology comes at a time when younger women are now being diagnosed with the disease. The MCG device is used worldwide and will soon become a new protocol for first-line diagnostics to ascertain the need for more invasive cardiac studies, the ultimate decision-maker for angiography. Silent ischemic can be detected with as little as 40% obstruction, whether the patient is symptomatic or not. With outstanding specificity and sensitivity, MCG promises to improve patient outcomes, lower healthcare costs by averting need for more expensive testing and save lives.
   _{(*Note, MCG is also known as "2dmp" and "M.F.E.M.T.")}
   Featured Presenters
   - Introduction by Franz Ritucci, MD, President of the American Academy of Urgent Care Physicians, U.S.A.;  Keynote: John E. Strobeck, MD, PhD, Director of the Heart Failure Program at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ; Director of the Heart and Lung Center of Hawthorne, NJ; and Founder of the Center for Computational Electrophysiologic Medicine, U.S.A.;  Dr. Imhoff, MD, Siegburg Heart Center, Siegburg, Germany;  Joseph T. Shen, MD, co-developer of the Multifunction CardioGram technology and managing partner of Premier Heart, Port Washington, NY, U.S.A.
   1.5 Contact Hours. 
   This course is accredited through the American Academy of Computational Electrophysiology.
   Click here  to go to The Premier Heart website for the presentation on the Multifunction CardioGram
   
   

2. Women and Heart Disease Gender Care Conference Series I: Understanding Gender-specific Healthcare (funded by the Women's Heart Foundation )
   
   Course Description:
   Gender care addresses biophysical differences, socio-cultural norms and experiences, values, psychosocial characteristics, behaviors and social roles - all of which impact a woman's care. The objective of this conference is to understand some the factors that affect quality of health care and services to women with heart disease and a call to practitioners to practice only evidence-based medicine.
   Featured Presenters
   - Keynote: Barbara Riegel, DNSc, RN, Assoc Professor, Univ of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Dr. Riegel serves as an Editor for the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing; former New Jersey Commissioner of Health Clifton R. Lacy, M.D, former First Lady of New Jersey, Dina Matos McGreevey, WHF advisor to the Gender Care Initiative Dolores Daly and Marianne Balay, RN, Assistant VP of Women’s Health Services at RWJUH.
   1.5 Contact Hours
   awarded to participants on completion and return of the program post tests and evaluation form to WHF, PO Box 7827, West Trenton, NJ 08628.
   Co-sponsored by the Office on Women’s Health, NJ Department of Health and Senior Services; Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital; and Women’s Wellness and Healthcare Connection
   
   
   

3. Women and Heart Disease Gender Care Conference Series II: Bridging Communication to Promote Diagnosis of Women's Heart Disease (funded by the Women's Heart Foundation )
   
   Course Description:
   A lack of understanding about women's symptoms of heart disease and a woman's style of communicating symptoms results in a disconnect between patient and practitioner. The purpose of this program is to provide healthcare professionals with a systems approach to female-centered patient care to enhance the diagnostic model for women with heart disease. From hi-tech to lo-tech, learn about computerized cardiology resources that can assist with more rapid diagnosis and provide clinical support, best use of diagnostic tools for earlier diagnosis, and interview methods that work best for obtaining an accurate health history from a woman.
   Featured Presenters
   - Keynote: Nieca Goldberg, M.D., Author “Women are Not Small Men”, Lou-Anne Beauregard, MD, FACC; Linda Rojak, RN, Director of Cardiology Nursing Informatics, of Mt. Sinai Hospital
   3.6 Contact Hours
   awarded to participants on completion and return of the program post tests and evaluation form to WHF, PO Box 7827, West Trenton, NJ 08628.
   Co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Women’s Wellness and Healthcare Connection
   
   

4. NIH Ready to Use Instructional Materials on Women's Heart Disease
   On July 19, 2007, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute released a new health information link to education modules that are meant to assist physicians, nurses, student nurses and interns in the assessment and timely diagnosis of women with heart disease. WHF applauds our government for investing in the clinical areas of women's cardiac health and for joining with the Women’s Heart Foundation and its Gender Care Initiative©®.  A team of national experts from the National Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health and the National Community Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health of the HHS Office on Women’s Health, has developed a set of clinical education materials to use in training programs for medical and nursing students, physician assistants, and other practicing clinicians and includes the following modules with links listed below.
   
   

   • Lecture Materials and PowerPoint Slides (Evidence Based)

     Epidemiology
     Risk Factors
     Risk Assessment Tool
     Diagnosis
     Prognosis and Treatment Outcomes
     Update on Menopausal Hormone Therapy
     Evidence-Based Guidelines
     Behavioral Aspects of CVD Prevention in Women
     Presentation and Internet Resources
     Patient Interaction and Counseling Skills Instructional Materials - For Assessing Risk, Negotiating for Behavior Change, Respecting Culture

   • Problem-based Learning Classes for nursing and medical students

     Medical Student Case
     Nursing Student Case
     Mrs. Montoya: ECG and Dietary Recommendations - for use with problem-based learning cases above
     

   • Standardized Patient Case and DVD

     Student Tools
     Making it Easy: Tips for Teaching with Standardized Patients
     Order a F|R|E|E DVD demonstrating use of the case
     

   _{Note: Much needs to be done to establish medical models in the care and treatment of women, address access to affordable wellness and prevention programs and understand quality of life issues as they uniquely affect women. Now that the government has established a clinical base of support through its Centers of Excellence for Women's Health, a formal partnership with collaboration needs to take place with institutes of higher learning, challenging nursing and medical schools to synthesize the gender-specific health message to be inscripted into medical text, for only then will the practice of evidence-based gender-specific medicine become the standard for all.}