The Gender Care Initiative® Online Courses

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. Women and Heart Disease Gender Care Conference Series I: Understanding Gender-specific Healthcare
   (This program was made possible through an educational grant from the New Jersey Office on Women's Health
   Co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Women’s Wellness and Healthcare Connection)
   
   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
   
   click here to start course module.
   
   

   ---

2. Women and Heart Disease Gender Care Conference Series II: Bridging Communication to Promote Diagnosis of Women's Heart Disease
   (This program was made possible through an educational grant from the New Jersey Office on Women's Health
   Co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Women’s Wellness and Healthcare Connection)
   
   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.
   
   click here to start course module.

• Multifunction CardioGram - improving accuracy in diagnosis of heart disease through the science of computational electrophysiology presented by The American College of Electrophysiology
  (funded by Premier Heart)
  
  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 and hosted by Premier Heart.
  
  click here to start course module.
  (Note: This link will go to the PremierHeart.com website. You will be asked to first download Microsoft Silverlight in order to enter the site and complete the course).
  
  

  ---

  USA Initiatives:
  
  

  1. Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation (WISEWOMAN) WISEWOMAN is a CDC program that helps women with little or no health insurance reduce their risk for heart disease, stroke, and other chronic diseases. The program assists women ages 40 to 64 in improving their diet, physical activity, and other behaviors. WISEWOMAN also provides cholesterol tests and other screening. CDC funds 21 WISEWOMAN projects in 19 states and two tribal organizations.
     http://www.cdc.gov/wisewoman/

  2. The CDC Million Hearts initiative was begun in 2012 with the mission to reduce the number of deaths from heart disease and stroke by one million over the next five years. More can be found at
     http://millionhearts.hhs.gov/index.html

  3. The DHHS Heart Truth campaign is promoting public awareness of women's number one killer as well as best care practices. More information for health professionals can be found at
     http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/other/index.htm
     
     More information for lay public can be found at
     HeartTruth.gov

  4. The American Heart Association campaign
     GoREDforWomen.org

  Other Initiatives:
  
  

  1. National Heart Foundation of Australia

  2. The Heart and Stroke Foundation - Canada.

  3. European Society of Cardiology Women at Heart

  4. World Heart Federation
     
     

     Collaboration is key. Academic institutions are charged with incorporating gender-specific care and treatment into curricula and medical facilities conducting grand rounds and nursing education. We are all becoming increasingly aware of critical differences in how diseases manifest based on gender. This new knowledge needs to translate, be synthesized into real-time clinical practice to protect future generations from misdiagnosis, mistreatment and early preventable death -- all the ravages of heart disease.