The investigators propose to organize a 2.5 day Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility, January 28-30, 2007, at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The long-term objective is to encourage collaboration among reproductive health researchers, clinicians, community health advocates, and policy makers to better understand the impacts of ubiquitous environmental contaminant exposures on reproductive disorders (including fetal origin of disorders) and work to eliminate or mitigate relevant exposures. Collaborative efforts could lead to significant reductions in reproductive disorders and better health for future generations. ? ? As a prestigious medical school, UCSF is well-positioned to address reproductive health and clinicians' lack of training in this area. The Summit will convene 150-200 clinicians and clinician-researchers (in practice or in-training), selected Deans of health professional schools, and 50-100 multidisciplinary community health leaders invited by our co-organizer, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and UCSF's Center for Excellence in Women's Health. Subsequent summits will expand on the 2007 program. ? ? Summit goals will be achieved through five programmatic approaches: 1) key framing questions will be posed in the opening panel and discussed throughout the Summit: What challenges do environmental contaminant impacts pose for the reproductive health clinician/patient? How does environmental reproductive health (ERH) research address those challenges and translate to clinical care?; 2) basic and new paradigms in ERH research will be presented by leading scientists; 3) a keynote address on """"""""Environment and the Reproductive Lifespan: Critical Windows of Vulnerability and the Importance of ? Clinical Collaboration"""""""" will be followed by four overview presentations by leading scientists/clinicians covering exposure impacts during male and female developmental and adult """"""""windows""""""""; 4) environmental regulatory/research funding agencies and community health advocates will discuss their priorities in """"""""conversations on stage""""""""; and, 5) break-out sessions will launch on-going initiatives. A federation comprising professional societies' environmental health representatives (to include the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the Endocrine Society, and others) will be established. ? ? ? ?
| Woodruff, Tracey J; Carlson, Alison; Schwartz, Jackie M et al. (2008) Proceedings of the Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility: executive summary. Fertil Steril 89:281-300 |
