The overall goal of the """"""""Women and Heart Disease-Putting Prevention into Primary Care"""""""" conference is to increase awareness of coronary heart disease (CHD) in women and to improve the health services that women receive for prevention of heart disease (CHD) in women and to improve the health services that women receive for prevention of heart disease. Given the high number of women at risk, the lack of awareness among both women and their providers, and the existence of a number of proven strategies to reduce the risks of developing CHD, the specific focus of the conference will be on primary and secondary prevention in the primary care setting. The conference will take place on Wednesday, December 4, 2002, from 8:00 am to 4:15 PM and Thursday, December 5th, 2002 from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. The first day of the conference is intended to follow a format of defining the problem of women and heart disease and updating knowledge of current prevention practices and barriers to implementation for improving primary and secondary prevention of heart disease in women in women in the primary care setting. A multi-disciplinary work group meeting on day two of the conference will synthesis the information presented at the conference and make recommendations for improving health services for women for the primary and secondary prevention of heart disease. Recommendations would address four main areas: clinical practice, research, payers, and advocacy/policy. The recommendations complied by the working group will be summarized into a final report. The report will include recommendations for improving clinical practice and will outline agendas for research and policy to increase the number of women who receive effective and appropriate preventing services (i.e. counseling and screening for known risk factors) and to improve the quality of the services women receive for the prevention of heart disease. The final report will be distributed to a wide audiences including conference participants, health services researchers, health care professionals, women, policy makers, and large insurers.
