Women's health is influenced by biological, behavioral, cultural, socio-economic and environmental factors. Moreover, several oral-systemic linkages associated with poor oral health (i.e. periodontitis;oral bone loss;dental caries) that solely or disproportionally affect women include various infectious (HIV/AIDS), chronic (cardiovascular disease), behavioral (eating disorders), psychosocial (stress) and socio-economic health conditions (poverty). Although the importance of expanding women's oral-systemic research has been highlighted by Healthy People 2020 and The Office of Research on Women's Health, little collaboration between and among disciplines occur. Specifically in Florida, women's oral-health disparities are evident: pregnant women have higher adverse rates in health outcomes (i.e. infant mortality, low birth weight, preterm birth) and are less likely to isit a dentist compared to women in the U.S. Thus, we propose a unique, focused, regionally-based (State of Florida) conference, """"""""Transforming Women's Health: Discovery, Development and Delivery,"""""""" which aims to address complex oral-systemic health issues specific to women and bring together researchers, providers and policy experts in public health, medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and the social sciences. This paradigm shift has been institutionalized at the University of South Florida (USF) by the creation of the Center for Transdisciplinary Research on Women's Health (CTR-WH), Co-Directed by the PI. Through a transdisciplinary approach, the proposed conference will facilitate patient-centered collaborative care that has the potential to improve health care access, quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness. The proposed conference will focus on the emerging evidence and gaps related to oral-systemic research (research development), highlight the need for a transdisciplinary approach and team science to decrease morbidity and mortality (research design and methodology), and disseminate novel findings and technologies to improve health care access, quality and outcomes (dissemination and implementation). Moreover, health services research (e.g., health IT, prevention and care management;health care innovations and emerging areas) will be discussed, including opportunities for communication and application of technology to improve prevention, early detection and treatment of oral-systemic health conditions. Based on adult learning and team science, participants will be engaged in skill-based workshops, question-and-answer sessions with nationally renowned speakers, panel discussion and group roundtables in order to meet conference aims. Conference sessions will be evaluated via qualitative and quantitative methods to determine the extent to which learning objective are met, the effectiveness of teaching/learning methods, the usefulness of conference material, and participant satisfaction. Conference proceedings will be disseminated through posting on the CTR-WH website, peer-reviewed scientific journal manuscripts, brief articles in public health media sources, and at regional, state, and national conferences to ensure findings reach stakeholders in Florida and beyond.
The proposed conference aims to transform women's health by bringing together researchers, practitioners, policymakers and other key stakeholders from multiple disciplines such as public health, medicine and dentistry. Through nationally renowned speakers, workshops, panel discussions and group roundtables, this conference will address complex women's oral-systemic health conditions through a transdisciplinary approach. Such an approach to research, practice and policy is necessary to improve health and decrease disparities in women's health across the lifespan in Florida and beyond.
| Daley, Ellen M; DeBate, Rita D; Vamos, Cheryl A et al. (2013) Transforming women's oral-systemic health through discovery, development and delivery. Womens Health (Lond) 9:431-3 |
