A Systematic Review of Development Programs Designed to Address Leadership in Academic Health Center Faculty.

Introduction: To describe Academic Health Center (AHC) faculty leadership development program characteristics and categorize leadership topics into thematic areas suggesting competency domains to guide programmatic curricular development.

Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted (PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature [CINAHL], and Journal Storage [JSTOR databases]). Eligible studies described programs with leadership development intent for faculty in AHCs.

Palliative care in women's cancer care: Global challenges and advances.

Women's cancer rates are increasing in low- and middle-income countries, with presentations that are often far advanced requiring intense symptom management, thus advancing the urgent need to address palliative care. Most resource settings have some options available to assist women with advanced gynecologic cancer, and a combination of leveraging these and expanding on emerging models for palliative care could lessen suffering and improve care for women with gynecologic cancers globally. Providing palliative care for women with cancer is constrained by resources (human and physical), lack of equipment, lack of access, and policy absence or barriers.

Meeting the Late-Career Needs of Faculty Transitioning Through Retirement: One Institution's Approach.

Problem: Medical school faculty are aging, but few academic health centers are adequately prepared with policies, programs, and resources (PPR) to assist late-career faculty. The authors sought to examine cultural barriers to successful retirement and create alignment between individual and institutional needs and tasks through PPR that embrace the contributions of senior faculty while enabling retirement transitions at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, 2013-2017.

Approach: Faculty 50 or older were surveyed, programs at other institutions and from the literature (multiple fields) were reviewed, and senior faculty and leaders, including retired faculty, were engaged to develop and implement PPR.

Cervical Cancer Screening in the United States-Affiliated Pacific Islands: Options and Opportunities.

Objective: Successful cervical cancer screening in the United States-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) is limited by geographic, political, economic, and logistic factors. An expert panel convened to examine screening in each of the 6 island jurisdictions and to explore options beyond cytology-based screening.

Materials And Methods: Forty-one representatives of American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, government agencies, the World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization, health representatives of the 6 Pacific island jurisdictions, Puerto Rico, and several academic institutions met in a 2-day meeting to explore options to improve access and coverage of cervical cancer screening in the USAPI.

Brief Report on Obstetricians'/Gynecologists' Distribution of Scarce Resources.

On a day-to-day basis, doctors must decide which treatments are most beneficial for their patients, and which make the most sense in terms of costs. In medical decision making, factors such as efficiency and cost-effectiveness can be particularly challenging to navigate because many of the most expensive procedures encountered in medical practice are also high-stake treatments for patients. One-hundred-six obstetricians-gynecologists (Obs/Gyns) completed a survey asking them to allocate the following resources in scenarios in which they are scarce: human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccinations, mammograms, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.

Key concepts in management of vulvar cancer.

Vulvar carcinoma is an uncommon tumor that is seen most often in older women. Subtle symptoms such as pruritus should prompt examination and targeted biopsy in all women as this disease can be successfully treated even in elderly, frail individuals. Vulvar cancer has a bimodal age distribution and is seen in both young and older women with risk factors including human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, smoking, and vulvar skin diseases (i.

Body enhancement through female genital cosmetic surgery creates ethical and rights dilemmas.

Female genital cosmetic surgery is surgery performed on a woman within a normal range of variation of human anatomy. The issues are heightened by a lack of long-term and substantive evidence-based literature, conflict of interest from personal financial gain through performing these procedures, and confusion around macroethical and microethical domains. It is a source of conflict and controversy globally because the benefit and harm of offering these procedures raise concerns about harmful cultural views, education, and social vulnerability of women with regard to both ethics and human rights.

Building a better safety net: taking the safety agenda to office-based women's health.

The recent focus on health care safety is a response to the central ethical tenet of medicine--to do no harm. The delivery of safe hospital care has led to demonstrable reductions in medical errors, adverse events, and patient injuries. These improvements have led to a commensurate reduction of legal risk and the emotional toll on caregivers as well as families.

The evolution of cervical screening and the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology.

The American Cancer Society, the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists have released revised consensus recommendations for cervical cancer screening. These new recommendations integrate molecular testing and include significant changes in screening, particularly in women from 30 to 65 years of age without complications who now may be screened every 5 years by co-testing with cervical cytology and high-risk human papillomavirus testing and women 21-29 years who may be screened with cervical cytology alone every 3 years. The revised recommendations include clarification on when to start and stop screening and management of women who have undergone hysterectomy.

American Cancer Society, American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, and American Society for Clinical Pathology screening guidelines for the prevention and early detection of cervical cancer.

An update to the American Cancer Society (ACS) guideline regarding screening for the early detection of cervical precancerous lesions and cancer is presented. The guidelines are based on a systematic evidence review, contributions from six working groups, and a recent symposium co-sponsored by the ACS, American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP), and American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), which was attended by 25 organizations. The new screening recommendations address age-appropriate screening strategies, including the use of cytology and high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) testing, follow-up (e.

Control of cervical cancer: women's options and rights.

Cervical cancer takes the lives of more than 250,000 women each year globally, particularly in under-resourced areas of low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Options for cancer control and treatment have reached a point that there are interventions for control that could be adopted for virtually every resource and demographic situation. Women die despite the availability of attractive control options, which means that educating policy makers, women's health professionals, as well as women themselves, must become a major focus for ongoing control of this disease.

Ethical issues related to patient use of complementary and alternative medicine.

It is important for physicians to set aside their personal opinions and establish open lines of communication with patients about alternatives to conventional medical treatment.

Physician reentry: a concept whose time has come.

Three retrainees were accepted into an innovative program designed to refresh skills to return physicians to the obstetrics and gynecology workforce after a voluntary leave of absence. The program was constructed in such a way that it did not affect existing training opportunities for medical students and residents. A protocol for application and acceptance was developed that incorporated an admissions committee and a fellowship director.

Tenure of academic chairs in obstetrics and gynecology: a 25-year perspective.

Objective: To assist in predicting future leadership needs, this longitudinal study examines turnover and net retention rates among chairs at university obstetrics and gynecology departments between 1981 and 2005.

Methods: A database of appointment dates and tenure of chairs at each of 125 Association of American Medical Colleges-approved United States medical schools was collated using membership listings from the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics and from the Council of University Chairs in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Complete data from 118 departments were confirmed by selective correspondence at individual departments and further review by the investigators.

Cytogenetic instability in ovarian epithelial cells from women at risk of ovarian cancer.

Fanconi anemia is an inherited cancer predisposition disease characterized by cytogenetic and cellular hypersensitivity to cross-linking agents. Seeking evidence of Fanconi anemia protein dysfunction in women at risk of ovarian cancer, we screened ovarian surface epithelial cells from 25 primary cultures established from 22 patients using cross-linker hypersensitivity assays. Samples were obtained from (a) women at high risk for ovarian cancer with histologically normal ovaries, (b) ovarian cancer patients, and (c) a control group with no family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

The influence of physician gender on practice satisfaction among obstetrician gynecologists.

Objective: A survey was conducted to investigate the hypothesis that female gender would positively affect job satisfaction among obstetrician gynecologists.

Study Design: A survey was sent to 500 randomized, age matched American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology members, 50% each men and women: 49.8% responded.