VCU news

By Michael Ford
University News Services

RICHMOND, Va. - The Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, a National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, has received a $100,000 grant from the Theresa A. Thomas Memorial Foundation to establish a comprehensive resource center for health information.

The resource center will be located at the VCU Women's Health Center at Stony Point and will serve as a clearinghouse for women's health-related information.  Besides providing funds for the purchase of resource materials, the grant will support a medical librarian who will be available to meet with patients before or after physician appointments to help them locate relevant information and resources that address their individual health needs. Information will be available in a variety of formats including hard copy printed materials, on-line resources, video and audio sources and CD-ROMs. Access to this health information will be free.

"We want this to be the premier resource for the community when it comes to information about women's health," said Dr. Susan G. Kornstein, executive director of the VCU Institute for Women's Health. "Patients who visit our women's health center will benefit greatly from this resource center. We are extremely grateful to the Theresa Thomas Foundation for their generous gift. "

The Stony Point Women's Health Resource Center will be developed in partnership with VCU Libraries, Tompkins-McCaw Library and the MCV Hospitals Auxiliary's Community Health Education Center. Long-term goals call for providing a mobile resource kiosk at the newly developed Women's Surgical Care Wing and at the Nelson Women's Health Clinic at VCU Medical Center. The resource center is expected to open in the fall of 2004.

"Whether you're a patient, the relative of a patient, or a community resident, if you want to learn more about a diagnosis, a disease or how to improve your health, we will have information to offer," said Dr. Wendy S. Klein, senior deputy director of VCU's Institute for Women's Health. "Patients often have additional questions after leaving their doctor's office, and by providing health education materials, we are encouraging women to be active partners in their health care."

The Theresa A. Thomas Memorial Foundation was established nearly 30 years ago by the late George Thomas to honor his wife, who was a nurse. Upon his death in 1975, Thomas left virtually his entire estate to the Foundation, with the hope that the money would make a difference in many aspects of health care.

Over the past decade, VCU has invested faculty and clinical expertise, funds, and facilities to both consolidate and expand a range of existing women's health care, research, and education programs. Most significantly, the VCU Institute for Women's Health was established in 1999 to improve the health of women through clinical care, research, professional education, community outreach, and leadership development. At the heart of the Institute is the VCU Women's Health Center at Stony Point, a nationally recognized multidisciplinary "one-stop shopping" health care facility for women, which opened in1993.

The VCU Institute for Women's Health is one of 19 National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health designated by the Office on Women's Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. VCU was awarded this designation in September 2003.The National Centers of Excellence serve as demonstration models for the Nation in providing innovative, comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and integrated health care systems for women across the life span.

For more on the VCU Institute for Women's Health, please contact Janett Forte, at 327-8843 or go to www.womenshealth.vcu.edu/.