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Women’s Health
Center is Growing


Women’s Health Center staff

With the recent arrival of two new physicians, the Women’s Health Center is expanding its clinical care services and educational programs.

Jennifer Potter, M.D., directs the center, located in Healthcare Associates’ Atrium Suite. She is joined by Jaye Hefner, M.D.; Amy Weinstein, M.D., M.P.H.; nurse practitioners Barbara Rosato, A.P.R.N., and Janet Flory, A.P.R.N.; social worker Lou Soltys, L.I.C.S.W.; health educator Marie Celestin, M.A.; and support staff. Plans include the addition of a staff psychiatrist.

“Our goal is to work collaboratively with women,” says Potter, “including those who may have a specific health concern such as a previous bout with cancer, or more general issues such as how to stay healthy during and after menopause.” Potter, who specializes in caring for women who have had cancer, explains: “The effects of a cancer diagnosis continue long beyond the phase of active treatment. A woman whose cancer is in remission needs someone to help her navigate the many concerns and challenges faced by female cancer survivors.”

Hefner has expertise in the areas of weight management, pre- and post-gastric bypass surgery, headaches, and health and wellness for women with disabilities. Weinstein’s areas of interest include young women’s health, management of menstrual disorders and preventing the complications of metabolic syndrome. All providers have expertise in the management of common breast and gynecological issues, mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, menopause, incontinence and pelvic floor problems, and the prevention and treatment of heart disease and osteoporosis.

Potter and her colleagues are also creating specialty services to which BIDMC and other physicians can refer patients for consultation. The first is the Center for Women’s Sexual Health, focused on issues including fear of sexual intimacy, low sexual desire and difficulty becoming aroused. “Little attention has focused on how to address women’s sexual concerns,” Potter notes. “We provide comprehensive assessment in a manner that is sensitive and discreet.”

Beyond primary care and specialty consultation, the Women’s Health Center creates educational and advocacy opportunities. “We’re excited about building a leading-edge clinical practice for women,” says Potter. “But we are equally excited about unique educational programs for patients and clinicians, outreach efforts in the community, and contributing to the growing knowledge base of women’s health research.”

- Cindy Whitcome


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Published monthly for the people of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to build community, communicate direction, foster pride and recognize accomplishments.

Produced by Beth Israel
Deaconess communications,
(66)7-7300

director, internal communications:
   Cindy Whitcome
managing editor:
   Valerie Hope Goldstein
print layout & design:
   Jen McGrath & Jane Hayward
web layout & design:
   Jim Dwyer & Lisa Jeanne Graf
contributing archivist:
    Ruth Freiman
contributing photographers:
   Oran Barber, Bruce Wahl &
   Jane Bell
Contributing Writers:    
   Lori Howley, Cindy Whitcome   


© BIDMC, Boston, MA, USA, 2004. All rights reserved. Material may be reproduced only with the express written consent of communications.














Transplantation Takes Center
Stage at Research Day 2004

Above: A slide presented at Research Day by Xin Xiao Zheng, M.D., transplant research, shows a means to enable permanent transplant acceptance after cessation of drugs by changing the balance of immune cells so that they favor acceptance of a graft.

BIDMC’s research enterprise consistently ranks among the best hospital-based research enterprises in the nation. This past year was no exception. “It’s been a great year for research at BIDMC, evidenced not only by the quality and importance of the hundreds of papers published, but also in terms of funding, which totaled over $170 million [a $15 million increase over last year],” Chief of Academic Medicine Jeffrey Flier, M.D., announced during opening remarks at Research Day 2004. The sixth annual event, which took place Oct. 8, introduces BIDMC researchers' work to the greater community.

In keeping with a format introduced in 2003, this year’s program focused on investigations within a single field, transplantation research.

“As part of Research’s overall mission, we are working to develop and strengthen an interdisciplinary approach to scientific investigations,” Flier said.

To that end, BIDMC is developing a Center for Transplantation that will bring together investigators from the departments of medicine and surgery. Terry Strom, M.D., medicine, and Douglas Hanto, M.D., Ph.D., surgery, are co-directing the center. Within the center, Strom will direct a Transplantation Research Center.

Strom began the Research Day program by sharing a vision of the research component of the center, which will also be overseen by Executive Committee members Fritz Bach, M.D., transplantation, and Gordon Weir, M.D., of Joslin Diabetes Center.

“Work to be done in the center will include investigations on immune tolerance [a means of preventing a patient’s body from rejecting a newly transplanted organ], protective strategies to minimize both immune and non-immune type injury to the transplant, and the development of stem-cell derived transplants,” Strom noted.

Later, the day’s plenary speaker, Professor Robert Lechler of King’s College, London, explained why these areas of research are critical.

“Organ transplantation is often the treatment of choice for diseases of the liver, heart, lungs and pancreas,” Lechler pointed out, “but there are two major problems limiting the clinical applications of transplantation: the first is chronic organ rejection, and the second is a shortage of available organs to meet an accelerated demand.”

Other researchers presenting their work during the morning session were Takashi Maki, M.D., Ph.D., transplantation; Xin Xiao Zheng, M.D., immunology; Xian Li, M.D., Ph.D., immunology; Dan Barouch, M.D., Ph.D., viral pathogenesis; Simon Robson, M.D., Ph.D., gastroenterology; Leo Otterbein, Ph.D., transplantation; and Bach.

As has become customary, the afternoon section of the Research Day program featured two poster sessions, during which more than 90 BIDMC investigators displayed poster abstracts describing their recent work. This year, the afternoon sessions were held in the new HMS Research Building.

To view descriptions of the poster abstracts, go to http://research.bidmc.harvard.edu/
research/researchdayposter.asp.



Clockwise from top: Terry Strom, M.D., with Xin Xiao Zheng, M.D.; Fritz Bach, M.D; Jeffrey Flier, M.D.; and Robert Lechler.

- Bonnie Prescott