Expert Panel on Women's Health

The Expert Panel on Women's Health educates and disseminates new research associated with women’s health. The panel explores health issues related to women ranging from topics on health disparities for women of various racial and income groups to reproductive issues and preventable diseases.

Inaugural Year: 1998

Chair:
Ivy M. Alexander, PhD, APRN, ANP-BC, FAANP, FAAN
Professor & Director, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Track
University of Connecticut, School of Nursing

Vice Chair:
Maureen Fagan, DNP, FNP-BC, FAAN
Chief Nursing Executive
University of Miami Health System

Board Liaison: Angela Amar

Staff Liaison: Madeleine Rohrbach

Previous Chairs: Elizabeth A. Kostas-Polston (2020-2022), Versie Johnson-Mallard (2019-2020), Diana Taylor (2017-2018), Judith Berg (2015-2016), Judith Lewis (2014-2015), Mary A. Nies (2003), Ellen Olshansky (1998), Judith Berg (1998)

Summary:
The primary focus of the Expert Panel on Women’s Health is on reducing the gaps of health disparities and inequalities and strengthening the nursing and health care delivery system nationally and internationally.

Some of the most prevalent public health problems women encounter include:

• Almost half (49%) of all pregnancies are unintended
• Women lack access to preconception and inter-conception health care
• Rising exposure to STIs and HIV/AIDs causes significant disease burden for women
• Breast and lung cancer
• Cardiovascular diseases are the no. 1 cause of death in women
• Aging women suffer excessive morbidity from osteoporosis and Alzheimers Disease
• Women assume most of the burden of caregiving of children, aging adults, and individuals with chronic illnesses

The panel synthesizes and disseminates knowledge for the purpose of improving health care practices.

Publications:

• Practice Guidelines: COVID-19 effects on women's home and work life, family violence and mental health from the Women's Health Expert Panel of the American Academy of Nursing (July 2022)
• Practice Guidelines: Women's sexual/reproductive health and access challenges amid COVID-19 pandemic (January 2022)
  
• Policy Brief: Pregnant and Parenting Women with a Substance Use Disorder: Actions and Policy for Enduring Therapeutic Practice (March-April 2019)
• Policy Brief: Proposed healthcare policy changes threaten women’s health (November-December 2018) 
• Policy Brief: Reducing preterm births in the United States: Maternal infant health, child, adolescent and family, and women’s health expert panels (September-October 2018) 
• Policy Brief: Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Access & Justice: Where Nursing Stands (July-August 2018) 
• Policy Brief: Expanding nursing’s role in responding to global pandemics(July-August 2018) 
• Policy Brief: Nursing response to human trafficking (July-August 2018) 
• Position Statement: Policies to support family caregivers (May-June 2018)
• Policy Brief: Assessing and addressing cardiovascular risk in young women. (May-June 2018) 
• Policy Brief: An effective human papillomavirus vaccination policy will reduce infection- and malignancy-related morbidity and mortality (May-June 2018) 
• Corrigendum to Position Statement: Political interference in sexual and reproductive health research and health professional education [Nursing Outlook 65/2 (2017) 242-245] (May-June 2017)
• Position Statement: Political interference in sexual and reproductive health research and health professional education. (March-April, 2017)
• Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Editorial Breaking Down Silos: The Future of Sexual and Reproductive Health Care. (January 2014). 
• Policy Brief: A call to action: Expanded research agenda for women’s health. (July 2013) 
• Policy Brief: Where we are today: Prioritizing women’s health services and health policy. (January 2013) 
• Policy Brief: Women's health research agenda for the next decade. (January 2013)
• Policy Brief: Women’s health in jeopardy: Failure to curb unintended pregnancies. (May 2012) 

Resources:

• Facility Guidelines for the Safe Performance of Primary Care and Gynecology Procedures in Offices and Clinics
• Academy Comments on DHHS proposed rule "Compliance with Statutory Program Integrity Requirements" (Title X) (2018) 
• Amicus Brief: State of California v 9^th Circuit Court of US Court of Appeals case on ACA contraceptive benefit (2018)
• Moral Exemptions & Accommodations for Coverage of Certain Preventive Services - ACA: CMS-9925-IFC (December 5, 2017)
• Religious Exemptions and Accommodations for Coverage of Certain Preventive Services -  ACA. CMS-9940-IFC (December 5, 2017)
• Response to DHHS RFI: Removing Barriers for Religious & Faith-Based Orgs to Participate in DHHS Programs & Receive Public Funding (November 22, 2017)
• Comments on DHHS Draft Strategic Plan (October 26, 2017)
• Comments on DHHS/Title X proposed regulations to amend 42 CFR part 59 (2016)
• Academy letter to President-Elect Obama (2008)
• The USPSTF recommends against routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years (2008)

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