New York, NY — March 20, 2002 — The National Council for Families and Television co-hosted a conference on "Women’s Health 2002" with health care products manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and Lluminari, Inc., an organization of women’s health experts engaged in organizing programs to advance knowledge and discussion of women’s health issues. Television producers, writers, reporters and others in the television industry interested in promoting women’s health issues attended the program.

Marianne Legato, M.D., F.A.C.P., professor of clinical medicine and founder and director of the Partnership for Women’s Health at Columbia University, and Mehmet Oz, M.D., associate professor of cardiac surgery and a Partnership scholar, were featured on a panel of experts during the half-day conference. Dr. Legato discussed the fact that women’s health issues are recent — tracing their roots to World War II, and that it is the lay voice that is driving the physician’s attention to address these issues. She called this move an "adventure" in which the "bikini view" of women’s health has been transformed to a more scientific view that is taking into account the gender differences in every system of a woman’s body. Dr. Legato said that women have a tremendous gift to offer men — that by questioning gender disparities, we will not only learn more about how to treat women, we will also learn more about men and their gender-specific needs.

Dr. Oz, the only male to serve on the panel, was introduced by panel moderator and ABC health correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman as "the future of what medicine will be in this country." Dr. Oz, a cardiac surgeon, spoke about operating on men and women with heart disease and said that as you look at their organs and blood vessels, you can see and feel how each gender experiences heart disease differently. He spoke about "opening our eyes to the globality of medicine" and the driving forces of change. He said that when asked about changing lifestyles to promote better health and well-being, a man’s primary excuse for not changing is lack of time, while a woman’s is self-esteem. In other words, the woman tends to place more concern on those around her than she does on herself. Dr. Oz concluded his remarks with the pitch that "you can’t have wealth without health."

Other panelists included Bylle Avery, recipient of an illustrious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award for community service and founder of the National Black Women’s Health Project; Alice Domar, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and senior staff psychologist in the division of behavioral medicine at Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center; Susan Love, M.D., adjunct professor of surgery at UCLA and the medical director of the Susan Love MD Breast Cancer Foundation; and Pamela Peeke, M.D., M.P.H., author of Fight Fat After Forty (Viking Press, 2000), former Pew Scholar and former researcher at the NIH’s Office of Alternative Medicine.

The National Council for Families and Television is a non-profit, non-adversarial, educational organization that brings together television’s creative community with experts in the area of education health, the environment, and human relations to discuss issues impacting the family. Tricia McLeod Robin, president, and Marian Rees, co-chair, will be honored with an Athena Award for Media at the Partnership’s annual gala [link to: http://cait.cpmc.columbia.edu:88/dept/partnership/gala_2002_bulletin.html] on May 8, 2002.