Gender and Health

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Women’s Health and Air Pollution

Our Center deliberated on the relationship between elevated levels of air pollutants and women's health in India through a three-day symposium between December 2 and 4, 2019. A panel led by Dr. Mary Beth Terry, Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Dr. Jasmine McDonald, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Dr. Jeanine D'Armiento, Professor of Medicine in Anesthesiology at Columbia University and Dr. Qamar Rahman, Former Deputy Director Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow discussed the current state of research regarding particulate matter and the rising cases of respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, and other diseases among Indian women.

Cervical Cancer Prevention

Social stigma associated with sexual activity, lack of awareness and other socio cultural misconceptions are preventing Indian women from accessing early treatment for cervical cancer, said Dr. Sharmila Pimple, Professor of Preventive Oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital in a webinar on Preventing Cervical Cancer on March 23, 2021. Dr. Pimple and Louise Kuhn, Professor of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health and Sharmila Pimple, Professor, Preventive Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital discussed the primary and secondary prevention approaches to improve health outcomes and deliberated upon the social and medical barriers in implementing cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccines in India and the world.

Breast Cancer Prevention

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Indian women. As part of the Screenings that Save series, we hosted a discussion on breast cancer in October, 2020 with Anil Rustgi, Director of Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Associate Dean of Oncology, Chief of Cancer Services, Mary Beth Terry, Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University, Dr. Sumeet Shah, Breast Cancer Surgeon and Chief Oncologist at Silverline OncoCare, and Dr. Roshni Rao, Chief of Breast Surgery at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. The panel explored the importance of screening, early diagnosis, and prevention of breast cancer and also discussed how the Covid-19 pandemic affected breast cancer screening in India.

Women and Heart Disease during COVID-19

On June 4, 2020, we partnered with the Women Creating Change initiative of the Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia University for a webinar moderated by Dr. Sonia Tolani, Co-Director of the Columbia Women’s Heart Center, and featuring Jennifer Haythe, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center and D. Prabhakaran, Executive Director of the Center for Chronic Disease and Control in New Delhi, to discuss how the coronavirus crisis has altered the way in which women seek cardiovascular care and the various approaches to improving women’s health during a pandemic.