What’s In a Name?

Each year I assemble a small group of colleagues to study the schedule of seminars that have been confirmed for the Johns Hopkins Medicine annual women’s health conference, A Woman’s Journey. Our agenda is to craft titles for each lecture. These are critical subjects about improving your health and sometimes devastating diseases. Naming a seminar is serious business. Never the less, the meeting sometimes becomes raucous. It’s challenging. We need to be creative, yet maintain the integrity of the subject matter. The bottom line is to appeal to your curiosity and interests.

So, as you plan your fall, I hope you will check out hopkinsmedicine.org/awomansjourney. Read the titles of A Woman’s Journey’s 32 seminars that will be taught by Johns Hopkins physicians. Laugh at some of the titles; be motivated by others. But, when you finish reading the seminar names, be sure to go to our website, register for A Woman’s Journey, and learn what’s really in a name.
Leslie

A Suprising Legacy

I don’t mean to sound morbid, but last weekend we had a most extraordinary—and personal—experience.

After going through some old family papers, we learned where my husband’s grandparents had been buried so many years ago. So, last weekend, armed with genealogical information, a map, pruning shears and a few other sundry items, we traveled to several cemeteries in one of New York’s boroughs. It was not an ordinary outing. Some engravings of names and dates on tombstones were eroded by years and weather. Other grave markers had fallen over; some were overwrought with vines. But, in the course of a few hours, we located so many relatives dating back centuries. My husband learned about relatives, many of whom he never knew existed.

It was an inspiring trip and by the time returned home,I decided to assemble a “family tree.” The branches are so laden with names and dates, the draft paper now covers my dining room table. You can’t help but wonder who these people were, how they lived, and how they died. We each carry so many genes and traits from our family members, many of whom we didn’t even know. And then, I thought about a real gift I could pass on to my children.

I have prepared a medical family history. To the best of my knowledge I have detailed the diagnoses of my generation and my parents. Hopefully it will provide the detailed family records that physicians may someday request of my children. It's a unique legacy and one that I hope will keep them healthy.
Leslie

Your Opinion Matters

This is the time of year I enjoy most. Not because of the snow, for sure. Rather I find it satisfying to identify the topics for the forthcoming A Woman's Journey and begin to interview faculty members about their specialties.

Each year women ask how we select the health topics offered at the Johns Hopkins Medicine women's health conference. The answer is simple. We survey women like you and ask you to identify the health issues that are of greatest concern to you. So I ask for your help.

If you haven't already, please go to the Woman's Journey website (www.hopkinsmedicine.org/awomansjourney) and take the brief survey. It takes just a few minutes to scan through the list of potential seminar topics and indicate those of interest to you. The results will guide our decisions as I outline the program for next winter.

Your opinion really does matter.

Thanks,
Leslie

The Power of Women

October 23, 2009: Mary Elizabeth Garrett

Yesterday I had the pleasure of touring The Anne and Michael Armstrong Medical Education Building, the new home of medical student education at Johns Hopkins. The building is beautiful: a glass atrium, center staircase, digital classrooms and an advanced anatomy lab to usher in a new era of medical education. The expansive halls exhibit portraits of Hopkins Nobel prize winners, men and women who made medical history and outstanding donors of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

A life-size copy of John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Mary Elizabeth Garrett caught my eye. In the late 1800’s Ms. Garrett, a strong advocate for women and a family friend of Mr. Johns Hopkins, organized the national “Women’s Medical School Fund.” This campaign sought to raise the remaining funds necessary to open the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In the end, it was Ms. Garrett’s personal gift that achieved the campaign goal enabling the completion of the School of Medicine. The women’s gifts, however, were contingent upon a pledge that the School of Medicine would admit women and provide women the opportunity to fully participate in clinical care, academic teaching and medical research. The trustees accepted the generous gift of Ms. Garrett and others, and in 1894 the School of Medicine opened its doors with 15 men and three women in the institution’s first medical school class.

The display speaks to Ms. Garrett’s extraordinary gift as well as her personal commitment to the advancement of women. I sometimes reflect upon the satisfaction she might have had knowing about A Woman’s Journey and the Johns Hopkins’ annual women’s health conference’s dedication to educate today’s women about advances in medicine.

Leslie

Mastering the Art of Healthy Cooking

Finally. With much anticipation, last night I saw the new movie Julia and Julie. Most people have enjoyed the movie about cooking legend Julia Child and a young women who decides to write a blog as she works her way through Julia Child's 700-page classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. For me, however, the movie was personal.

I began cooking with only two cook books on my kitchen shelf: Mastering the Art of French Cooking volume 1 and volume 2. As the movie illustrates, these books are as much about technique as they are recipes and butter. Years later, my copies of these classic cookbooks are well dog eared and food stained. I have cooked my way through crepes, souffles, sauces and especially tarts.

More recently I have learned to adapt many of the recipes using what Hopkins dietician Lynda McIntyre calls "power foods." Blueberries, almonds, spinach etc. are foods that provide antioxidants and help us fight disease. That's why I am particularly anxious to hear Ms. McIntyre's presentation at this year's annual Johns Hopkins Medicine women's health conference, A Woman's Journey. In planning this year's program, I learned that certain combinations of foods help maximize the benefits we can derive while eating.

I am always searching for new recipes as well as advice. On November 14 I plan to leave my wooden spoons and copper pots at home and head to the Hilton to learn how to master the art of healthy cooking.

Hope to see you there,

Leslie

A Journey about Women’s Health

Sometimes the people you meet can change the course of your life. I was so fortunate 15 years ago to meet two women, Mollye Block and Harriet Legum, who infused my personal and professional life with new meaning. Mollye and Harriet had recently met; both were cancer survivors. They soon realized that they were impassioned about empowering women with health knowledge. After all, armed with information about new medical discoveries, women can pursue the best medical care for themselves and those they love.

Since then, Mollye, Harriet, a colleague named Chris White, and I have traveled a most rewarding path. We have created the block-buster Johns Hopkins Medicine’s annual women’s health conference, A Woman’s Journey. Organizing this conference has taught us a great deal about medical advances that can improve women’s health. We have been touched by so many women’s lives and have witnessed Johns Hopkins physicians changing the lives of those who attend the conference.

Through this blog, I hope to share some of the insights and information that I have gained along our own journeys as women. Sometimes, Johns Hopkins physicians will offer guest blogs to bring you medical knowledge first hand. In the meantime, visit the conference website (www.hopkinsmedicine.org/awomansjourney) to watch a short video about A Woman’s Journey, hear Mollye and Harriet speak about the conference, and stay tuned……

Leslie | awomansjourney@jhmi.edu