Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are a heterogeneous group of conditions occurring during the antepartium or immediate postpartum period. While HDP are frequently considered to be “pregnancy limited conditions”, there is a growing body of evidence that shows a strong link between obstetrical complication and short and long term maternal cardiovascular disease risk. Women who have experienced a HDP are at higher risk (2-4x) of premature and more frequent development of traditional cardiovascular risk factors (eg. dysglycemia, obesity, hypertension), cardiovascular disease and have increased mortality rates in both the short and long term. Pregnancy and the postpartum period provide a key window to implement screening and preventative strategies at a stage where cardiovascular risk can be modified. Despite this opportunity, a knowledge and clinical care gap exists. We aim to address this care gap by developing an online platform and e-Modules targeted at both clinicians and patients.

The book is tentatively titled “Sex, Gender, & Health: An Interdisciplinary Casebook”. As editor of the casebook, I would write front matter for the book including a substantial discussion of why it is important to develop a nuanced understanding of how sex/gender influence health, and a rigorous discussion of the concepts of “sex” and “gender” themselves. Students from the 2018 iteration of HTHSCI 2T03 as well as those in the future offerings of the course will be invited to submit their case study projects for possible inclusion in the casebook. I would take responsibility for ensuring that the cases are of a high caliber for inclusion in such a resource, giving significant editorial direction, and sending them for review by experts in the field as appropriate. The students who developed the case studies to be included would be credited as authors of their chapters.

I propose to develop the electronic textbook through eCampusOntario’s Open Educational Resources platform (https://openlibrary.ecampusontario.ca/), which would be issued under a Creative Commons copyright license. An electronic format is ideal for the evolving nature of this project, with new cases being added each year with each iteration of the course. The eCampusOntario platform has the ability to order printed and bound copies of the book at any time for those who prefer a hard-copy format.

This meeting is designed to introduce 8 McMaster faculty members and one family medicine resident to the determinants of health for women and children in Morocco, with especial attention to the social status, gender, and cultural factors that influence maternal and infant health for women in Morocco.  Participants will meet directors of NGOs, Moroccan midwives, nurses, and physicians who work with women and interview and visit women’s associations in the High Atlas Mountains.  The benefit to McMaster is to “train the teachers,” introducing McMaster teaching faculty to the determinants of health for women in a global context, introduce them to gender issues for Muslim women in a moderate Islamic country, and provide food for thought for training McMaster health professional students in cultural humility.

This interdisciplinary course aims to address the dearth of medical research concerning the experiences of queer women living with disability. Our proposed course centers the work and life of Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo. The relative silence in medical humanities and related research concerning her identity as a queer, racialized woman who was forced from medical training following the onset of disability allows us to develop a learning seminar that can be flexible in structure. Taking Kahlo as a figural centrefold provides the opportunity to implement the course’s learning objectives broadly, by offering various formulations of the course to medical educators who may not have the resources to implement the full semester course we envision. This seminar brings together Health Sciences, Feminist, Art History, and Medical Humanities research to emphasize to medical learners the importance of developing competencies to think critically about the unique experiences of queer women with disabilities.

Dr. May Cohen is a brilliant Canadian physician and women’s rights trailblazer.

For over 60 years, she has advocated powerfully in Canada and internationally for women’s reproductive rights, women’s health and women physicians’ advancement — and in the end, for us all.

May is widely recognized for her many contributions to women’s health, sexuality, abortion choice and human rights. Numerous medical awards bear her name.

The Gender Lady: The Fabulous Dr. May Cohen explores Dr. Cohen’s life and career and her extraordinary gender equity and human sexuality contributions.

This documentary was produced by two Canadian colleagues of May Cohen, family physicians and gender equity advocates Cheryl Levitt and Barbara Lent.

This project will address a learning challenge in the midwifery curriculum.  Specifically, midwifery students are required to learn physical assessment of the health, childbearing woman, however, the educational resources underpinning this learning are not effective.  Traditional textbooks cover physical assessment of both men and women, and are focussed on pathology.  This creates a disconnect between the learning resources and the practical examination required during clinical practice.  Our project proposes to fill this gap through the development and evaluation of an interactive e-textbook.  The textbook will include theoretical content, based on current lectures developed by midwifery instructors, but will also include interactive elements such as, animation, pop-up glossary and quizzes.  The textbook will integrate high definition videos produced as part of this project.  IT will be piloted in September 2014 with 30 midwifery students.  Evaluation will focus on learner knowledge acquisition and the acceptability and educational impact of the e-textbook.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of gender in leadership in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at McMaster University.  We examine why faculty take on leadership roles and whether there are gender differences in perceptions, styles and approaches to leadership.  The study population will be FHS faculty leaders.  A mixed methods triangulation design will be used.  Interviews will be conducted with participants to elucidate motivations, perceptions of leadership and approaches.  The participants will also complete the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire™ and the Thomas Killam Inventory™ to elucidate leadership and conflict management styles.  Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis will compare female and male responses.   Analysis and integration of the two components will provide a multidimensional approach to the phenomenon of gender and leadership.  Findings from this study will be used to better inform and support leadership development in the FHS.

Publication link:https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JHOM-02-2018-0061

In Canada, 39% of pregnancies are unintended and approximately half of these pregnancies end in abortion.  Unintended pregnancy can have far reaching emotional, economic and social consequences for women and their families.  Our study proposes to examine what effect a structured, multicultural, patient level information video would have on women’s choices about contraception, specifically the preference for Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC).  This video would be a Canadian resource for women and partners who wish to learn more about contraceptive methods in a patient-level, culturally-competent and practical format, that could be utilized without the need for health care professional administration.

As medical students within the McMaster community and future physicians in the Canadian health care system, we have identified gaps in current approaches to LGBTQ2+ care within the medical school curriculum as well as a shortage of LGBTQ2+ health resources for physicians looking to improve their expertise in this area.  The principal goals of this project are to implement and evaluate various educational interventions aimed at increasing medical student and physician competence in meeting the unique health care needs of LGBTQ2+ patients.  These interventions will include organizing a continuing medical education seminar for practicing physicians, working with the medical school curriculum planning committee to train and incorporate transgendered standardized patients into the undergraduate MD program, and hosting an interprofessional conference on issues surrounding LGBTQ2+ health.  The impact of these approaches will be evaluated using survey-based research tools.