women in a row

Happy Women’s History Month – March 2023

March is Women’s History Month, but UPMC Enterprises celebrates women year-round. Our Digital Solutions, Translational Sciences, and MyUPMC teams are undertaking efforts that will help to close the gender gap in health care, expand access to care, and invest in women’s health. Through these initiatives, UPMC Enterprises is shaping the future of health care for women.  

Our Digital Solutions team is dedicated to the health, wellbeing, and access to care for women at all ages. Many perimenopausal and menopausal women struggle to find adequate care, treatment, and educational resources. To fill this gap, UPMC Enterprises’ Digital Solutions team has partnered with the UPMC Midlife Health Center at MageeWomen’s Hospital to identify, develop, and invest in innovative ways that technology can better support patients inside and outside of the clinic. Additionally, the team is working closely with Magee-Womens Imaging and applying a human-centered design approach to optimize breast health care delivery. By visiting imaging locations, shadowing radiologists and technologists, and interviewing patients, the team has been able to implement strategies to make near-term improvements as well as design programs to benefit patients, clinicians, and the community over the long-term. 

“Through this project, we’ve had the opportunity to engage with multiple stakeholders, such as colleagues at Magee-Womens Imaging, radiologists and technologists, and patients. All of these groups were so willing to share their experiences and expertise around breast health care, giving us a rich picture of current practices to guide our recommendations,” says Ashley Varrato, Senior Program Manager on the Digital Solutions team. 

The Translational Sciences team has made significant investments in research to develop more effective treatments for illnesses that impact women. The team invested in work at the University of Pittsburgh to develop a new therapy in the novel woman-controlled STD prevention space and have turned their attention to cutting edge science related to preventing, screening for, and treating ovarian cancer.  

“It’s been exciting to invest in research at University of Pittsburgh that I know will impact women, advance medical research, and demonstrate the criticality of investing in health solutions for women. Because investment in women’s health has only become a focus for our team relatively recently, many of the opportunities we’re seeing are much earlier and much riskier than in other fields. However, it’s been very interesting to work towards understanding the landscape so that we can find the high potential opportunities, invest to further medical research, and give them a chance to truly impact disparities in the area of women’s health,” says Anna Mamo, Director on the Translational Sciences team. 

Additionally, the Translational Sciences team has formed relationships with industry-leading women’s health investors to uncover more opportunities to focus on research, technology, and innovation that will benefit all women. 

The MyUPMC and UPMC Provider Directory teams have expanded access to care by launching self-scheduling capabilities for patients. Through relationships with Imaging Services and UPMC Magee-Womens Imaging, self-scheduling for screening mammograms became available in MyUPMC and through the provider directory. Since launching in Spring 2022, over 27,000 screening mammograms have been self-scheduled. 

“It’s a great thing to be involved in a project that’s all about patients getting preventative care for a serious disease,” according to Caitlin Kelley, Senior Product Manager on the MyUPMC team. “Patient access is our big focus, and while this is a great accomplishment, it is the first link in the chain of future projects. I’m looking forward to continuing to make an impact,” Kelley said. 

UPMC Enterprises is so proud of the steps our Digital Solutions, Translational Sciences, and MyUPMC teams are taking every day to serve the needs of all women, expand access to care, and invest in the future of women’s health. Happy Women’s History Month! 

Read more about Digital SolutionsTranslational Sciences, and MyUPMC

You Might Also Like…

More From the Newsletter