Improving Access to High Quality Healthcare Topic of Oct. 9 Simmons College Lecture

BOSTON (September 30, 2002) - Gaining competent and compassionate healthcare in a world of frustrating and conflicting medical advice is the topic of a lecture 3:30-5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9 in the Simmons College third floor conference center, 300 The Fenway. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Primary Care Research at the Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), will speak on "Competent and Compassionate Care for All: Reducing Disparities and Improving Access." She will examine the racial, gender, and ethnic differences in health, and the ways in which people can learn the best way to select providers and choose strategies for maintaining and restoring health.

Prior to her appointment at AHRQ, Burstin was assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and director of quality measurement at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she was selected as a Compassionate Care Scholar. At the Center for Primary Care Research, Burstin oversees the research that seeks to improve access, quality, and effectiveness of primary care services.

Burstin is one of three speakers in the Simmons College Lowell Lecture series, "Gender, Health and Behavior: The Interplay of Risk, Choice and Social Policy," sponsored by the Society and Health Program in the Simmons Sociology Department in collaboration with the Office of Student Life, the Simmons Health Center, and the Simmons School for Health Studies.

For more information, contact Sociology Professor Patricia Rieker at 617-521-2393 (Note to reporters: contact Katie Fiermonti in the public relations office, 617-521-2369, if you want to cover the lecture).

Simmons College is a nationally recognized, small, private, predominantly women’s university in the heart of Boston. It has undergraduate programs for women and graduate programs for women and men.

contact

Katie Fiermonti
617-521-2369

 

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