Editors’ Note

Stacey Rosen has been a practicing cardiologist for more than 25 years and served as Associate Chair of the Department of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program at Northwell Health before she joined KIWH. She is a professor of cardiology and Partners Council Professor of Women’s Health at the Zucker School of Medicine. She is a long-time volunteer for the American Heart Association with leadership positions at the local, regional and national levels and recently received the AHA’s Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award. She serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Council for WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease and is a co-author of the recently published book, Heart Smart for Women – Six STEPS in Six Weeks to Heart-Healthy Living. Rosen is a graduate of the six-year medical program at Boston University School of Medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians and the American Heart Association.

Institution Brief

Northwell Health (northwell.edu) delivers world-class clinical care throughout the New York metropolitan area, pioneering research at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and a visionary approach to medical education, highlighted by the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Northwell Health is the largest integrated healthcare system in New York State with a total workforce of more than 68,000 employees.

Will you provide an overview of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health at Northwell Health?

As physicians, we have known for decades that women’s health needs are unique. Historically, women were treated like men and “women’s health” was defined as issues related to reproductive organs only. By the 1990s, the National Institutes of Health and the Institute of Medicine made a “call to action” that we must appreciate that sex and gender do matter.

We began to discover that most medical research studied only men (even most lab animals were male). We learned that every cell in the body has a sex and that we need to get past our assumptions that men and women are the same when it comes to health and illness.

If drugs aren’t tested on women, for instance, we shouldn’t assume that they are safe or effective for them. We work on expanding research initiatives that are gender focused and address questions critical to women.

Women’s health, as a field, started from disparities in care related to the assumption that men and women were the same, which resulted in poorer outcomes for women. The Katz Institute is focused on that from a biologic, physiologic and clinical perspective.

We also know that women make the healthcare decisions for their families, so aligning the Katz Institute with women’s needs allows us to improve the health of families in our communities. Finally, we provide extensive community-based education in a manner that is culturally respectful of the varied communities we serve.

When it comes to the awareness around women’s health issues, is it a priority for the Katz Institute to be a leader in providing that education?

The mission of KIWH is based on four pillars: clinical programs that prioritize a woman’s unique health needs; gender-based research; community partnerships; and education (both professional and for the community).

Empowering women with the education to make wiser health decisions for themselves and their families is at the center of our work.