An Intermountain Health<\/a> physician who has played a key role in advancing women\u2019s health was among a select group of women\u2019s health advocates and experts invited to the first-ever White House Initiative on Women\u2019s Health Research<\/a>, which is working to improve women\u2019s health across the nation.<\/p>\n Last week, President Joe Biden and First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, invited a select group of women\u2019s health advocates, clinicians, researchers, experts, investors and philanthropists to the White House for a conference<\/a> to celebrate the program\u2019s success.<\/p>\n Intermountain Health\u2019s senior medical director of women\u2019s health for Utah and Idaho, Audrey Jiricko, MD<\/a>, was among them.<\/p>\n Dr. Jiricko has played a key role in advancing women\u2019s health at Intermountain Health. As an obstetrician-gynecologist, she has helped activate intimate partner violence screening and pioneer the integration of mental health screening in the OB-GYN setting.<\/p>\n Aside from improving patients\u2019 health and safety, these practices recognize the holistic scope of women\u2019s health issues and challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not only able to connect patients to resources, but also to find links between a history of traumatic stress and other health conditions like chronic pelvic pain,\u201d said Dr. Jiricko. \u201cIt helps us look at each patient as a whole person.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s an ethos Dr. Jiricko has brought to her whole career.<\/p>\n She\u2019s collaborated across disciplines to promote best practices in women\u2019s health, recently leading the creation of Intermountain Health\u2019s first Women\u2019s Heart Health Program.<\/p>\n Heart disease is the number one killer of women nationally, but women\u2019s heart research lags behind research specific to men \u2013 as does women\u2019s heart care. Statistically, across the nation, women who complain about chest pain wait longer to receive an EKG than men, and women who suffer heart attacks wait longer than men for intervention.<\/p>\n Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy \u2013 which include chronic or gestational high blood pressure, and the more serious preeclampsia and eclampsia \u2013 can affect the health of the mother and baby during pregnancy, and can also impact their long-term cardiovascular health.<\/p>\n Dr. Jiricko is working with an Intermountain cardiovascular research team to review health records from more than 200,000 Intermountain patients who\u2019ve had hypertensive disorders during pregnancy.<\/p>\n The goal is to map what Intermountain can do as a health system to implement proactive care and prevent negative outcomes, including outpatient and in-home blood pressure monitoring during pregnancy and long-term follow-up afterward.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have so much data,\u201d said Dr. Jiricko. \u201cWe support more than 40,000 deliveries per year. It\u2019s an exciting opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s all work that embodied the spirit of the White House Initiative on Women\u2019s Health, which President Biden said at the event is intended to \u201cfundamentally change and improve how we invest in women\u2019s health.\u201d For Dr. Jiricko, it was a reminder that the work she\u2019s led and continues to lead at Intermountain really does make a difference.<\/p>\n The Initiative is leading the way by allocating nearly $1 billion in funding from a variety of federal agencies to improve women\u2019s health across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time I attend a national event like this, I appreciate Intermountain Health even more,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing great research, but we\u2019re also operationalizing those best practices to deliver excellent care to our patients. Our focus on becoming a model health system brings it all together.\u201d\t\t<\/p>\n \n About Intermountain Health<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health<\/a><\/b> is a not-for-profit system of 34 hospitals, approximately 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For up-to-date information and announcements, please see the Intermountain Health newsroom at https:\/\/intermountainhealthcare.org\/news<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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