A major commitment of Women's Health Research at Yale is providing diverse audiences with new and accessible science-based information on women’s health and on how sex and gender influence health. The outlets for offering the translation of scientific findings have evolved over the years in its format and its content.
Website
Women’s Health Research at Yale’s website came online in 2000 and focused on two goals. First was concise reporting of our initial studies coupled with early findings, such as the increased risk of breast cancer recurrence for women with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations and, second, translating medical information that could help women in their health care decisions, such as What do we know about hormone therapy? As the center and its research portfolio grew, the timely updates increased to cover the results of our many studies and expanded topics, ranging from cancers to Alzheimer’s disease to heart disease – to name a few. Today, in addition to explaining the practical benefit gained from our research, viewers find stories on how research works, developments in medical school educational, and how we lend our voice to national and international conversations on health. We also feature “online-only” news, as well as perspectives on learning about women’s health from our Yale student blog – Why didn’t I know this?
Innovations in Women's Health
The first issue of our Newsletter, published 21 years ago, featured short announcements on the first funded studies – outlining how scientists were beginning to explore women’s health across various disciplines. The Newsletter now shares the implementation of data from a myriad of studies and, importantly, their impact on clinical care, such as how girls as well as boys who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder can benefit from behavioral therapy here at Yale. Expanded articles offer an in-depth look at the faculty, staff, and advisors who make up the center, allow researchers to share their work in their own words, detail the novel methods they use, and explain the implementation of their findings.
Social Media
When social media became a new and influential outlet for providing information, we joined to provide breaking news on women’s health with links to in-depth explanations. Our use of video posts to explain scientific concepts are especially popular. For example, a WHRY video detailing Dr. Akiko Iwasaki’s novel nasal vaccine development quickly received more than 6,000 views on Twitter. In addition, our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn posts provide avenues to resources that keep our global followers informed about emerging health data and ways to interact with WHRY.