Training Program: Women's Health Track

Melissa McNeil, MD, MPH
Director, Women's Health Track
Director, Comprehensive Women's Health Program

• The Women's Health Track—the first of its kind—was established in 1994 for residents with a strong interest in developing expertise in health issues that are unique to women, are more common in women, and present differently in women.
• The goal of the track is to integrate women's health issues into the mainstream of medical practice. Residents acquire the skills to provide gender-specific primary care and subspecialty care. This training is complemented by rotations in other areas, such as endocrinology, cardiology, adolescent medicine, psychiatry, urogynecology, and reproductive endocrinology. Components of training in this program include the following:
• Comprehensive internal medicine: First and foremost, residents in this track are trained as internal medicine physicians and spend the same amount of time on wards and in intensive care units as residents in the Categorical Track.

• Focus on women's health: This training occurs at a specialized continuity clinic housed in one of two comprehensive women's health centers and through a series of electives over the course of the Internal Medicine Residency Program.


"While the program here is intense, the faculty are very supportive and serve as great advocates for the housestaff. Their goal is to help you learn, not to stress you out. If you're interested in women's health and you want great clinical training, good mentorship, and opportunities for a good fellowship, this is a great place to be."

Jodie A. Reider, MD
Women's Health Track

• Routine gynecologic care: Residents develop expertise in breast exams, pelvic exams, Pap smears, family planning, preconception counseling, and management of menstrual dysfunction, menopause, domestic violence, and sexual trauma.
• Medical management of the pregnant patient: Residents obtain experience in managing medical problems that commonly coexist with pregnancy. Attention is also given to managing medical problems prior to pregnancy and during the postpartum period.
• Identification of mental health problems: Residents are trained to diagnose and manage mental health conditions common to women and to understand the relationship of the conditions to medical illness and hormonal state. Topics such as depression, anxiety disorders, somatization, substance abuse, domestic violence, and postpartum depression are included.
• Preventive counseling: This training prepares residents to counsel patients about current issues in women's health, such as mammography screening, hormone replacement therapy, and other preventive health needs.
• Physicians who have completed this track have joined practices providing gender-specific health care to women and have received women's health fellowships and subspecialty fellowships in other areas, including endocrinology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, and pulmonary/critical care medicine.
• The Department offers several positions in the Women's Health Track each year. Additional information about this track may be obtained by contacting Dr. Melissa McNeil. Please visit our How to Apply page for more information about general application procedures.

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