Women’s Health Services in Family Medicine Clinics
Sumayah Abed, MD discusses the need for women’s health screenings and describes their recommended schedules. She makes the case for why women’s health is efficiently addressed in the context of family medicine, and how UAB family physicians address these issues for their female patients.
Featuring:
Learn more about Sumayah Abed, MD
Release Date: February 2, 2021
Expiration Date: February 2, 2024
Disclosure Information:
Planners:
Ronan O’Beirne, EdD, MBA
Director, UAB Continuing Medical Education
Katelyn Hiden
Physician Marketing Manager, UAB Health System
The planners have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.
Speakers:
Sumayah Abed, MD
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Abed has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.
There is no commercial support for this activity.
Sumayah Abed, MD
Sumayah Abed, MD is an Assistant Professor whose Specialties include Family Medicine.Learn more about Sumayah Abed, MD
Release Date: February 2, 2021
Expiration Date: February 2, 2024
Disclosure Information:
Planners:
Ronan O’Beirne, EdD, MBA
Director, UAB Continuing Medical Education
Katelyn Hiden
Physician Marketing Manager, UAB Health System
The planners have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.
Speakers:
Sumayah Abed, MD
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine
Dr. Abed has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.
There is no commercial support for this activity.
Transcription:
Melanie: Welcome to UAB Med Cast. I'm Melanie Cole, and I invite you to listen as we discuss women's health services within family medicine clinics. Joining me is Dr. Sumayah Abed. She's an assistant professor and family medicine physician at UAB Medicine. Dr. Abed, it's a pleasure to have you join us today. So why is women's health an important part of the overall family medicine practice?
Dr Sumayah Abed: The number of visits Americans pay to the family physicians are the highest among all other specialties, which is 192 million visits annually or 48% more than the most visited medical specialty. Therefore, family physicians need to make the best out of those visits to offer the needed counseling, screening and other preventative measures.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, women outnumber men in primary care physician visits by more than 30%. This puts us as family physicians and our colleagues in OB-GYN under a lot of challenges to improve the screening of common and important gynecological conditions.
For example, 7% of women between 21 and 65 years, which account for 8 million American women never had cervical cancer screening with Pap smear and more than 11% of women have irregular screening. More than 12,000 American women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and more than 4,000 die of it annually.
Our goal as family physicians is to reduce the deaths from cervical cancer to or close to zero with universal screening that allows early diagnosis and, hence, early treatment and cure. There had been nationwide decline in the family physicians practices offering women health, which may have contributed to reduced screening.
We at UAB Family and Community Medicine are offering women's health services to our patients to improve the early detection of serious women health condition to improve our patient's wellbeing.
Melanie: What good points you made, Dr. Abed. So how did your background overseas affect your choice to lead the Women's Health Program and Family Medicine at UAB?
Dr Sumayah Abed: I finished my OB-GYN residency in Qatar, and then I did family medicine residency here in Alabama. And during my residency training in both specialties, I enjoyed practicing preventative women's health, such as screening cervical cancer with Pap smear and breast cancer screening, counseling about contraceptive methods and performing long acting-reversible contraceptive procedures such as Depo injection, intrauterine device insertion and removal and contraceptive implant insertion and removal. This background enables me to focus on women's health in my family practice.
Melanie: Well, I imagine that it would. And what an interesting topic we're discussing today. So then tell us what other health services does the family medicine clinic offer? And how do you tie this in with women that maybe see their gynecologists, as you mentioned your statistics about how many women are seeing primary care providers? Tell us how this all ties together. How do you start offering women's services in a family medicine clinic?
Dr Sumayah Abed: So besides screening and contraception, family physicians manage many other woman's health related illnesses, such as polycystic ovary syndrome, infertility, vaginitis, sexually transmitted infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, unusual and abnormal bleeding disorders, postmenopausal symptoms, preconception health, management of a chronic medical disease during the pregnancy and screening for domestic violence.
Melanie: Well, then tell us about the best time for doing women's health screening and counseling?
Dr Sumayah Abed: Any visit for a woman is a good time for screening. Pap smear can be performed during any checkup visits, and sometimes even during sick visits after discussing with the patient, especially during the pandemic, to spare the patient another visit to the clinic. I prefer to do this very important screening as soon as possible. We follow the guidelines of American Academy of Family Physicians, United States Preventive Services Task Force, and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. For example, cervical cancer screening for average risk woman starts at the age of 21 and continues until 65 years. For high risk groups, it can start earlier and continuous for longer time.
Melanie: Have you run into any challenges, doctor, in organizing women's health services within a family medicine clinic? Are there any challenges you'd like to let other providers know that are considering incorporating this into their practice?
Dr Sumayah Abed: So during COVID pandemic and for the safety of our patients and the health workers, a lot of elective procedures were put on hold together. After starting to reopen, many health care facilities, including family medicine clinics resumed their elective procedures such as screening for cervical cancer and breast cancer, intrauterine device placement and subdermal contraceptive implants insertion and removal. Also during COVID 19, the CDC recommended screening patients for COVID-like symptoms before the clinic visit to ensure the safety of the healthcare workers and other patients. Those measures are taken to reduce the distraction of woman health screening and preventive interventions.
Melanie: Well, then how do UAB family physicians address these issues for their female patients? And what do you want to change? As we wrap up, tell us what you would like to change for better improvement in women's health. Where do you think the most important needs that need to be met are located?
Dr Sumayah Abed: I'm glad that you asked this question. I wish to see more women's health education during family medicine rotation of medical school students. I am looking forward to starting a women's health program for hands-on training of medical students about the conditions I mentioned earlier. I would also like to see family medicine residents spending more time in women's health training.
Melanie: Thank you so much, Dr. Abed, for joining us today. What an important topic to incorporate women's health services within the family medicine clinic. Thank you again. And a community physician can refer a patient to UAB Medicine by calling the MIST line at 1-800-UAB-MIST.
That concludes this episode of UAB MedCast. For more information on resources available at UAB Medicine, please visit our website at UABMedicine.org/physician. Please also remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other UAB Medicine podcasts. I'm Melanie Cole.
Melanie: Welcome to UAB Med Cast. I'm Melanie Cole, and I invite you to listen as we discuss women's health services within family medicine clinics. Joining me is Dr. Sumayah Abed. She's an assistant professor and family medicine physician at UAB Medicine. Dr. Abed, it's a pleasure to have you join us today. So why is women's health an important part of the overall family medicine practice?
Dr Sumayah Abed: The number of visits Americans pay to the family physicians are the highest among all other specialties, which is 192 million visits annually or 48% more than the most visited medical specialty. Therefore, family physicians need to make the best out of those visits to offer the needed counseling, screening and other preventative measures.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, women outnumber men in primary care physician visits by more than 30%. This puts us as family physicians and our colleagues in OB-GYN under a lot of challenges to improve the screening of common and important gynecological conditions.
For example, 7% of women between 21 and 65 years, which account for 8 million American women never had cervical cancer screening with Pap smear and more than 11% of women have irregular screening. More than 12,000 American women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and more than 4,000 die of it annually.
Our goal as family physicians is to reduce the deaths from cervical cancer to or close to zero with universal screening that allows early diagnosis and, hence, early treatment and cure. There had been nationwide decline in the family physicians practices offering women health, which may have contributed to reduced screening.
We at UAB Family and Community Medicine are offering women's health services to our patients to improve the early detection of serious women health condition to improve our patient's wellbeing.
Melanie: What good points you made, Dr. Abed. So how did your background overseas affect your choice to lead the Women's Health Program and Family Medicine at UAB?
Dr Sumayah Abed: I finished my OB-GYN residency in Qatar, and then I did family medicine residency here in Alabama. And during my residency training in both specialties, I enjoyed practicing preventative women's health, such as screening cervical cancer with Pap smear and breast cancer screening, counseling about contraceptive methods and performing long acting-reversible contraceptive procedures such as Depo injection, intrauterine device insertion and removal and contraceptive implant insertion and removal. This background enables me to focus on women's health in my family practice.
Melanie: Well, I imagine that it would. And what an interesting topic we're discussing today. So then tell us what other health services does the family medicine clinic offer? And how do you tie this in with women that maybe see their gynecologists, as you mentioned your statistics about how many women are seeing primary care providers? Tell us how this all ties together. How do you start offering women's services in a family medicine clinic?
Dr Sumayah Abed: So besides screening and contraception, family physicians manage many other woman's health related illnesses, such as polycystic ovary syndrome, infertility, vaginitis, sexually transmitted infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, unusual and abnormal bleeding disorders, postmenopausal symptoms, preconception health, management of a chronic medical disease during the pregnancy and screening for domestic violence.
Melanie: Well, then tell us about the best time for doing women's health screening and counseling?
Dr Sumayah Abed: Any visit for a woman is a good time for screening. Pap smear can be performed during any checkup visits, and sometimes even during sick visits after discussing with the patient, especially during the pandemic, to spare the patient another visit to the clinic. I prefer to do this very important screening as soon as possible. We follow the guidelines of American Academy of Family Physicians, United States Preventive Services Task Force, and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. For example, cervical cancer screening for average risk woman starts at the age of 21 and continues until 65 years. For high risk groups, it can start earlier and continuous for longer time.
Melanie: Have you run into any challenges, doctor, in organizing women's health services within a family medicine clinic? Are there any challenges you'd like to let other providers know that are considering incorporating this into their practice?
Dr Sumayah Abed: So during COVID pandemic and for the safety of our patients and the health workers, a lot of elective procedures were put on hold together. After starting to reopen, many health care facilities, including family medicine clinics resumed their elective procedures such as screening for cervical cancer and breast cancer, intrauterine device placement and subdermal contraceptive implants insertion and removal. Also during COVID 19, the CDC recommended screening patients for COVID-like symptoms before the clinic visit to ensure the safety of the healthcare workers and other patients. Those measures are taken to reduce the distraction of woman health screening and preventive interventions.
Melanie: Well, then how do UAB family physicians address these issues for their female patients? And what do you want to change? As we wrap up, tell us what you would like to change for better improvement in women's health. Where do you think the most important needs that need to be met are located?
Dr Sumayah Abed: I'm glad that you asked this question. I wish to see more women's health education during family medicine rotation of medical school students. I am looking forward to starting a women's health program for hands-on training of medical students about the conditions I mentioned earlier. I would also like to see family medicine residents spending more time in women's health training.
Melanie: Thank you so much, Dr. Abed, for joining us today. What an important topic to incorporate women's health services within the family medicine clinic. Thank you again. And a community physician can refer a patient to UAB Medicine by calling the MIST line at 1-800-UAB-MIST.
That concludes this episode of UAB MedCast. For more information on resources available at UAB Medicine, please visit our website at UABMedicine.org/physician. Please also remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other UAB Medicine podcasts. I'm Melanie Cole.