Hi! I am Dr. Neeta Shah. I am the Vice President of Women's Health Services for North Shore-LIJ Health System. My role at the Health Sytem is we have about 15 hospitals within the health system and my role is to expand and coordinate Women’s Health Services across the health system. We are also building the Katz Women’s Hospital which is the maternity and GYN patients but everything to do with the women is in the outpatient services. So what do I do, I try to figure out what’s different for women. We know that women make about 85% to 90% of healthcare decision in the household. They are the ones who are taking care of everybody around them and they don’t have time to take care of themselves. So we are trying to empower women with the knowledge and tools that she needs, not only to take care of herself but also her family.
Q: In speaking to that, as a woman, as a medical professional what do you think is the single most important piece of information that either doctors or other endometriosis patient can be armed with in treating endometriosis?
A: Well, you know what, endometriosis has been there for centuries, and women have lived with the pain not knowing what they are dealing with, not knowing that there is something that we can do with it. So what I would tell women is that when you have pain, and you have diagnosis of endometriosis we have physicians who can take care of that and you can lead a pain-free life, a healthier life. You can be fertile, you can have babies, you can have everything that another woman has. So that will be ensured.
Q: And do you feel that New York City needs a Center for Excellence specifically for endometriosis treatment and care?
A: Yes, I really strongly feel that there is a necessity for that. We need to be at destination place. We have Dr. Seckin who does a great job and amazing job, and I think that we need to really promote that out there. We need to empower women because women need to feel good, and this is one place where we can make a difference.
Thank you for speaking with us.
Thank you.
