October 31, 2000

SPRINGFIELD, IL – The second annual Illinois Women's Health Conference, Shaping the Future of Women's Health, will be held Wednesday (Nov. 1) and Thursday (Nov. 2) at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont.

Sponsored by the Illinois Department of Public Health, the two-day conference will cover a broad range of topics including the latest findings in hormone replacement therapy, anxiety and depression, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus disease, and mind/body health.

Gov. George H. Ryan will open the conference at 1 p.m. Wednesday and Lt. Gov. Corrine Wood will address the attendees during lunch on Thursday between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

The keynote speaker is Wanda Jones, D.P.H., director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Women's Health. She will speak beginning at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday on what's happening nationally in women's health.

Other notable speakers include the following:

• Barbara Steinberg, D.D.S., assistant director, Division of Dental Medicine, Allegheny University Hospitals, Philadelphia, Penn., 8:30 a.m., Thursday, oral health problems;

• Dr. David Fishman, National Ovarian Cancer Program, Northwestern University Medical Center, Chicago, 10 a.m., Thursday, effective methods for the accurate detection of early stage ovarian cancer;

• Dr. Walter Kinney, the Permanente Medical Group Inc., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sacramento, Calif., 12:45 p.m., Thursday, recognition that cervical cancer is an infectious disease and clinically useful human papillomavirus testing is available to change cervical cancer screening practices for the better;

• Dr. Valerie Raskin, academic director of psychiatry, MacNeal Health Network, Oak Park, 12:45 p.m., Thursday, the management of anxiety disorders; and

• Dr. Carol Warshaw, director of Behavioral Science, Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency, Cook County Hospital, Chicago, 12:45 p.m., Thursday, the prevalence and impact of domestic violence and procedural steps health care providers can take to respond to victims.