Meeting for the third time in 10 years, the Women's Health Policy Summit assembled fresh approaches to 10 areas of health disparity among women that will help guide policy at the local, county and state levels.

The summit on May 24, which was organized by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's Office of Women's Health, drew approximately 450 healthcare leaders, including physicians, health policy advocates and public health professionals, says Ellen Eidem, director of the Office of Women's Health. "The big surprise to me was that we had a lot more people than we expected," compared with the 1997 and 1999 events, says Debra Judelson, MD, a summit participant and Los Angeles County Medical Association board member.

Participants discussed women's health disparities, then broke up into workgroups to brainstorm about innovative ways to attack the issues. The workgroups were:

-Healthy aging and social determinants of health;
-Reproductive health and the environment;
-Universal healthcare and women's health;
-Adolescence and healthy relationships;
-Immigrant women and health;
-Violence and health;
-Racism, multiculturalism and health;
-Healthy lifestyles and chronic disease prevention;
-Disability and access; and
-Sexual orientation and gender identity.

The 1997 summit led to the creation of the Office of Women's Health and offered hundreds of other recommendations, "which were painfully narrowed down," Dr. Judelson says. The 2007 summit sought to keep recommendations as concise as possible, so each workgroup presented to the audience only its top two ideas that can be accomplished in three years.

Most of the proposals are not yet ready for public exposure. However, many hold promise. "It really opened up my eyes to listen to the presentations that other people made," says Dr. Judelson, who participated in the workgroup on healthy lifestyles and chronic disease prevention. "It had never crossed my mind to use the tobacco-control model as a way of reducing chronic diseases." That model, which pokes lightheartedly at tobacco and smokers, could perhaps be applied to lifestyle issues, such as eating trans fats and other unhealthy foods, she says.

At press time, the summit planning committee and workgroup leaders were planning to present a final list of 50 recommendations. These ideas will then be submitted to city, county and state officials, as well as other public and private health organizations and funding groups, Eidem says.