The UTHSCSA National Center of Excellence in Women's Health
with Melissa Palomo-Ramon, MPA

Melissa Palomo-Ramon is the Program Coordinator for the UTHSCSA National Center of Excellence in Women's Health. Melissa received her BA in Liberal Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989 and her Masters in Public Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1995. She has extensive experience in program planning and evaluation, including conducting cutting-edge job analysis of primary care teams for the Veteran's Health Care Administration and developing quality standards for children with special health care needs in Medicaid managed care. Her previous work with the Department of Pediatrics at UTHSCSA included coordinating a HRSA-funded, Maternal and Child Health Bureau Special Project of Regional and National Significance grant dealing with children with special health care needs (CSHCN) and Medicaid managed care. This work entailed cost analysis for capitation development and developing a care coordinator intervention strategy for CSHCN. Other areas of interest include health policy, program evaluation, and health services research.
The UTHSCSA National Center of Excellence in Women's Health

Why We Are Here:

The women of San Antonio play an important role in the health and well being of our collective community. The UTHSCSA National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, hopes to improve the overall status of women in our community by doing the following:

  • Improve access to all health care services for women
  • Become a partner with all community organizations that serve women to coordinate our efforts to help women
  • Create change in the health care system as a whole so that women’s needs are valued

What We Are Doing:

The UTHSCSA National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health (CoE) is working to promote the health status of women. The goals of the Center of Excellence are to eliminate disparities in women’s health, improve access to health care services and promote multidisciplinary collaborations among biomedical and social scientists and clinicians.

The Center of Excellence Model consists of the following five interactive components:

Clinical Care Services:

The core program, the component, located at the University Health System-Downtown, facilitates the integration of multidisciplinary clinical services and programs for women to provide convenient “one-stop-shopping” that addresses women’s unique needs across their lifespan. The CoE Clinic is located in the University Health Center – Downtown at 527 North Leona, San Antonio. Elly Xenakis, MD, is the Clinical Director.

Community Outreach:

Our outreach efforts are focused on establishing linkages with community based organizations in order to enhance patient movement within the health care system and to develop and implement culturally competent, evidence-based health promotion for vulnerable, at risk women in San Antonio. The goal of the CoE Outreach component is to develop community-designed, grass roots efforts to help women get the care they need, when and where they need it. The Resource Center, located in the CoE Clinic is created and maintained by Lis Martinez, Outreach Coordinator. Colleen Keller, RN, PhD, and Jane Dimmitt Champion, RN, PhD are co-Directors in this effort.

Research

The CoE’s Research component’s goals are to develop an infrastructure within the UTHSCSA that will integrate and promote current research into women’s health, to develop new resources to aid in the procurement of future funding for women’s health research and to support and promote research programs for women faculty. Robert Schenken, MD, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is directing the CoE’s Research efforts

Professional Education:

The Professional Education component, headed by Martha Medrano, MD, is targeted toward increasing the baseline knowledge of students across academic institutions (e.g., medical, nursing, dental, and allied health undergraduate and graduate students) and health professions faculty regarding women’s health. This will be done by developing a women’s health curricular model continuum.

Leadership Development:

The CoE’s Leadership component, directed by Janet Williams, MD, is developing new and enhancing existing programs to foster institutional recruitment, retention and promotion of health professionals in women’s health to foster diversity.

Background Information:

As part of a national model program to advance women's health care, the Office of Women's Health (OWH), DHHS, designates select academic health centers as National Centers of Excellence for Women (CoE). The University of Texas Health Science Center's (UTHSCSA) National Center of Excellence for Women's Health, a partnership between UTHSCSA, the University Health System, and the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District proudly received its designation in September 2004 and is one of only 21 CoEs in the nation.

Contact Information:

Donald J. Dudley, MD, Director, 210-567-5011
Melissa Palomo-Ramon, MPA, Program Coordinator, 210-567-3020
Elisabeth (Lisa) Martinez, BA, Outreach Coordinator, 210-567-5725