Community Event: Who Decides? Gender, Medicine, and the Public's Health

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University

Conference: Who Decides? Gender, Medicine, and the Public’s Health

Gender, culture, economics, politics, and power affect health-care decisions by providers, patients, and communities in the United States and around the world. This conference will explore the choices behind medical research funding and practice, health-care delivery, and policy making.

Playwright, author, and activist Eve Ensler will open the conference on Thursday evening. She will give a presentation based on her book In the Body of the World: A Memoir of Cancer and Connection (2013), which will include readings and a Q&A session moderated by Diane Paulus, artistic director of the American Repertory Theater.

Friday’s program brings together physicians, policymakers, journalists, and academics. Panelists include United States Representative Louise Slaughter, NPR’s Julie Rovner, New York University’s Barron Lerner, MD, PhD, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s and UCLA’s C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD. Conference topics range from how gender dynamics shape health, research, and disease to health-care delivery under the Affordable Care Act.

This event is free and open to the public; registration is required. The event will also be live streamed. For more information, to register, or for live streaming, please visit the conference website at http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2014-who-decides-conference.