Keeping the Women we Love Healthy

Donors and Board Members are not only proud, but inspired by the research topics of all our scholars.  Dr. Howell’s reasoning behind setting up the Howell Undergraduate Scholarship program was to get young scientists excited about a career in women’s health.  As a pediatric oncologist, she realized that women were taking care of everyone in their family but themselves. As best stated by Susan Baxter, Executive Director, California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB): “The Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women's health was one of the first nonprofits nationwide that supported undergraduate researchers. We've been very grateful for our partnership.  Together, the Howell Foundation and CSUPERB have given $855,000 in awards to 200 students since 2001; the great majority, 87% of them, graduate and go on to apply successfully for medical school, graduate school or work in the bio medical field.” We had the opportunity of meet...

The Doris A. Howell Foundation will be kicking off its lecture series on February 8th with the presentation "Women and Diabetes: Use of digital technologies in diabetes care" with key note speaker Athena Philis-Tsimikas, MD. Please visit www.howellfoundation.org to register for the event. With a significant number of diagnosed and under/undiagnosed diabetic and pre-diabetic Americans (close to 10% of the population), creating awareness of the symptoms, risk factors and management strategies becomes increasingly necessary. The result of the body’s inability to produce or respond to insulin creates abnormal metabolic function, resulting in too much sugar in the blood. The classifications of diabetes are: Type 1 diabetes: A chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin. Type 2 diabetes: A chronic condition that affects the way the body processes blood sugar (glucose). Pre-diabetes: A condition in which blood sugar is high, but not high...

What a year 2018 has been, and 2019 is just around the corner! The Board of Directors at the Howell Foundation is working on lining up great speakers, is reviewing amazing research topics from our scholars and continues to see the results of our CEI seed resarch grants!  We couldn't have done it without you!  Your continuous support was fundamental in making a difference in women's health research: 16 undergraduate research scholarships Two graduate nursing research scholarships Four educational luncheons Our evening “Health and Happiness” event Our pilot grant for assisting with the reproductive health of the East African women refugees in San Diego county and  Our newest initiative, assisting with enrollment of women research subjects in clinical trials (the first being the WISDOM Trial addressing diagnosis in breast cancer) With your support,  you have advanced research regionally at UCSD School of Medicine, USD Hahn School of nursing, SDSU...

Dr. Sheila Moody at Howell Luncheon in November  In our continued efforts to better the health of women, in 2012, the Howell Foundation made a commitment to fund research partnerships between academic and community-based organizations. The goal of our Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) is to support these partnerships; working collaboratively to develop and evaluate programs designed to improve women’s health. Our priority is to ensure the development of evidenced-informed projects that address relevant issues affecting women’s health within the greater San Diego community, with an emphasis on underserved women. The 2018 Community Engagement Initiative recipient is Dr. Sheila Mody, MD MPH.  She is Director, Fellowship in Family Planning; Director, Division of Family Planning at the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences of University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Her project will focus on anayzing how culture influences family planning h...

It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of a remarkable woman who inspired us all.  She truly believed that the way to fight bias against female in research was through education.  In doing so, she touched the life of many.    Devoted to improving the lives of others, her pervasive humanitarian outreach to those in need and to education is legendary.   Known as the "Mother of Hospice" in our community, Doris A. Howell, M.D. was a graduate of McGill University.  A Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, and an internationally renowned leader in pediatrics and hospice care, she was a faculty member at Harvard and Duke Schools of Medicine, Chair of the Dept. of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and on the faculty of UCSD Medical School where she chaired the Dept. of Community and Family Medicine. Serving on the San Diego Hospice Board of Directors since its inception, she was a driving force for San Diego Hospice, now ...

Because women's health starts with research!  “It’s important for women to have confidence in good scientific research” – WisdomStudy.org Women make a series of decisions based on the information provided from their screening.  Wouldn't you want to know what the best option is? If you haven't done so already, learn more about the impact this important research will have on women in our community. In support of the WISDOM ( W omen I nformed to S creen D epending O n M easures of risk) trial, The Doris A. Howell Foundation celebrated its Health and Happiness Series in June with the presentation “Improving Benefits and Reducing Harms from Breast Cancer Screening: The WISDOM Trial,” hosting three renowned specialists in the areas of oncology, epidemiology and genetic testing.  Led by UC San Diego Health, UC Davis Health, UCSF, UCLA Health, UC Irvine, and Sanford Health, the mammography screening research trial is searching to determine which strategy produces...

Even though Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia, it is also a complication of Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and a further cause is Lewy Body dementia .   Consider this: Seventy percent of dementia cases are due to Alzheimer’s disease It is estimated that one in six women over the age of 55 will develop dementia, compared to one in ten men.   As much as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease research results sound promising, we are cautiously optimistic about the findings that currently dictate the way it is diagnosed and treated.  To date, we have research results that are encouraging: In 2016, researchers in the US found a direct correlation between dementia and heart health.  In a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that addressing cardiovascular disease lowered the risk of dementia. (1), (2)  A collaboration between scientists in the US and Australia regarding dementia-re...