EXPERT PANEL DISCUSSIONS

The Meeting has been designed not only to facilitate knowledge exchange and networking, but also to act as a platform for debate and decision-making which will suggest future directions in Prevention, Screening and Risk Prediction in Women’s Health. Dedicated expert panel discussions on Day 3 (Wednesday, November 11th) will focus on the following topical areas.

Cancer Panel

Breast cancer screening – an area for improvement

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the western world, with mammography screening shown to reduce the associated mortality. The benefits of screening, issues associated with overdiagnosing and low quality of patient information issued at the time of screening have all given rise to an ongoing debate. The panel will discuss the potential to improve current screening programmes in view of the new epidemiological, molecular and imaging data, and will lay out a 5-year roadmap of strategies which could lead to a more efficient breast cancer screening.

Moderator
Ian Jacobs (UCL)

Panel Members
Michael Baum (UCL)
Jack Cuzick (CRUK)
Isabel dos Santos Silva (LSHTM)
Stephen Duffy (CRUK)
Peter Gøtzsche (Nordic Cochrane Centre)
Wolfgang Gaissmaier (MPIB)
Noah Kauff (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center)
Peter Laird (USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center)
Martin Leach (Institute of Cancer Research)
Jane Lyons (Eve Appeal)
Douglas Malinowski (BD Diagnostics)
Usha Menon (UCL)
Stephen Morris (UCL)
Tim Mould (UCLH)
Paul Pharoah (University of Cambridge)
Malcolm Pike (USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center)
Martin Widschwendter (UCL)
Robin Wilson (RMH)

Obstetrics, Fetal and Neonatal Panel

Changing models of antenatal care

Much current research focuses on early identification of women at risk of a range of pregnancy complications, such as fetal growth restriction, thromboembolism, pre-eclampsia, preterm labour or mental health problems. The proposed benefits are that women can be reassured if at low risk and allocated to specialist services if at high risk. Such information may also influence decisions about the most suitable environment in which to give birth. The panel will debate the extent to which this really is a revolution in the provision of maternity services that will allow a greater emphasis on normality. The discussion will also focus on the evidence that early risk prediction improves perinatal and maternal outcome and the actual potential for changing provision of antenatal care both in the UK and abroad.

Moderator
Donald Peebles (UCL)

Panel Members
Sabaratnam Arulkumaran (St George’s University of London)
Andrew Copp (UCL)
Tony Falconer (RCOG)
Jane Fisher (ARC)
Nick Fisk (University of Queensland)
John Kingdom (Mount Sinai Hospital)
Neil Marlow (UCL)
Kypros Nicolaides (UCL)
Janet Rennie (UCL)
Nikki Robertson (UCL)
Baskaran Thilaganathan (St George’s University of London)
Steve Thornton (Clinical Sciences Research Institute)

Lifestyle Panel

A life course perspective on women’s health needs and implications for health services

Current provision of health care for women in the UK often reflects the interests of historically separate medical specialties, such as family planning, gynaecology or breast cancer services, rather than the health care needs of women over their life course. What would women's health care provision look like if we could design it from scratch, based around our understanding of the health needs of women? For example, research shows that early life experiences, including the intrauterine environment, have a lasting impact on health, yet pre-conceptual care is not well developed. What can knowledge from life course analysis contribute to the evidence base for improving women's health care? These questions will be addressed through a life course perspective that draws on the history of health care for women, the potential impact of evolutionary medicine, and the policy implications for more genuinely woman-centred, evidence-based health care.

Moderator
Judith Stephenson (UCL)

Panel Members
Valerie Beral (University of Oxford)
Debbie Gould (UCLH)
Mark Hanson (Southampton University)
Diana Kuh (Medical Research Council)
Victoria Lambert (Journalist)
Nicola Low (University of Bern)
Karen Newman (International Development Consultant)
Janet Rich-Edwards (Harvard School of Public Health)
Naveed Sattar (University of Glasgow)
Moshe Szyf (McGill Faculty of Medicine)
Jane Wardle (UCL)