Department of Family Medicine Associate Professor Sarina Schrager, MD, is the co-author of a recently published clinical textbook, The ACP Handbook of Women's Health.

Completing the 77-chapter book was a major accomplishment for Dr. Schrager and her co-author, Rose Fife, MD, MPH, a professor of women's health at Indiana University.

But equally important, the book provided a valuable educational experience for nine DFM residents who each wrote a chapter.

About the Book

According to Dr. Schrager, the book is intended to be a comprehensive yet practical resource for primary care physicians to use when caring for their female patients.

The book is divided into two main parts. Part I covers organ system structures, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive health. But Part II is unique in that it covers life cycle structures, such as adolescence, pregnancy and postpartum, perimenopause, and postmenopause.

In addition, one subsection is devoted to women's roles in society, covering topics such as intimate partner violence, eating disorders, access to health care for uninsured women, racial disparities, and health disparities in vulnerable women (including women in prison and immigrant women).

"We wanted this book to be more holistic than many of the other women's health textbooks," Dr. Schrager said. "We wanted to discuss women's real-life experiences and show how that can affect their health. That's what really makes this book different."

The Publishing Process

The development process began with Dr. Schrager and Dr. Fife identifying a list of topics to cover. Each co-author then put out a call for chapter authors, not just at the DFM, but also at other departments and institutions around the country.

Eight residents from three DFM residency programs, and one Milwaukee resident who participates in the DFM's osteopathic residency program, responded to this call:

• Deborah Dreyfus, MD (Madison)
• Sarah Fox, MD (Madison)
• Amy Groff, DO (Madison)
• Jessica Johnston, MD (Fox Valley)
• Kari Kindschi, MD (Madison)
• Emily Porter, MD (Madison)
• Kiet Ton, MD (Wausau)
• Michael Umland, MD (Wausau)
• Linnea Williams, DO (Milwaukee)

Each DFM resident was then paired with a faculty member who helped provide direction and assistance writing the chapter.

"This was the first real writing project for many of our residents, so we provided a lot of hands-on coaching," Dr. Schrager said. "Not only was this a way for residents to fulfill the residency's scholarly requirement, it gave them the needed writing experience for a future fellowship or academic career."

In addition to those nine residents, 14 DFM faculty also wrote chapters for the book, as did 81 residents, fellows, and faculty from other programs nationwide.

Dr. Schrager said that the process of developing a book with this many chapters—and nearly 100 contributors—took about four years to complete.

"It's my first experience co-authoring a book of this size," she said. "It was a lot of fun, though also a lot of work. But it feels great to actually see the book, because I know there's really a lot of helpful information in it."

The ACP Handbook of Women's Health was published by the American College of Physicians Press.