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ELKINS-- Davis Medical Center will host the annual Women's Health Day Saturday.
The event will be located inside the DMC Main Entrance off Gorman Avenue. The event starts at 7 a.m., with a special Brunch & Learn activity at 9:30 am.
There will be free tests and screenings and door prizes.
"This is an annual event and because October is celebrated nationally as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we hold this Women's Health event in October," said Tracy Fath, vice president of marketing for Davis Health Systems. "It really is suited and tailored for women's health.
"We have a variety of different services and providers within Davis Health System who attend and provide special screenings and education, all geared to help women and those really specific health needs that women have that are different from men. We break it up in the early morning because we do discounted blood screening, which is probably one of the biggest pieces of this event. People like to get that blood work done.
"From 7 to 9, we have different screenings and a variety of educational booths and vendors set up throughout the new section of Davis Medical Center," Fath said. "Then at 9:30 a.m., we host a Brunch and Learn. We pull topics that are important to women. This year we have Dr. Yasmin Hamirani from WVU Heart & Vascular Institute speaking on heart health for women. We also have our own Dr. Catherine 'Mindy' Chua, chief medical officer at Davis Medical Center, who will talk about thyroid. Those are two health conditions that if not treated, diagnosed, and managed, can turn into chronic problems that require further medical care and costs. We wanted to focus on those two topics this year.
"We have about 50 people signed up to come. Of course those who come love the free stuff and they love the door prize that we give out. One of the other nice things about this event is everything that we provide is either free or low cost," she said. "We have a lot of women who look forward to this every year who use this as their health maintenance so that they can take the results back to their doctor. We also do free PAP smears and free breast exams during this day. As a community hospital, this is kind of in our mission, to make things affordable and accessible."
Fath said the annual event is a chance for women to take care of their own health.
"I think it is important for women to keep up with their health because a lot of times, women manage the health of other people in their families," she said. "It could be their spouse, their parents, their children, and a lot of times they don't take the time to care for themselves because they are too busy taking care of everybody else. This is just an opportunity for women to just focus on themselves for one morning.
"Health care is changing and we look more on the preventative side so that if you can catch things early and get them diagnosed and get in a treatment plan, then you are not looking at major issues down the line like diabetes. If you are diagnosed with diabetes and you learn how to change your lifestyle and adapt your lifestyle to manage the disease, then you are not looking at worst case scenario, an amputation. This event really pushes those preventative services and getting people into the care that they need. You never know what you are going to find and be able to keep people on track."