Moore Medicine
As physician, writer and NBC TV host, Dr. Donnica Moore fights the
good fight for women's health
By Sabrina Martin
Physician,
medical editor, writer, radio show host, and most importantly, mother of two,
Dr. Donnica Moore is blazing her own trail on the cutting edge of women's
health medicine. At times wearing many of these hats concurrently, Dr. Moore
has had an impressive and varied career since graduating from Princeton University
in 1981, from goodwill ambassador to Ireland to medical correspondent for NBC.
Her latest endeavor is as founder and president of Sapphire Women's Health
Group (SWHG), a medical consulting firm that focuses solely on women's
health issues.
Dr. Moore has had a significant role in bringing
women's health topics to light during the past 20 years.
She is a leader in the movement to take a closer look at
medicine and how common diseases and conditions specifically
effect women. Shortly after completing her
medical degree, Dr. Moore worked for a prominent
pharmaceutical company, where she was able to start
the company on a path toward researching women's
health. Later, Dr. Moore, together with members of the
Society for Women's Health Research, helped create an
office of research for women's health at the National Institutes
of Health to bring awareness to three specific
concerns: heart disease, breast cancer and osteoporosis.
"There are many exciting and innovative cutting edge
developments in women's health today. The biggest advance
is that more and more medical research is being
conducted in women. The more we learn, the more we
see that women's health is not just reproductive health,"
Dr. Moore explains. "For example, we are learning that
sex differences matter in conditions as diverse as heart
disease to headaches."
Taking time from her current careers as columnist for
First For Women magazine, medical editor of Women
in Medicine magazine, guest speaker and columnist and
more, Dr. Moore stole a few minutes to speak with me
about SWHG during her coffee break at the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' annual conference
in New Orleans. Exuberant and laid back, Dr.
Moore is enthusiastic about the current breakthroughs in
women's medicine and the power of the media to disseminate
information to the general public. By working
with corporate clients including pharmaceutical companies,
publishing houses and communications firms,
SWHG educates consumers about health issues, focusing
on those stigmatized by society. By providing women
with information on the latest medicines and procedures
to treat conditions from incontinence to
menopause, SWHG works with its clients to bring
awareness to these issues.
"Diseases and conditions once only whispered about
in ladies rooms are now front page stories in news
rooms. In the background, SWHG advises corporate clients
on these important clinical and business developments;
in the foreground, SWHG often serves as a trusted,
experienced women's health communicator or, in
many respects, translator," Dr. Moore says.
Dr. Moore founded SWHG in 1996. The firm fills a
unique niche in the realm of medical consulting by focusing
exclusively on women's health issues in the
areas of education, communications, outreach and research.
SWHG also operates DrDonnica.com, a women's
health information Web site featuring hundreds of
articles, most written by Dr. Moore. Receiving more
than 7 million hits a month, DrDonnica.com covers a
variety of topics from how to choose a gynecologist to
debunking commonly held medical myths. It also offers
extensive explanations of several diseases and conditions
and the popular "celebrity speak out" column,
where celebrities including Scott Hamilton and Lauren
Hutton share their experiences with health issues. Dr.
Moore refers to her method of education as "medicine
lite" and adds to her communication attack by doing
multi-media work through extensive public speaking,
writing, television, and radio. Dr. Moore was the medical
expert on both NBC's Later Today Show and
Weekend Today Show. She was also heard daily on the
nationally syndicated radio show, Dr. Donnica's Women's
Health Report.
"In my television, radio and live appearances, I try to
use humor as the 'spoon full of sugar' that helps the
medicine go down. No one wants to be scared by medical
statistics into taking action, whether it is getting a
mammogram or having a colonoscopy: joking about it
- and personalizing it - goes a long way toward destigmatizing
it."
Always ahead of the game, Dr. Moore entered Princeton
University at age 16, the youngest in her class. She
grew up in a lower-middle class Brooklyn neighborhood
and reaped the benefits of inner-city programs aimed at
under-privileged children such as Dr. Moore and her
five younger siblings. Her career path has been laid
down around obstacles that have landed in her way -
mainly issues with her own health. A long-time struggle
with scoliosis and unsatisfactory doctors' visits led Dr.
Moore to study medicine - to become a doctor who put
the patient first. During her residency a Temple University,
Dr. Moore went through major surgery to correct
her spine and was later urged by her surgeon to not continue
a physically demanding medical practice. Continuing
to work in her area of interest, endocrinology, Dr.
Moore began a career researching female hormones for
a major pharmaceutical company. A case of Lyme disease
then forced Dr. Moore to leave this position and
spurred her to start SWHG. When asked about the overwhelming
prospect of a mother of two starting her own
business, Dr. Moore responds that it is an ideal situation
to be able to raise her children and be a successful businesswoman.
"The best comment I heard about starting your own
business is that, 'Before you do it, it seems like you're
about to jump off a mountain. Once you do it, you realize
you just jumped off the curb.' What I like to say is
that 'You CAN do it all and be it all - just not at the
same time.' " By arranging her time and priorities
around her family, Dr. Moore is able to run her company
and participate in her children's lives. "My number
one priority in my life is my children. It gives me a
great sense of accomplishment that I can do what I do
professionally without compromising my role as a
mother."
In her precious free time, Dr. Moore is a prolific reader
and has just finished the children's book "Holes," by
Louis Sachar. She also remains very connected to her
alma mater, Princeton University, and it has been said
that her blood runs "orange and black."
|