Women’s Health Looking Forward
December 16, 2025 | Episode 53
Producer’s Note: The following is an AI-generated transcript of The Wellness Conversation, an OhioHealth Podcast
SPEAKERS: Lindsey Gordon, Marcus Thorpe, Dr. Jason Melillo, Christina Stuecher
Marcus Thorpe 0:00
Thanks for joining us for this episode of the wellness conversation and OhioHealth Podcast. I'm Marcus Thorpe. Before we start, we appreciate if you would like favorite comment and subscribe to this podcast. It certainly helps us grow the conversation.
Lindsey Gordon 0:25
And I'm Lindsey Gordon today, we're joined by Dr. Jason Melillo, who is vice president of women's and reproductive health at OhioHealth, and Christina Stuecher, Vice President of the OhioHealth Women's Center. We are reflecting on the progress made in women's health over this last year, specifically with our conversations that are happening to drive real change for those we serve, we're also sharing what's ahead for the OhioHealth Women's Center. So thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
Marcus Thorpe 0:52
Yes, yeah, you kicked us off for the year, so we thought it was only fitting to have you back to kind of end 2025 it's been a great year of just conversations here on our podcast, and you got us off to such a great start. So let's talk about how the conversation about women's health has really progressed over this year. Christina, how have you seen more people leaning into these conversations and willing to have them and and wanting change in their lives and to be seen and to be heard? That was our theme when we started. How have you seen it change over this year?
Christina Stuecher 1:22
Yeah, I mean, I think we've had a lot of engagement this year thanks to not only this podcast, but in general, people are just curious to learn more. We've held a lot of forums to talk about women's health and the attention and the connection has been pretty broad our community here and the greater Columbus area is really wanting to lead the way around women's health, and people are excited about what we're doing, not only with the Women's Center, but what we're doing across the entire service line. So the conversation is definitely much bolder and brighter out there, when I think about the amount of conversations I've had and a lot of different forums, people are really excited, and they want to keep it going.
Marcus Thorpe 2:08
Yeah. Dr. Melillo, how have you seen people's engagement really pick up over this year too? Right? I mean, when we were first starting the building that we see right outside of Riverside, was kind of in its infancy, and everybody was kind of seeing, well, what is going on here beyond just the Women's Center? How have you seen, kind of our community wrap its arms around women's health this year?
Dr. Jason Melillo 2:30
I think that people are very excited that we're finally putting more of a focus on health and wellness for women, knowing that, you know, they are kind of the chief wellness Officer of of their families, but making sure that they're they're understanding that we want to partner with them to make sure that they're as healthy as possible. We've been doing, as Christina said, we've been getting invites to come and speak at neighborhood events that people are hosting in their back patios to talk about midlife or we've had some of our doctors being asked to go to community centers to talk about, you know, urinary issues in older women. So it's been across the board engagement, which has been really exciting.
Marcus Thorpe 3:11
I think that's so encouraging that people don't just want the conversation to happen inside of their doctor's office or their one on one visit with a provider, but they want this to be a community chat, right? Which is great.
Lindsey Gordon 3:24
And I think it's so cool that we do have that visual beacon that is the construction of the Women's Center that you can clearly see while you're driving near Riverside. And of course, construction is well underway. We know that this is a work in progress, not just about the building, but about the conversation and the approach and showing up. I'm curious to know, what pain points have you identified along the way? What roadblocks have we hit that we're now sort of taking the detour with? I mean, it's got to be, it can't be easy, because this is all very, very new, and it's, it's paving new ground.
Dr. Jason Melillo 4:00
The biggest one that we're seeing on the clinical side is capacity. We have so much demand for some of these newer clinical services that we're rolling out. I mean, we thought they would be successful. We had no idea the unmet need was as high as it actually is. So we have had to increase the number of physicians and a PPS working in our specialty clinics over the past year just to meet regular demand. And that still may not do it. We're still looking at how to be more efficient, how to bring in more virtual and and more providers. I'm actually have an interview today with another physician who wants to be part of our midlife program, and we could not be happier, and we couldn't get her in fast enough to help out with the backlog of patients that want to be seen.
Marcus Thorpe 4:45
I think the one thing we've learned is never underestimate the power of the wellness conversation an OhioHealth podcast. I think we're driving all the volume. So you're welcome.
Christina Stuecher 4:54
Thank you.
Lindsey Gordon 4:54
I will say too we know pipeline work is very important across the board. For all you know, in. Medical spaces, the pipeline work is very important. But in this space, as the conversations are changing and the type of care is evolving, caring for the whole you, the research isn't or the research, in some cases, is brand new. For some of these specialties, I'm thinking of how Dr Tucker in the fourth trimester. Episode was talking about lactation care, for example, but it's got to be an added challenge. When you're recruiting for these for these roles, right? There's already work that needs to happen on the pipeline, because you have a shortage across the board in all specialties. But now we're trying to find people, physicians, providers, who are equipped to handle and care for patients in this way, right?
Dr. Jason Melillo 5:48
Yes, and I think we we again underestimated the way that this women's center would resonate with providers almost as much as we underestimated the amount of need and demand that we would find for the clinics that we're trying to present, because we've had people reach out to us from other health systems in other states saying, I would love to be a part of this. Do you have any job openings? I really want to focus my entire practice around women's health, even if they're not primarily women's health providers. Sure. So for example, we had one of our psychiatry residents who approached us and said, I want my entire psychiatry practice for the rest of my career to focus on mental health and women. How do we do we have that position? And I spoke with a couple of our other counterparts and other service lines, and said, well, we don't, but boy, it sure sounds like we could use something like that. So let's figure out how to build that out and how to make it happen. So yes, we have had difficulty recruiting traditionally, just in general, the right amount and the right kind of providers, but the Women's Center has opened up a new door for people who really want to focus their clinical careers on Gender Specific Medicine.
Marcus Thorpe 6:58
Christina, as you're watching everything kind of be built, you're also thinking, Okay, we see this desire of folks that want to be involved from a patient perspective, but also from a provider perspective, as the leader of what we're doing here with this women's center. How does that go into your day to day, of thinking, Okay, well, this is what we thought it was going to be. Do we need to change? Do we need to move? Do we need to add? How do you go about those kind of things to meet the needs of what these women and families need here in central Ohio?
Christina Stuecher 7:30
Yeah, I think you know, we've been talking about the provider and the customer demand, but there's also how we engage our community partners in delivering the care and the services for women. So we we've had a lot of folks, not only providers, raise their hand to say, I'd like to be engaged, but community organizations who say, how might I partner with you? Because I fill in some of the other gaps in our care continuum, and I'd like to be connected to that. So that's where we're seeing, where we're leaning in on, oh, how might we connect with those organizations to provide services inside of the Women's Center? What does that look like, to augment our traditional education programs and classes program, to have more of a full service, not just childbirth or baby basics, but also adding in, you know, we're doing our culinary Learning Center, but also, you know, talking to local organizations that might bring financial literacy specific for women. How might we elevate some of these other places to engage make our Women's Center, more than just where you come for your sick care, but truly that full continuum wellness care, too, across the life.
Marcus Thorpe 8:47
I love that thought, because I think the more engaged people are in their health care, the more likely they are to make health a priority. Right? Is that kind of your goal here is like, the more we talk about these kind of things, and the more we bring it to the people, they'll then take the lead on their own healthcare. Is that kind of the genesis of what you're trying to do here?
Christina Stuecher 9:11
Yes, but I would also say that so what women have been telling us is that they want to take the lead, but, but the engagement needs to be different, and so we have to show up differently. So you know, what they're looking for is not just that clinical intelligence, but also the emotional intelligence. They're looking to feel motivated and not demotivated in every interaction. And so how do we set up in every, you know, step of the way when they come into their building, they're feeling connected and empowered and want to and heard, which we talk a lot about. So they continue along that journey. And so we have a lot of women who are interested and excited about going deeper in their healthcare but. We have to offer it differently.
Marcus Thorpe 10:01
Yeah, because they always have that front row seat of their own healthcare because they're in charge of it. But it's, what do they feel when they walk away? Do they go, oh, gosh, that was a horrible experience. I don't want to do that again. And then they fall off.
Lindsey Gordon 10:13
And what does it, what does that look like to show up differently?
Christina Stuecher 10:16
Yeah, well, so we're trying to, we're working on that right now, we're we're, we are knee deep in thinking about how, not only do our operations and so just how we deliver the care have differentiation, but also, how do each of us who have those interactions are really intentional about what we do? So we're talking a lot about, how do we ensure that everyone that touches our patients and our families and visitors are knowledgeable trauma informed care? We know that that's a that's a big thing inside of our population. We are talking about, how do we ensure that our staff and our providers have direct knowledge to the type of population we're seeing, because there's a lot of variety in how women experience care, and so we want them to be really knowledgeable about who they're serving so they show up for them in that really unique, specialized way. So all of that will be embedded before we launch into our orientations, our learning sessions, our standard work and around how we do every step of the way.
Lindsey Gordon 11:31
How do you sleep at night? I mean, this is a huge thing to take on, yes. I mean, you, it must keep you up at night.
Speaker 1 11:42
It doesn't because that wouldn't be connected to wellness, right? So you got to practice what you preach. But you know, I think that it's a it's a worthy charge in front of us. And so the big thing is that we have a big team that feels really passionate and connected about what we're trying to deliver, and so we uphold those commitments together.
Lindsay Gordon 12:07
Do you ever take a step back, Christina and just think about for you personally, you know a lot of our doctors that have come on, Dr Tucker, I'll again, I'll reference her. She basically explained it best that she's now showing up for patients in a way she with care and how she wished she was cared for. So for you personally, do you feel like this is, I mean, rewarding? Is probably an understatement, but how would you describe the feeling to be leading this work?
Christina Stuecher 12:37
Yeah, it's an incredible privilege. Yeah, it has to be. And with privilege comes responsibility.
Marcus Thorpe 12:44
Yeah, I love that. You lean into it too. I mean, it's, it's, I know it's your job, but there has to be more than just, this is my job. It has to be like, you know, we talk about your family and your daughter and who you're doing it for. And I think that's really important.
Christina Stuecher 12:59
Yeah, and, you know, obviously I see my own self, and almost every woman that walks in the door and so so many of their stories I recognize as my story too. Wow, and so many and, and I think I'm not just the only one who who feels that way around what we're trying to build for our community, because that's what every single person deserves.
Marcus Thorpe 13:21
Yeah, Dr. Melillo, there is, there's the building part of it, and then there's the clinical side of things, and kind of medical advancements or bringing people more of what they need. When you take a step back and you see the big picture view of what this is going to mean, where we are now and where we're going, what excites you the most about what we're doing here and what this means for women's health big picture?
Dr. Jason Melillo 13:46
I love it because a little bit to Christina's point, if we can deliver on the vision, it will truly be comprehensive care across the lifespan that allows women to engage with their providers and their health system of choice as a true partner in their wellness. You know, we have always been known at Riverside when I started, you know, back in 97 as a resident, it was the place where you went to have a baby. I want, we want this to be now known as OhioHealth, and the OhioHealth Women's Center be known as the place where you go to be well, to be safe, to be healthy and to be whole. That's kind of the overall goal. And if we can turn kind of a transactional model of healthcare into a partnership model of health care. That's how you really transform things. It's it's almost the difference between building a house and building a home, right? Yeah, we can build a building, and it could be a really nice building, but if we don't really transform the way we're delivering care inside of it, the type of care we're delivering, the type of. Attitude we're bringing to the clinics that we're bringing forward, then all we've done is created a building. And while that's nice, that's not the goal. The goal is to really transform the way healthcare is being delivered, consumed, seen and understood for women in this community.
Marcus Thorpe 15:16
How have we shifted our mindset? Do you think knowing that this is this shiny new toy that's coming in the future, but knowing that that's coming, how have we shifted our mindset now to help our patients now? And what do women need to be thinking about now with this is like this is the future, but we're all living in the here and now.
Dr. Jason Melillo 15:38
So we've started a lot of our specialty destination clinics that were just concepts on a slide deck when this was approved by the board are now in motion. So our fourth trimester clinic that Dr Tucker is leading, our midlife clinic, opened up about a year and a couple months ago. So these things and what we're doing is we're learning like we thought they would be one thing, and part of that has come true, but we're realizing, boy, there's so much more that that people are looking for. There's so much more that families need, there's so much more that that consumers and women need. How do we layer that on so that once the Women's Center opens, we have we're already a lap ahead of where we would have been had we just waited until it was finished.
Marcus Thorpe 16:23
You can't start from the start. You have to build up to, okay. Now the doors are open. We're already there, and we know what we're doing. I think that's critical.
Lindsey Gordon 16:30
Absolutely. And I think, you know, women have options for health care, right? We have options. And there's new, emerging options that come up online that, you know, everyone can just, you know, right here on the phone and so, but at the same time, people want that personal connection. They want to know that someone's in their corner. And I think it's amazing to see the expertise that we have through those clinics, right? I keep mentioning Dr Tucker, but Dr coffler, and you see how these women, the connection with their patient is, is the bottom line, that's it. That's what's most important to them. The other thing too with today is women's health seems to be a trending topic, right? It's on social media. It's on everyone's feed. It's everywhere. There's so many different sources of information. Some of it's accurate, some of it's not. Like, you know, you're you're scrolling and you're like, how do I know what's real, what's not? I'd love to hear your take on, you know, are the experts you mentioned, and we've discussed, you know, how they can be credible sources you know, to decipher that information. We've said on this podcast too before. I think it was Dr Guinness. Jessica Guinness, she said, Don't be ashamed to bring me the Tiktok you saw. I probably saw it too. Let's talk about it, right? So if you kind of want to speak to that a little bit just about how, at the end of the day, it's about credible information that's delivered face to face, you know, in those interactions with with with our patients.
Dr. Jason Melillo 18:09
So my father used to tell me, be very wary of people who offer you simple solutions to complex problems, because most of the time they're trying to sell you something. I think having the right provider who you know isn't really trying to sell you anything other than what is best for you and your health and wellness, and having that trusted provider, like we used to joke when I was still in practice, that our biggest enemy was Dr Google, and over time, we realized, well, that's not really true. Like Google is there to just give people information. The problem is that it gives people raw information, and what the relationship between a physician and a patient is, is, how do you distill that raw information into a consumable piece of advice that is part of a shared decision. I mean, everything out there has risk, everything out there has benefits, everything out there has alternatives. The point of having that relationship with your patient is to say, look, I've known you for a while, or maybe I've just met you, but I've talked to you enough that I know these are your goals. This is what I think is best. Let's try something if this is what you want to do, and then let's reevaluate and make sure that what you want is actually what you're getting out of this course of treatment. So again, it goes back to that word partnership, and that that kind of shared decision, shared responsibility, shared success in the wellness of your patient.
Marcus Thorpe 19:37
What do you think needs more attention in women's health? What do you think needs more research? You said that. You know, it's great that Google has the easy question, right? Yeah, there's tremendous gaps still, right? I mean, you're still seeing that women are missing out on really important screenings or really important things that take their care to the next level. Are there a couple of things that you think are maybe at the top of the list?
Dr. Jason Melillo 20:03
The biggest one, and luckily, there has been a lot more effort put into this. One of the good things about there being more of a focus on women's health is that people are starting to say, oh, there isn't very much research around midlife. Why is it that a lot of women enter midlife healthy and within three or four years are unwell, bone issues, Heart and Vascular issues, stroke, diabetes. So a lot of money and attention is now being put towards boy. That's an area of medical research that we have been neglecting for a very long time. Let's start putting some efforts into physiology of midlife needs of midlife women. Traditionally, the medical community has kind of ignored women in research, mostly because of fear, because they were afraid that you can't put a woman in a drug trial, because what if she gets pregnant? Well, yeah, that's a possibility, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't study a drug or physiology and how it affects women differently. My analogy I always use is when you use is when you look at heart and vascular disease. So heart attacks are far more frequent in men than in women, but women have a higher mortality, and it's because all of the training that we used to get on traditional signs of a heart attack were these are the traditional signs in men. They're not the same in women. So there's, there are real world consequences for not researching the differences in gender when it comes to disease states.
Lindsey Gordon 21:26
So interesting, we actually have a whole episode on that, another blood heart health for women, and you'll find it where we we upload all our podcasts on Spotify and Apple, if you want to learn more about that.
Marcus Thorpe 21:40
Christina, as we start to wrap up here, I kind of want to get just a update, right. Like I said, we we drive by Riverside Methodist Hospital all the time, and we see that building under construction. Give us an update as to where we are and kind of what our goal is.
Christina Stuecher 21:54
Still we are quickly moving towards the entire building being enclosed. So the medical office building with the garage, the square box on the other end will be fully enclosed in February. So that's a that's a big milestone, because that means we can be dry and tight and do all our interior work. We have dry wall with paint on it in our basement, pretty far down the path around drywall on the first floor, and so we'll just move up and do all the that interior work and finishes in the building over the next 18 months. So it's coming pretty fast from obviously a construction side, but we it has to work and it has to operate. So the team has been really focused on identifying all of our future state workflows. We have over 57 individual work streams with over 400 individual workflows that we're validating and reviewing. So move plan. How do we move patients? We're moving patients in our building. How do we think about how unit readiness? How do we prepare for trainings in the units? So all of that work is yet to start, to be aligned for opening in spring of 2027 we do our first operational budget this winter too. So things are really moving in service of kind of opening on time. So that's amazing. Lots happening, a lot happening behind the scenes, a lot of of teams putting a lot of energy and making it be a really successful opening and ongoing.
Lindsey Gordon 23:38
Thank you for the update. Yes, that's amazing. Wow.
Marcus Thorpe 23:41
Yeah, it's been a great year. We've really enjoyed kind of diving into women's health on this podcast. I think as we, as we kind of wrap this up, is there a message that you would like to leave our listeners? If you're a woman who's listening and you're kind of on your health journey, maybe you're far along on it, maybe you're just starting it, and this is kind of where you want to go. Dr. Melillo, what message would you leave some of those folks who are really leaning into their health journey?
Dr. Jason Melillo 24:06
This may have been the same message that I mentioned last year, but it's, it's, you know, be your advocate in your health care journey, because your health and your life is well worth advocating for. You know, if you find the right provider and you have that great relationship, and you feel seen and you feel heard, fantastic if you don't. Then, then ask some questions, or look around and see if there's a better fit out there. Because you know your health is your most important commodity, and, and you know you are the center of somebody's world, whether you know it or not in this life. And and taking care of yourself is not just taking care of yourself, it's making sure that the people who really enjoy spending time with you get to spend as much time with you as they want. So be your be your best advocate in your own health care journey.
Lindsey Gordon 24:53
Yeah, well said.
Marcus Thorpe 24:53
It's a great message. Go ahead and book your calendars for December next year, we'll probably have you back, because we're going to want these up. States all the time, but thanks. Thanks for a great year, and congratulations on all the work that we're doing and and how we're putting women at the center of what we're doing at OhioHealth. It really is what we should be doing, and we're really happy about it, too. So again, thank you very much for listening. We are so excited that you have been part of our journey this year. We encourage you to stay up to date by following us on all major social channels, so you find our new episodes and other health and wellness topics. Of course, you can always go back and listen to our old episodes too. There's something for everyone. If you're looking for more information on OhioHealth services and locations, you can find that@ohiohealth.com
Lindsey Gordon 25:35
And the information in this episode is available in written form at our website, ohiohealth.com/the wellness conversation. Thank you so much for listening in and joining us, and be sure to subscribe as we continue to explore important health and wellness topics with you.