Rowan Foundation Releases Report Focusing on Patient Voices in Women's Health

The Rowan Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving awareness of blood clots connected to women’s health, has released a new report titled “Voices to Practice.” This report, developed through the work of the Foundation’s Patient & Community Advisory Group (PCAG), centers on the voices of patients and families affected by blood clots to inform women’s health education, communications, and awareness programs.

Alexandra, a 23-year-old who tragically died from a massive pulmonary embolism, inspired the foundation’s mission. The report identifies six key priorities for improving blood clot risk communication, informed decision-making, symptom recognition, and care across various areas of women’s health. These priorities include:

1. Turning risk information into usable knowledge, providing women with relevant context, warning signs, and clear guidance on what to do. 2. Making individualized decision-making the standard, considering health history, life stage, treatment goals, and personal preferences in women’s health decisions. 3. Giving hormonal and nonhormonal options a fair hearing, ensuring balanced information supports informed contraceptive choice without dismissing patients’ questions or preferences. 4. Improving recognition and response when symptoms emerge, ensuring blood clots remain a meaningful clinical consideration when symptoms, medications, and risk factors point in that direction. 5. Building patient voice into safer care, listening to strengthen assessment and decision-making, but not expecting patients to diagnose themselves. 6. Putting credible information within reach, making medically reviewed resources clear, current, and available where women seek answers.

The report addresses these priorities in various areas of women’s health, including contraception, hormonal medications prescribed for conditions such as acne and polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), formerly known as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), fertility care and in vitro fertilization (IVF), pregnancy and the postpartum period, and perimenopause and menopause. It also covers symptom recognition, urgent and emergency care, family health history and inherited risk, online health information, and the different roles of clinical evidence and personal stories.

David Rowan, who founded the Rowan Foundation after Alexandra’s death, emphasized the importance of patient and family voices in healthcare.

The report builds on the Rowan Foundation’s work since 2013 to improve awareness of blood clots connected to women’s health. It is being released in advance of World Thrombosis Day, observed annually on October 13. The 2026 global campaign is also emphasizing women’s health across the lifespan, including blood clot risks associated with pregnancy, hormonal therapies, and reproductive health conditions.

The Rowan Foundation will use the insights reflected in its “Voices to Practice” report to guide future patient-informed education, communications, and programming. The organization aims to enhance women’s understanding of risk, recognize possible symptoms, and consider their options to take part in informed conversations with their healthcare teams across contraception and other hormonal treatments, fertility care, pregnancy, and menopause.