Women from Boston and its surrounding communities will soon gain easier access to health care and health education from hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School (HMS).

The recently-established National Center of Excellence in Women's Health at HMS will target the health concerns of women, particularly minority women, through outreach, research and education efforts.

It will work in conjunction with the Harvard Center for Women's Health, which opened earlier this year.

"The National Center is the catalyst to move forward, enlarge and expand the program already in place at the Harvard Center," said Dr. Eleanor G. Shore, dean for faculty affairs at HMS and deputy director of the National Center.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the Medical School a contract that made possible the founding of a National Center of Excellence at Harvard, one of only six across the nation this year.

The hospitals participating in the new initiative are Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Mass. General Hospital.

The National Center will promote a working partnership between the three hospitals to address women's health.

"The ultimate goal of the National Center is to provide better health care," Shore said. "We will extend outreach of medical care by trying to bring in groups who have less access to health care, such as minority groups and those with language problems."

The Center's proposal focuses on six subject areas: clinical work, minorities, research, academic advancement, education and outcomes and evaluations.

According to Shore, other aspects of the proposal include developing common patient education materials to be used at all the medical centers and applying common evaluation tools.

"It will be an effort to get minorities into the health care profession and [to] get women into more leadership positions," Shore said. "The Center will also emphasize women's health in the medical school curriculum and make a concerted effort to look where women's certed effort to look where women's health isincluded and where it is falling short."

By the end of November, women will be able tocall a toll-free number (1-800-713-1567) to askquestions or to make appointments for clinicalservices at one of the participating hospitals oraffiliated community health centers.

Dr. Benjamin P. Sachs, co-director of the newcenter and co-director of the related HarvardCenter for Women's Health, said, "Harvardhospitals and the Medical School have alwaysdevoted significant time and resources to theissues relating to women's health, includingresearch/education and developing programs forunderserved women."

"However, these efforts have not beencoordinated in any way nor have ideas been freelyexchanged," he said. "This center establishes aforum for exchange, dialogue and creativity bycombining the efforts of a very large and diversemedical community."

Dr. Andrea E. Dunaif, director of the NationalCenter and the other co-director of the HarvardCenter for Women's Health, agreed.

"The National Center provides an extraordinaryopportunity to integrate programs across theMedical School and its affiliated institutions andto use that breadth of skills and patients to lookat quality of care and develop 'best practices'for women's health," she said.

Dunaif is also chief of the Division of Women'sHealth at Brigham and Women's Hospital and anassociate professor of medicine at HMS. Sachs alsoserves as chair of the Department of Obstetricsand Gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess MedicalCenter and professor of obstetrics, gynecology andreproductive biology at HMS.CrimsonMatthew P. MillerA HELPING HAND:Dr. ANDREA E. DUNAIF(left), Dr. ELEANOR G. SHORE and Dr. BENJAMIN P.SACHS (inset) run the National Center ofExcellence for Women's Health at Harvard MedicalSchool.