Women of Impact in Anesthesiology
Myron Yaster MD, Lynne Maxwell MD, and Melissa Brooks Peterson MD
It’s hard to believe how much our lives have changed over the past 2 years. Wearing personal protective equipment at work, wearing masks in public (remember when only outlaws did this?), inability to visit or even hold and touch family members, or participate in public events, or go to restaurants, virtual meetings over zoom, the ubiquity of podcasts and video webinars, 750,000 American deaths and counting, COVID vaccines (and vaccine deniers), and of course binge-watching TV series when isolated at home to name just a few. Last week after I (MY) watched my beloved Ravens getting destroyed by the Miami Dolphins (the Miami Dolphins for Pete’s sake!) I began binge watching a remarkable set of interviews by Allison Fernandez on the ASA website:
We wanted to share this website and series with all of you. Additionally, there is an extraordinary documentary, Picture a Scientist on Netflix (or PBS) that is also well worth the time (about 90 minutes) and effort to watch. It’s a staggering indictment of how women are (mis)treated in the sciences.
Because starting today the PAAD will go on a Thanksgiving break, we thought a binge worthy recommendation at this moment would be perfect, especially if you are forced by your family to watch the Detroit Lions on TV on Thanksgiving (Do any of you miss John Madden as much as we do? He could make even a Lions game entertaining).
So, today’s PAAD will be a bit different than our usual…it’s to direct you to this new web video series featuring prominent women who have contributed to our specialty. Hosted by Dr. Allison Fernandez, a pediatric anesthesiologist, pain medicine physician, and clinical researcher at the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg Florida, this series of video interviews was envisioned by Allison to create a “kind of professional advice column, so anesthesiologists could learn from women who walked the path before us”. The series “highlights topics that don’t always get attention, such as the interviewees’ experiences with leadership development, mentoring, imposter syndrome, and work life balance”.
Some of the interviewees we binged watched before writing today’s PAAD include Drs. Linda Mason, Genie Heitmiller, Colleen Koch, Jane Fitch, Toyin Olutoye, and Mary Dale Peterson. Each story is a bit different with some common themes like work life balance, pay inequity, need for networking and mentorship/sponsorship, the ability to say “no” to jobs that don’t advance your career, promotion and etc. I think our personal favorite question that Allison asks all of her interviewees: “if you had to do it again what would you differently? ” We’d urge all of you to take a moment, bookmark this site, and enjoy.
And of course, Happy Thanksgiving to all! We will return next week.
Myron Yaster MD, Lynne Maxwell MD, and Melissa Brooks Peterson MD