Women of Impact in Anesthesiology 2023 update
Allison M. Fernandez MD MBA
The American Society of Anesthesiologists, recognizing the challenges women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) face, decided to form a group that helps focus on techniques and tools that will help women physicians advance in their careers while addressing the specific challenges women physicians may face. From their mission statement: “Women in Anesthesiology (WIA) is a physician organization committed to the professional and personal development of women anesthesiologists. We support the recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction of women in anesthesiology, promoting a culture of inclusivity and diversity.” Their annual conference will take place on Friday October 13, 2023 at the Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF. The featured presentation entitled “Harassment in Anesthesiology” and will be presented by Diana Lautenberg, George Mashour MD PhD, and Della Lin MD.
On line registration for the live and virtual meeting is available at https://www.womeninanesthesiology.org/wia-2023-annual-conference/
As many of you know, over the past 2 years, Dr. Allison Fernandez has been interviewing women in anesthesiology who have made an impact in our profession. I asked her to highlight some of last year’s Best Of…Myron Yaster MD
Women of Impact in Anesthesiology
https://www.asahq.org/education-and-career/women-of-impact
October is Women in Medicine month. In recognition of this month, I would like to highlight some of the women I have interviewed for the series Women of Impact in Anesthesiology. For those of you not familiar with the series, I interview women anesthesiologists to discuss their career paths, challenges they face, work life balance and more. I have learned a lot from speaking to these women and it has helped me to accept certain aspects of being a woman, mother and anesthesiologist.
First up is a review of my interview with Jennifer Lee MD, a Professor and Associate Dean at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In our discussions she talks about the centrality of research in her career. Her passion for her research is the dominant topic of our conversation. Her own personal experience is what led to her research interests and encouraged her to continue her research even when she has been discouraged. She describes her efforts to support women in anesthesiology. Because was concerned that there are so few women in leadership and higher academic ranks, she, together with Drs. Jamie McElrath Schwartz and Nina Deutsch, started the Women Empowerment and Leadership Initiative (WELI) through the Society of Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA). As a participant in WELI women are paired with a mentor and they can participate in workshops at our SPA meetings as well as virtually throughout the year. She is very proud of this work, as WELI has helped many women pursue their interests and achieve their own goals. WELI has also created a community of women pediatric anesthesiologists. Dr Lee mentions she is most proud of the women who for various reasons could not focus on academic pursuits early on in their career but as midcareer anesthesiologists they have been able to change course to pursue these interests as a result of the mentoring they received and tools and techniques about which they learned through WELI. Even though some of the women had been discouraged, several have achieved promotion to associate professor. She also emphasized the importance to speaking up to support women who are facing microaggressions. She encourages all individuals to speak up for women. I also participate in WELI and it has had a very positive impact on me and I encourage everyone to take advantage of this wonderful resource.
The second interview I would like to highlight was with Sasha Shillcutt MD, Professor and Vice Chair of Strategy at the University of Nebraska, and the business owner of Brave Enough®. She is a cardiac anesthesiologist and talks about how early on in her career her own institution at the time there was not much research support. She talks about how, early in her career she was interested in research but there was not much research support at her own institution.She related that finding mentors outside of her institution fostered her ability to pursue her research interests. She encourages others to look for support outside your department or institution if it is lacking internally. She comments that if you reach out, you will find that people are willing to help. With regard to responding to microaggressions,she encourages women to respond with a question, “Sorry, I did not understand what you said?” This gives time for the person to reflect on what they said, apologize, and rephrase their comments.
The last interview I would like to talk about is Alice Coombs MD MPA Professor and Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr Coombs spoke about her career in medicine.. Her interests are in healthcare policy and she talks about her work in that arena. She also spoke about the importance of developing your leadership skills. A good leader is an active listener and having diversity within your faculty is essential for achieving the best solutions. She also talks about creating a framework to help you when you are making decisions regarding next steps in your career. She talks about her framework - the Coombs 3 circles.
Please listen to these and other interviews in the series, Women of Impact in Anesthesiology Women of Impact in Anesthesiology | American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) (asahq.org) There are many lessons to learn from these amazing women.
Finally, Allison will presenting at the ASA meeting next week
October 16 Women of Impact in Anesthesia in Research at 10:15 -11:15 in South 211-212
October 17 Women of Impact in Anesthesia in Pediatric Anesthesia and beyond 8:45-9:45 am in South 304