Changing What’s Possible for Women in Healthcare
November 9, 2023 | Women in healthcare, cardiology
Career choices are driven by many factors. In medicine, doctors are often drawn to a particular specialty following a personal experience.
That’s the case with both of the renowned speakers in Episode 1 of Medscape Education’s Women in Healthcare Leadership podcast series.
For Carolyn Lam, Director of Women’s Heart Health at the National Heart Center in Singapore, it was seeing her mom, a capable pediatrician, collapse from a cardiac episode when she was a child. Lam came to realize that most women are not recognizing their risk of heart disease, and it motivated her to set up a clinic and study what’s different about heart disease in men and women.
Her story highlights several discussion points in this insightful episode: the current gaps in the care women get when it comes to heart disease; why do these gaps exist; how can we close them and ensure equitable care for women.
Today, “we still see only 10 percent of lead authors on cardiovascular clinical trials are females,” points out Karina Morley, head of external scientific affairs at AstraZeneca. “We also need to make sure we’ve got innovative recruitment strategies in place” to attract more women, and other diverse populations, as clinical trial participants.
And how about getting more women into leadership roles in cardiology, as well as throughout the healthcare industry? “There are plenty of absolutely phenomenal women out there and we need to help them get there,” says Morley. And while there are programs to empower women throughout the pharma industry and make sure they’re given opportunities, as women, “we need to be mentors—to advocate for and sponsor— for new people,” she says.
Hear the entire conversation, including Lam and Morley’s thoughts on what the future holds for women, the issues they’re going to face, and how the leaders of today can set the stage for them to ensure success.
You won’t want to miss it. Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts, alternatively find us on your preferred podcast platform. Also available on Medscape.
Hosted by Jelena Spyropoulos, Vice President of Clinical Strategy and Sales, Medscape Education.
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For more information, please contact Jelena Spyropoulos (Global) or Piyali Shin (US).
About Medscape Education
Medscape Education (medscape.org) is the leading destination for continuous professional development, consisting of more than 30 specialty-focused destinations offering thousands of free CME and CE courses for physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
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