A “Leaky Pipeline” and the Loss of Talented Female Physicians
December 8, 2023 | Education, Leadership, Women in healthcare
A leaky pipeline that begins during medical school and extends throughout the training process means we lose many talented women, says Fatima Rodriguez, director of preventive cardiology and associate professor at Stanford University. That’s one reason female chairs, chiefs, and lead research authors are few and far between.
It’s especially true in cardiology, says Rodriguez. “People are like, ‘Are you sure you want to do cardiology? It’s a really hard lifestyle. Don’t you want to have a family?’ ” Which is why the importance of mentorship — and sponsorship — cannot be overstated, she says.
In Episode 5 of Medscape’s Women in Healthcare Leadership podcast series, Rodriguez is joined by her mentor, JoAnne Foody, also a preventive cardiologist and the Chief Medical Officer at Esperion. “Having somebody like JoAnne, who really seemed to do it all and do it well, and with a smile, and was incredibly supportive, transformed my career. With her mentorship, I became very committed to addressing some of the research questions and to academic medicine.”
And research is the name of the game when it comes to advancing women’s heart health. Because even now there’s a knowledge gap about how women’s cardiac symptoms are different from men’s — including among women themselves.
“Clinical trials have to mirror those we care for,” says Foody. “And currently they don’t. So we really must do better. We have to cast aside all these excuses and look to solutions.”
Both Foody and Rodriguez are committed to helping remove the barriers that women face in being diagnosed promptly and treated appropriately. Both have personal family backstories about what led them to enter the cardiology field.
As both thought and industry leaders it’s not surprising that they also champion advances in technology, including tools such as AI to ensure more personalized precision medicine for the best patient outcomes. Artificial Intelligence isn’t just a cool gadget, they say, but rather a way for scientists and clinicians to do things quicker, and more efficiently.
“I think it’s a very exciting time to enter cardiology,” says Rodriguez. “You’ll never be bored. Every day looks different. We can really make a dent, make people feel better or improve their prognosis. And that’s what medicine is all about.”
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