July 15, 2026 |
The phrase “patient-centered care” is tossed around freely in healthcare corporate boardrooms. Yet, for more than half the population, that promise routinely fractures. In the latest episode of the Hear From Her podcast, host Sara Thorpe explored this systematic breakdown with two industry executives: Leah Blackwell, Regional Chief Nursing Officer at UF Health Shands Greater Gainesville, and Kelli Newman, President of Newman and Newman Inc. Their diagnostic conclusion is clear: healthcare systems are failing women because they are designed around episodic care and male physiological baselines, rather than a woman’s holistic health trajectory.

Listen to the full episode here.
Beyond “Bikini Medicine”
Kelli Newman highlights a restrictive phenomenon coined by cardiologists as “bikini medicine”, clinical models that limit the scope of women’s health strictly to breast and reproductive health. This narrow approach leaves massive gaps in treating the leading causes of death in women, such as heart disease and lung cancer.
“Statistics show that only 44% of American women know heart disease is their leading cause of death,” Newman points out. This clinical blind spot is exacerbated when women present with complex, subjective, or atypical symptoms, such as jaw pain during a myocardial infarction and find themselves dismissed or misdirected to a dentist instead of an emergency room.
Listen to the full episode here.
To combat this, Blackwell outlines three essential clinical shifts:
When clinicians push back claiming these practices take too much time, Blackwell offers a tangible, 90-second strategy: standardize the first and last three minutes of every visit. By intentionally asking patients what matters most, what worries them, and establishing a clear plan, providers pivot from a transactional interaction to a deeply relational one.
Listen to the full episode here.
The Macroeconomic Ripple Effect
Designing systems around women is far from a niche social initiative; it is an aggressive driver of market share and system viability. Women drive the clear majority of healthcare utilization and household medical choices. When a healthcare organization builds legitimate, lifespan-integrated trust with a female patient, it secures a powerful competitive advantage. That loyalty directly optimizes downstream market share across completely different medical departments throughout the entire network. To truly innovate, healthcare organizations must move past aesthetic fixes like pink walls and actively operationalize respect.
This content was provided by Medscape Education
Company Details
Latest Content from Medscape Education
Medscape Public Health is hitting the road to attend the public health conference Agents of Change. As part of their commitment to making an impact in public health, Medscape is…
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Though the origins of this quote are a little fuzzy, the idea is crystal clear, and can inspire you to…
True ‘patient-centricity’ goes beyond treating disease—it means ensuring that patient voices shape research, decision-making, and medical education. We are in the era of Patient Integration, where the patient voice is…
Heart failure is a common medical condition, with new treatment approaches being developed every day. By 2030, an estimated 8.5 million Americans will be living with heart failure. With more…
Medscape is pleased to announce new advancements within its Clinical Advances in Aesthetic Medicine. Launched in 2022, this initiative has effectively educated MD practitioners, showcasing measurable outcomes with submissions to…
MedscapeLIVE! is proud to present its annual Heart of Cardiology meeting, returning for its fifth year in Miami, Florida from January 24-26, 2025. Over 3 packed days at the Fontainebleau…
For Sarah Atwood, MPH, the proudest moment of her incredible career in education and instructional design is happening right now. Atwood is an instructional designer with a public health lens…
Medscape has wrapped up their work at this year’s ASH annual meeting in San Diego. During the conference, Medscape hosted 8 symposia that presented the latest data and supported advancing…
Advancing person-centered care is an important topic for the Medscape Oncology team, and no one knows this better than Dr Victoria Harvey-Jones, Associate Director of Clinical Strategy for Medscape Oncology…
Medscape will showcase eight educational symposia and three posters at ASH 2024, highlighting advancements in hematology and oncology education. The presentations will reflect on the impact of last year’s programs,…
