Did you know September was Women in Medicine month? To recognize the growing number of women in the profession and to celebrate the importance of current (and future) female physicians, Suchita Shah Sata, MD, decided to try something new! For each of the 30 days in the month of September, she tweeted a photo and short description of a female faculty member in the Department of Medicine at Duke, along with the hashtags #WIMMonth #ThisWomanRocks #DukePWIM #medtwitter. We were floored by her excitement and commitment to this new series and asked her the following questions:
What prompted you to start this Twitter Series?
Duke PWIM (#DukePWIM) is the Department of Medicine's Program for Women in Medicine, chaired by Dr Lisa Criscione-Schreiber and supported by Dr Laura Svetkey and staffed by Kim Dorman. This year I have been lucky to work with this group as the PWIM Housestaff Liaison, creating programming for residents and fellows. One of our first events was the PWIM Presents "Before They Were Stars" career panel in May 2018. I learned from the housestaff that attended that, all too often, they did not even know the names of some of our women leaders in medicine here at Duke. And, as a junior faculty member who did not train here at Duke, I realized that I, too, only knew of the accomplishments of people I interacted with clinically. With September being Women in Medicine Month (#WIMMonth), I wanted to do something special through PWIM and for me to learn more about my colleagues. I decided to profile one female physician each day for the entire month.
"I wish September had more than 30 days, as there are so many women physicians here in the Duke Department of Medicine that I could have highlighted."
How did you choose the women you highlighted?
I wish September had more than 30 days, as there are so many women physicians here in the Duke Department of Medicine that I could have highlighted. I chose the 30 for this month quite intentionally to showcase the diversity of our Department. Diversity in specialty (attempting to include every Division), career pathways (clinicians, educators, and researchers), leadership in all its forms, as well as diversity of what it means to "look like a doctor," with junior faculty as well as seasoned ones and women from different backgrounds.
They're not doing this work for any public recognition, but it's nice to celebrate them anyways!
Twitter is a growing platform for medical education and an easy way to reach a larger audience. I have been amazed at how far a reach some of these tweets have had. Many have been re-tweeted by physicians across the country. What I love most though is the comments that our own Duke colleagues make about how they, too, value the individual women physicians. I don't know if they hear these compliments directly as much as they deserve to! These doctors are so often working hard behind the scenes. They're not doing this work for any public recognition, but it's nice to celebrate them anyways!
As Dr. Sata noted, she highlighted women in all divisions across the department, including 6 in her own division of General Internal Medicine. Click the names below to see the full tweet!
- Laura Caputo, MD
- Daniella Zipkin, MD
- Lynn Bowlby, MD
- L. Ebony Boulware, MD, MPH
- Adia Ross, MD
- Rania Kazan, MD
Follow Dr. Sata on Twitter @SuchitaSata