Women in Cardiology: A discussion on disparities

Despite many changes in the last two decades, women who work in Cardiology are still the minority. In this video, female cardiologists from the Massachusetts General Hospital Corrigan Minehan Heart Center talk about why it’s important to improve disparities in the field – for both their peers and patients.

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Transcript

Judy Hung, MD, director of Echocardiography: I think it's important to have women in cardiology because 50% of our patients are female.

Doreen DeFaria Yeh, MD, associate director, Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program, co-director, Cardiovascular Disease and Pregnancy Program, associate program director, Cardiovascular Fellowship: I think women providers can often relate to their patients in a way where the patients feel that they understand maybe potentially what they're going through.

Nasrien Ibrahim, MD, associate director, Resynchronization & Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics Program: The patients connect with us different than they do with men, so our perspective is invaluable to science.

Ami Bhatt, MD, director, Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program: To our junior women in cardiology, or those who are looking to enter cardiology as a field, it is a wonderful place to both practice and learn to be a leader. Not just a leader in cardiology but a leader in medicine.

Judy Hung, MD: I'm actually quite gratified to see that they are increasingly more females in leadership positions especially in cardiology where traditionally it has been more male dominated.

Nasrien Ibrahim, MD: We're important to the field of medicine, we're important in progressing medicine for future generations. But it's also important for younger generations to see that as women, that we can get to the top. We can break those ceilings, we can be department chairs.

Hanna Gaggin, MD, MPH, assistant physician: We need more women, we need more smart women who are dynamic, who are compassionate, who are well rounded, who can offer a lot of insight and a lot of knowledge to the field. And we need you to go in there and make your place, let your ideas be known. Don't be intimidated, there's plenty of men and women who will support you.

Meagan Wasfy, MD, cardiologist, Cardiovascular Performance Program: It is important as female clinicians within the broader field of cardiology to support each other and by that I mean, I think there are certainly intrinsic differences and sort of work life balance between men and women. And that I think embracing those differences is more important than disregarding them.

Nasrien Ibrahim, MD: Speak up. Be a part of every meeting that you're in, be present and find people that are willing to guide you. It's gonna be hard, you're gonna probably be the only women in a lot of meetings. But it doesn't matter, it's an advantage. I look at it as an advantage and please stay in academic medicine. We need women in medicine.