Scrubs & Heels roundup: Branding, leadership, empowerment
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Healio presents some of the top stories from the inaugural Scrubs & Heels Summit 2022 in Miami, which highlight social media branding, female empowerment in GI, lessons for negotiation and leadership, and more.
VIDEO: Inaugural Scrubs & Heels Summit demonstrates the need for female empowerment in GI
In a Healio video exclusive, Aline Charabaty, MD, and Anita Afzali, MD, MPH, co-founders of the women-focused Scrubs & Heels Summit, recap an “extremely successful” inaugural event and share their expectations for future summits.
“We are ecstatic that we have successfully launched and now completed our inaugural summit 2022,” Afzali, a gastroenterologist and professor of clinical medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said. “It has been an amazing turnout, well over the amount of people we anticipated, who will be a part of Scrubs & Heels. It certainly demonstrates the need, the purpose, the shared commitment toward the mission of what we've established.” Read more.
Social media branding opens doors, helps advance career
Creating a personal brand on social media is a key component in building your reputation both professionally and personally, according to a speaker.
“The importance of putting yourself out there and bringing your brand to people is that it opens doors and opens opportunities for your career advancement,” Aline Charabaty, MD, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine and clinical director of gastroenterology and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital, said. “When you advance your career ... you can help others achieve career advancement as well.” Read more.
Female physicians can change the landscape by caring for themselves, other women
Women in gastroenterology should know what they bring to an institution and to a practice, quantifying their worth and furthering the path for other women to join the field, a presenter said.
“It’s not just equal pay. ... It’s knowing your return on investment, the big picture, the value of attracting more patients. We need to sell ourselves in these contexts,” Maria T. Abreu, MD, AGAF, director of the Crohn’s and Colitis Center and professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at the University of Miami, said during her presentation. “We have to make sure our environment meets our needs: ... the screen brought down, the smaller scope. We have to advocate for ourselves and take care of ourselves.” Read more.
13 lessons to advance, negotiate as a woman and a physician
Everything is up for negotiation, one physician reminded the audience. And those negotiations require preparation, relationships and knowing your worth.
“This right here is one big giant sponsorship session,” Jami Kinnucan, MD, senior associate consultant at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, said during her presentation to an audience of mostly women. “We are navigating. We are networking. We are connecting. ... It’s likely to accelerate careers.” Read more.
Learn these lessons in feminine leadership: Kindness, competency, compassion
Leading like a woman requires leaders to have vision, compassion and intention while maintaining their expertise and competence in conjunction with kindness and empathy, according to a presenter.
“Before, female leadership wasn’t thought to be important, but this is our time,” Marla Dubinsky, MD, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition and co-director of the Susan and Leonard Feinstein IBD Clinical Center at the Icahn School of Medicine, said during her presentation. “There’s this switch that we are experiencing where men need to learn lessons on how to be leaders through these constructs of female leadership.” Read more.
Effective male allies ‘recruit, train and retain’ female gastroenterologists
Female gastroenterologists continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions and earn less than their male counterparts, spotlighting a critical ally role for men, noted a presenter.
Despite some progress in the field, gender gaps persist in pay and promotions — and not for lack of female presence in the pipeline. Read more.
‘Use your privilege’ to combat bias, improve diversity and inclusion
Improving diversity and inclusion starts with understanding one’s own implicit bias and working intentionally to create a culture of inclusivity to unleash everyone’s true potential, an expert said.
“Inclusion is about creating a sense of true belonging and care so that people will value who they are and the experiences that they bring,” Jennifer A. Christie, MD, professor of medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine and executive associate division director and clinical director of digestive diseases for The Emory Clinic, said during her talk. “Until we get to that point, it’s going to be very difficult to unleash everyone’s potential but that is what we strive for.” Read more.