VIDEO: Women in Medicine Summit aims to inspire change, ‘disrupt the system’

CHICAGO — At the Women in Medicine Summit, Shikha Jain, MD, FACP, said she hopes that attendees will leave with new skill sets and tools they can utilize to change the system.

“The Women in Medicine Summit is an opportunity for women in medicine and allies to come together and really talk about ways to disrupt the medical system for the better,” Jain, who is the founder and chair of the summit, told Healio. “We need to change our health care systems for a variety of reasons. Not only because it’s better for patient care, but also because it’s the right thing to do.”

Jain, who is also the founder and president of the Women in Medicine nonprofit, said that working in a system that was not built for women’s success can “cause a lot of challenges” that result in “many very talented, brilliant women in medicine leaving the field altogether.”

“At the end of the day, that’s going to damage our communities, it’s going to damage our patient care and it really is going to damage our institutions,” she added.

Jain also said that she is learning a lot at this year’s summit.

“I learn so much not just from the people on the stage, but also from the people who I meet as I’m walking around and introducing myself to attendees,” she said.