The 2021 Women in Medicine Summit

October 6, 2021

Many ACLGIM and SGIM members participated in the third annual Women in Medicine^® (WIM) Summit on September 24-25, 2021. The WIM summit was held virtually again this year due to the pandemic, but this did not prevent lively discussions and interactions via chat and post presentation Q & A sessions. Friday started off with a keynote talk by Helen Burstin, MD, MPH, CEO for Council of Medical Specialty Societies entitled “Leading in Crisis: Why Women Leaders Excel.” Illinois Department of Health Director, Ngozi Ezike, MD, followed with a talk about “Leading Through a Crisis” during the COVID pandemic.

A record-breaking number of nominations were received for the WIM #IStandWithHer awards. The #HeForShe award winner was Dr. Mark Shapiro, a hospitalist at Santa Rosa Hospital in California and the Creator, Producer, and Host of Explore the Space Podcast that elevates women using the podcast platform. #Resilience award winner was Dr. Maya Vijayaraghavan, internist at UCSF, who embodied strength, grit, tenacity, and grace in the setting of difficult family circumstances, all while submitting NIH R01 to scale up her tobacco cessation interventions. Finally, #SheForShe awards winners included Dr. Reshma Jagsi, radiation oncologist at University of Michigan, and Dr. Julie Silver, physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at Harvard University, not only for their amazing contributions to elevating women in their local environment but also national contributions to promote gender equity in the medical literature.

Afternoon breakout sessions each day included workshops on using social media, advocacy, financial health, storytelling, amplification, and culture change to elevate the voice of women in medicine. Day one ended with a fireside chat between internists Dr. Vinny Arora, University of Chicago, and Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, Stanford, discussing managing grief and loss.

Saturday started off with a call to action on “Anti-Racism” by Dr. Brittani James and Dr. Brandi Jackson, co-founders of The Institute of Antiracism in Medicine, and ended with a call to action to “Change the Female Physician Experience—Moving from Ideas to Action” by Dr. Nisha Mehta, radiologist and co-founder of Physician Side Gigs. This work parallels the amazing work of SGIM’s Women in Medicine Task Force and SGIM’s leadership in elevating female physician leaders.