AMA's three consecutive female presidents say it's time to respect women leaders
Skip to main content
MDHC_Logotype_white
Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • This Week's News
    • COVID-19
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition
    • Biden more bullish on vaccines, open to 1.5M daily shot goal
      Billing, antitrust exemption changes upend negotiations between insurers and providers
      Few nursing home residents have received second COVID-19 vaccine dose
      Fresenius building renal genomic registry to inform precision care for kidney disease
    • Biden more bullish on vaccines, open to 1.5M daily shot goal
      Few nursing home residents have received second COVID-19 vaccine dose
      The missing piece in our fight against COVID-19: primary care
      Google to convert office space for COVID-19 vax clinics
    • Ascension’s St. Mary’s Hospital Surgery Center at Towne Centre and Allegheny Health Network’s Bethel Park surgery center
      Hospitals see opportunity, risk in ambulatory surgery centers
      Health suffers as rural hospitals close
      Medicare ACO participants fell in 2021
      Louisiana gets reports vaccine providers are discriminating
    • Billing, antitrust exemption changes upend negotiations between insurers and providers
      MAIN-Health Bill_iStock_i.jpg
      Insurance-tech firm MultiPlan makes $155M buy after blank-check deal
      Last-minute COVID costs cut into UnitedHealthcare's $396 million operating income
      CMS approves rule forcing insurers to ease prior authorization
    • It's a secret: California keeps key virus data from public
      lacewell_linda_supertinendent_dept_of_financial_services_8.47.jpg
      New York state investigates drug price spikes during pandemic
      Health experts blame rapid expansion for vaccine shortages
      HHS freezes rule targeting community health centers' drug discounts
    • KPMG says deal activity will stay high in '21: 10 takeaways
      By the Numbers: 20 largest healthcare investment banks in 2020
      Providers await new HHS coronavirus grant reporting deadline
      Operation Warp Speed Dr. Moncef Slaoui, Pfizer Group President Angela Hwang, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, CVS Health Executive Vice President Karen Lynch and McKesson CEO Brian Tyler participate in a panel discussion on the COVID-19 vaccine.
      Hospitals, drug companies strive to stand out virtually at JPM
    • Google to convert office space for COVID-19 vax clinics
      Dr. Karen DeSalvo
      Next Up Podcast: What to expect with telehealth and healthcare technology in the next four years
      Next Up Podcast: What to expect with telehealth and healthcare technology in the next 4 years - Transcript
      A man in a room with servers.
      Momentum grows to outsource hospital tech functions in 2021
    • China pushes conspiracy theories on COVID origin, vaccines
      An older man wearing a mask receiving a vaccine.
      Want more diversity in clinical trials? Start with the researchers
      Avocado
      Avocado a day keeps the doctor away
      50% of Americans make resolutions. Fewer than 27% keep them over time.
      Data Points: Sticking with your resolutions
    • WEb_i.jpg
      Q&A: Dr. Cliff Megerian, University Hospitals' soon-to-be CEO
      ZentyWeb_i.jpg
      Tom Zenty is leaving a legacy of transformational growth at University Hospitals
      Cerner names Erceg as new CFO
      Elizabeth Richter will serve as acting CMS administrator
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Insights
    • ACA 10 Years After
    • Best Practices
    • InDepth Special Reports
    • Innovations
    • The Affordable Care Act after 10 years
    • New care model helps primary-care practices treat obesity
      doctor with patient
      COVID-19 treatment protocol developed in the field helps patients recover
      Rachel Wyatt
      Project to curb pressure injuries in hospitals shows promise
      Yale New Haven's COVID-19 nurse-staffing model has long-term benefits
    • Modern Healthcare InDepth: Breaking the bias that impedes better healthcare
      Videos: Healthcare industry executives describe their encounters with racism
      Michellene Davis
      Healthcare leadership lacks the racial diversity needed to reduce health disparities
      Dr. James Hildreth
      How medical education can help fight racism
      Quotes from rebadged employees
      Outsourcing IT, revenue cycle takes toll on internal culture
    • A phone screen showing the question, "Mary we hope this information was helpful and we'd like to keep guiding you. Are you interested in knowing when it's your turn to receive the vaccine?"
      Chatbots, texting campaigns help manage influx of COVID vax questions
      A woman with a wearable sensor talking to her provider.
      Wearable sensors help diagnose heart rhythm problems in West Virginia
      self service station
      COVID-19 pushes patient expectations toward self-service
      Targeting high-risk cancer patients with genetics
  • Transformation
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Highmark Health inks six-year cloud, tech deal with Google
      Study: 1 in 5 patients report discrimination when getting healthcare
      HHS proposes changing HIPAA privacy rules
      Android health records app launches at 230 health systems
    • California hospitals prepare ethical protocol to prioritize lifesaving care
      Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway disband Haven
      Digital pathways poised to reshape healthcare continuum in 2021
      Healthcare was the hardest hit by supply shortages across all U.S. industries
    • A phone screen showing the question, "Mary we hope this information was helpful and we'd like to keep guiding you. Are you interested in knowing when it's your turn to receive the vaccine?"
      Chatbots, texting campaigns help manage influx of COVID vax questions
      A woman with a wearable sensor talking to her provider.
      Wearable sensors help diagnose heart rhythm problems in West Virginia
      New care model helps primary-care practices treat obesity
      How hospitals are building on COVID-19 telehealth momentum
    • Regional insurers bet big on virtual-first plans
      MedPAC votes to boost hospital payments, freeze or cut other providers
      Most Next Gen ACOs achieved bonuses in 2019
      Congress recalibrates Medicare Physician Fee Schedule after lobbying
  • Data/Lists
    • Rankings/Lists
    • Interactive Databases
    • Data Points
    • Health Systems Financials
      Executive Compensation
      Physician Compensation
  • Op-Ed
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
    • Wellstar CEO calls adapting for the pandemic her bold move
      Howard P. Kern
      Recognizing the value of telehealth in its infancy
      Dr. Stephen Markovich
      A bold move helped take him from family doctor to OhioHealth CEO
      Dr. Bruce Siegel
      Why taking a hospital not-for-profit was Dr. Bruce Siegel’s boldest move
    • Barry Ostrowsky
      Ending racism is a journey taken together; the starting point must be now
      Laura Lee Hall and Gary Puckrein
      Increased flu vaccination has never been more important for communities of color
      John Daniels Jr.
      Health equity: Making the journey from buzzword to reality
      Mark C. Clement and David Cook
      We all need to 'do something' to fight inequities and get healthcare right, for every patient, every time
    • The missing piece in our fight against COVID-19: primary care
      Ambulatory surgery centers offer extraordinary value in a high-cost healthcare system
       Alan B. Miller
      Looking ahead with optimism as we continue to transform healthcare
      Dr. Bruce Siegel
      By protecting the healthcare safety net, Biden can put us on the path to a stronger country
    • Letters: Eliminating bias in healthcare needs to be ‘deliberate and organic’
      Letters: Maybe dropping out of ACOs is a good thing for patients
      Letters: White House and Congress share blame for lack of national COVID strategy
      Letters: VA making strides to improve state veterans home inspections
    • Sponsored Content Provided By Optum
      How blockchain could ease frustration with the payment process
      Sponsored Content Provided By Optum
      Three steps to better data-sharing for payer and provider CIOs
      Sponsored Content Provided By Optum
      Reduce total cost of care: 6 reasons why providers and payers should tackle the challenge together
      Sponsored Content Provided By Optum
      Why CIOs went from back-office operators to mission-critical innovators
  • Awards
    • Award Programs
    • Nominate
    • Previous Award Programs
    • Other Award Programs
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare Logo for Navigation
      Nominations Open - Best Places to Work in Healthcare
      Nominations Open - Health Care Hall of Fame
      Nominations Open - 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top 25 Innovators
    • Top 25 Minority Leaders
    • Top 25 Women Leaders
    • Excellence in Nursing Awards
    • Design Awards
    • Top 25 COOs in Healthcare
    • 100 Top Hospitals
    • ACHE Awards
  • Events
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Webinars
    • COVID-19 Event Tracker
    • bright.md logo lockup webinar
      Sponsored Content Provided By Bright.md
      Webinar: Enabling a hybrid care model — Streamlining the patient path to both telehealth and in-person care
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Healthcare Transformation Summit
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Workplace of the Future Conference
    • Strategic Marketing Conference
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Minority Leaders Gala (2022)
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
  • Listen
    • Podcast - Next Up
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Dr. Karen DeSalvo
      Next Up Podcast: What to expect with telehealth and healthcare technology in the next four years
      Carter Dredge
      Next Up Podcast: Ready, set, innovate! Innovation and disruption in healthcare
      Next Up Podcast: COVID-19, social determinants highlight health inequities — what next?
      Ceci Connolly
      Next Up Podcast: How to navigate the murky post-election waters
    • Beyond the Byline: Regulators aim to boost value push with fraud and abuse law updates
      An older man wearing a mask receiving a vaccine.
      Beyond the Byline: Verifying information on the chaotic COVID-19 vaccine rollout
      doctor burnout
      Beyond the Byline: How healthcare supply chain struggles contribute to employee burnout
      Beyond the Byline: Covering race and diversity in the healthcare industry
    • Leading intention promote diversity and inclusion
      Introducing Healthcare Insider Podcast
    • The Check Up: Dr. Joseph Kerschner
      The Check Up: Dr. Joseph Kerschner of the Medical College of Wisconsin
      The Check Up: Chip Kahn
      The Check Up: Chip Kahn of the Federation of American Hospitals
      The Check Up: Trenda Ray
      The Check Up: Trenda Ray of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
      The Check Up: Dr. Kenneth Davis
      The Check Up: Dr. Kenneth Davis of Mount Sinai Health System
    • Video: Ivana Naeymi Rad of Intelligent Medical Objects
  • MORE +
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Providers
September 14, 2019 01:00 AM

Q&A: AMA's three consecutive female presidents say it's time to respect women leaders

Maria Castellucci
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Drs. Barbara McAneny, Patrice Harris and Susan Bailey

    From left, Drs. Barbara McAneny, Patrice Harris and Susan Bailey

    For the first time in its history, the American Medical Association will have three consecutive female presidents. Drs. Patrice Harris, current president; Susan Bailey, president-elect; and Barbara McAneny, immediate past president; come from different life experiences and clinical backgrounds, but they agree that while the industry has made strides in promoting diversity, more needs to be done to give women an equal voice in leadership. The AMA has deemed September Women in Medicine Month. Modern Healthcare reporter Maria Castellucci sat down with the three AMA leaders. The following is an edited transcript.

    MH: Can you reflect a little about what it means for the AMA presidency to be held by women in three consecutive terms?

    Harris: I’ve coined the term for the three of us “We Three” because I think it’s a very exciting, very historic moment.

    I think it means that the AMA continues to evolve, is more reflective of the number of medical students that are training today. Over 50% of women are continuing to aspire to leadership in the AMA. Although we are representative of that, we are not by any means where we need to be and we need to make sure that there are continuous opportunities for women in leadership. But I think we will use this year and this opportunity to highlight accomplishments and to be tangible evidence that a woman can aspire to leadership.

    McAneny: We also send a great message to young women across the country about what the AMA can do and who we really are. None of us ran (for AMA president) because we’re women. We ran because we’re doctors. We ran because we see all this stuff going on in healthcare that we think is crucially important. And we all have important things to say about the future of healthcare. The fact that we’re women just means that we can send the signal to men and women across the country that women have ideas that need to be listened to.

    Bailey: And I think the three of us serving together is such a visible display of how much the AMA has changed in general. Far too many people still have the idea that the AMA is a bunch of elderly, retired white-haired white men who sit around and think up things to do.

    MH: Where do you see opportunities for improvement and strategies that the industry can take up to try to secure a pipeline for women in leadership positions?

    Harris: It starts with recognizing talent early and nurturing that talent. Folks did that for us. Both men and women supported us in our journey at the AMA and I think that’s what we need to do … making sure when women are in the room, their voices are respected and heard. I’m sure all of us have had the experience where we talk about a great idea in the room and nobody says a word and then five minutes later, perhaps a male colleague says the same thing and it’s the best thing since sliced bread. What those who care about advancing women in leadership can do is make sure that women get recognized for great ideas and then sponsor them to further leadership roles, provide training opportunities, leadership development opportunities.

    McAneny: Literature has shown that when you have a diverse group of opinions in the room committees are more productive, boards are more productive, people just get more stuff done than when you have a uniformity of opinion and male/female does that, people of color do that, people of different practice settings do that. Different ages, all of these factors, the more differences you can get in the room, the stronger you are and the stronger the organization is.

    MH: Looking back over you personal careers, did you face any challenges based on your gender? How do you think it’s changed for women?

    Bailey: I did not face any overt problems. And I worked my way up through organized medicine in a very traditional way. I was president of my county medical society. I was speaker of the Texas Medical Association House of Delegates and was on their board, ran for president, was chair of the Texas delegation to the AMA. On the other hand, I really didn’t have any female mentors. When I first started in the AMA, there were two women in the House of Delegates, and we had the women’s caucus in someone’s hotel room because that’s all the space that we needed. But I had great male mentors. The women mentors that I did have inevitably were just a step or two ahead of me.

    McAneny: I was one of seven women in a class of 175. If I asked a stupid question, the answer was, “Women shouldn’t be doctors.” Truly. And I remember clearly my surgical rotation—(it’s) probably why I’m not a surgeon. All of the men would go into the doctor’s changing room and I was relegated to the nurses’ changing room and I would change quickly and run out and stand there and wait and then discover that all the men were sitting in the doctor’s changing room, going over the surgery and what was going to happen, what the anatomy was. And then at the operating table they’d asked me a question and I wouldn’t know the answer. And they’d say, “Weren’t you listening?” I also remember a time, my first night on call as an intern, which is intimidating anyway … and I was in the intensive-care unit. My resident was downstairs sending up admissions like mad. People were in cardiac arrest and doing all kinds of terrible things.

    I just ran around putting out fires all night. The next morning, when my attending showed up, I didn’t even know it was morning. I thought that he was there to help. I thought, “Thank God somebody called in reinforcements.”

    He dressed me down because I hadn’t written down any of my notes … And I said, “Nobody died.” I went into the call room and I closed the door and I cried. And I decided that no one was ever going to make me cry again when I knew that I had done what I was supposed to do. That was a defining moment. You need to have some degree of toughness to get through because it’s still a world where the powers that be are mostly men and any sign of weakness or tears are taken as being that you’re not competent. If a man screws up, it’s like that guy screwed up. If a woman screws up it’s, “See, women aren’t good enough to be doctors.”

    Harris: My journey was a little bit different because I went back to medical school late. Growing up in West Virginia—in Bluefield, which was the gateway to all the coal mines—my mom was a teacher and my father worked on a railroad. My role model for medical school was the TV physician. Everyone’s heard that story.

    But when I went to undergraduate at West Virginia University, I didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to get to medical school. And my advisers were not helpful. So I did some other things, which actually, as I look back on my journey now, I appreciate, because I think that helped me in my leadership journey. I worked for the university for awhile. I recruited African American students to come to West Virginia because it’s not a very diverse state. So when I got to medical school, I had a little bit of experience under my belt.

    Some of my attendings on my third-year rotation said, “Patrice, you’re very mature.” I allowed it as a compliment, but in some ways I thought that was even unfair to my colleagues because I was older.

    McAneny: So implying that they’re immature.

    Harris: Exactly.

    I was the only African American in my class and that’s another issue to talk about sometimes: the intersection of being more than one group.

    My journey through the AMA came through the American Psychiatric Association, my specialty association. We went through AMA rule changes, going from two delegates to seven. The APA appointed a very diverse delegation. Men, women, gay, straight, African American, Asian American. We decided that we really wanted to make sure that psychiatry was represented in the House of Medicine because traditionally, psychiatry had been an afterthought.

    MH: The AMA is pretty involved in reforming medical education and is starting with residencies too. Is there anything specifically in those two areas where you see opportunities for improvements in diversity?

    Bailey: There are still residencies out there that have no provision for women who become pregnant. They have no maternity leave policies and women are still having to cobble together a week of vacation here and a week there and without any support from their programs whatsoever.

    It was that way 35 years ago and it really still is that way. Women are being shamed in professional meetings in 2019 for bringing a nursing baby into the meeting with them or just having a baby there period. That is absolutely ridiculous. We talk about burnout and we all want to do something about it, but if we can’t allow women to lead the lives that they want to lead, if they want to start a family, they should be able to start a family. If they don’t want to, they shouldn’t feel like they have to and everybody should be able to make their path and have a quiet baby in the back of the room. It’s not going to impede anyone.

    Harris: You have to be intentional, meaning you have to think about the issue, identify the issue and make an intentional action. For instance, there’s a program where the dean, who is a male, has four women chairs of departments. Why does he have four women chairs? Because he saw that as an issue. He had to be intentional in the search and the search process. It’s not just enough to say, “Wow, women are 50% or over 50% of the class. Eventually they’ll catch up.”

    MH: I had some questions about other issues in the news. Surprise billing is on everyone’s mind. The AMA supports a third-party arbitration approach. Where are you in terms of that legislation?

    Harris: It’s difficult to predict what will happen in Congress. We continue to educate people about this issue. There is no question that we want patients out of the middle, but we also want a fair process. We want a level playing field. We think having arbitration—independent arbitration—is the way to go rather than giving insurers the opportunity to set prices, which would be likely to their benefit.

    McAneny: We need to make sure that the insurance companies, when they’re selling a policy, that they are actually delivering what the patient thinks they’re getting, which is a full network. But the ability to negotiate a price is key and right now the playing field is very unlevel.

    MH: The AMA recently dropped out of the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, which is opposed to Medicare for All. Can you talk about that decision?

    Harris: The partnership highlighted concerns that everyone had about a single-payer approach, a Medicare for All approach, but at this time, the AMA wants to spend our time focusing on the path forward. And the path forward is building on the progress of the Affordable Care Act. We believe that we should not disrupt the current system where about 90% of people in this country have affordable, meaningful coverage, which is our goal.

    MH: Turning to gun control, what kind of lobbying or efforts are you doing?

    Bailey: The AMA believes that common sense reforms that are broadly supported by the American public are needed. But the thing that’s needed the most is research into the causes of gun violence. We are a science-based profession. And as Dr. Harris said so eloquently in a recent interview, the science leads us and we are involved with the (American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine), a group that is obtaining research money. Their goal is to prevent the next shooter from shooting. We support prohibiting assault style weapons. We support universal background checks, things that are fairly widely agreed upon by the American public.

    McAneny: I will add on the fact that we declared this to be a public health emergency. If there were an infectious disease in the country that was killing as many people as gun violence is, the entire population would be demanding that something be done.

    Harris: There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to this. It’s mass shootings, it’s suicide, it’s homicide and community violence. It is critically important that we not have a knee-jerk reaction and say that all of the mass shooters or all of those who perpetrate this gun violence have mental disorders. We have to make sure that we look in the area of risk and not a diagnosis.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    Hospitals see opportunity, risk in ambulatory surgery centers
    Hospitals see opportunity, risk in ambulatory surgery centers
    Health suffers as rural hospitals close
    Health suffers as rural hospitals close
    Sponsored Content
    Get Free Newsletters

    Sign up for free enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today

    The weekly magazine, websites, research and databases provide a powerful and all-encompassing industry presence. We help you make informed business decisions and lead your organizations to success.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS
    • Instagram

    Stay Connected

    Join the conversation with Modern Healthcare through our social media pages

    MDHC_Logotype_white
    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • This Week's News
      • COVID-19
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition
    • Insights
      • ACA 10 Years After
      • Best Practices
      • InDepth Special Reports
      • Innovations
    • Transformation
      • Patients
      • Operations
      • Care Delivery
      • Payment
    • Data/Lists
      • Rankings/Lists
      • Interactive Databases
      • Data Points
    • Op-Ed
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Awards
      • Award Programs
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top 25 Innovators
        • Top 25 Minority Leaders
        • Top 25 Women Leaders
      • Nominate
      • Previous Award Programs
        • Excellence in Nursing Awards
        • Design Awards
        • Top 25 COOs in Healthcare
      • Other Award Programs
        • 100 Top Hospitals
        • ACHE Awards
    • Events
      • Conferences
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Healthcare Transformation Summit
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
        • Workplace of the Future Conference
        • Strategic Marketing Conference
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Minority Leaders Gala (2022)
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Webinars
      • COVID-19 Event Tracker
    • Listen
      • Podcast - Next Up
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • MORE +
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Newsletters
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing