What systems, practices or innovations protect women and children in pre- and post-natal care globally?
So far, our focus has been on medicine in the US, do any of you have notes to share about lessons learned internationally about access to care?
How are we assessing environmental health factors to make informed patient care decisions? Feel free to take a patient level approach to this question or a public health level approach to this question - it's an issue facing all of the above!
Environmental health factors have an impact on health outcomes fro all patients, and can have even more dire impacts for vulnerable populations such as pregnant women - your questions is critical and raises the point that these factors should also be considered in terms of problem solving to address health inequities and develop more impactful solutions. I believe the impact of the environment along with the social determinants of health as inputs into problem definition is gaining ground in impacting health outcomes so we need to take it into consideration when it comes to health solutions. For example - a recent study highlighted how poor air quality heightened COVID risk for low-income pregnant women in NYC.
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/air-pollut…
How might we improve diversity and drive retention to provide adequate representation for women in tech? What can we do to help connect culturally competent healthcare providers with patients of color?
For women in tech, I think one of the most important factors is payment parity as women often don't negotiate their salaries in the same level men do, and promotion. Plenty of women are hired into entry level roles, but are not promoted at the same rate. There's certainly implicit bias playing a role!
Diversity and inclusion should be at the heart of every discussion in healthcare, as if we don't develop medical products that meet the needs of the end user, then we fail to improve health outcomes for patients. There are needs to be a concerted effort in delivering culturally relevant health care to patients, and it really does start with the healthcare provider. If organizations recognize that need from the inception, they can create process and programs to connect providers who understand the community and unique patient needs and develop a trustworthy relationship.
What role does behavioral health play in making informed patient care decisions? How are specialists or PCPs working with patient's holistic needs in collaboration with each other?
What would it look like if we shifted the healthcare paradigm to address social determinants of health in balance with our current focus on the biomedical models?
Let’s talk to those tackling inequities in women’s health. As Halle Tecco and Julia Cheek of Everly Health said earlier this year in HBS patriarchy in healthcare is as old as healthcare itself... what are your thoughts on this article/on this issue?
https://www.hbs.edu/healthcare/blog/post/defining-womens-health-womens-…
Menopause, like most other conditions and life stages experienced by women, is extremely taboo. Most women don't discuss menopause with their own mothers. How can the innovation ecosystem play a role in dismantling that false perspective?
Great question Sam! I work in the entrepreneur and innovation space, so I answer in that context. There are innovation programs around many topics that are sometime difficult to find (below the fold as they say). Here is a link to an acceleration program around women's health and menopausal transition from Matter Health.
So hope this helps in finding more resources on the discussion:
https://matter.health/posts/matter-launches-51-labs-accelerator-to-adva…
How are women today being protected, or left unprotected, by consumer protection laws? (New York Times Johnson & Johnson and new war on consumer protection)
@Anita Gupta- How do you provide comfort and communication while treating patients in severe pain? What treatments for pain have you found that help a women’s holistic health improve the most?
Despite the variety of effective treatments, and physicians who specialize in treating pain, women often suffer unnecessarily from conditions ranging from backaches to pain after cancer surgery, and also treat their pain with medications that may be ineffective and possibly harmful, according to a review of research related to women and pain.
Just as there are physicians who specialize in treating conditions such as cancer, heart disease or allergies, there are specialists in treating pain. These physicians complete four years of medical school and further training in a specialty, such as anesthesiology, internal medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, psychiatry or neurology, followed by an additional year of training to become an expert in chronic pain.
Women seeking pain relief from a specialist should confirm that the physician is certified in a pain medicine. Among other things, studies show that remedies such as music, yoga and rose oil are proven effective for several types of pain, that opioids are often used inappropriately, and that the type of anesthesia used during breast cancer surgery can affect how quickly and comfortably a woman recovers from the operation.
Physician anesthesiologists are doctors who focus on anesthesia and critical care medicine and are among the medical specialists who are experts in the subspecialty of pain medicine, seeing patients in private practices and pain clinics.
Patients with pain are evaluated and then treated with a variety of therapies, sometimes in combination. These might include medications, injections, biofeedback and acupuncture.
The goal is to get the patient’s pain under enough control that she can then participate in managing her own pain with physical therapy, exercise, and other lifestyle changes.
See attached article on treating pain in women. https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/pain/pain-women
Connect
@Dr. Gupta, would be great to hear more about your presentation to the World Economic Forum in general as well https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6953379598898249728-Or6D?utm_so…