Closing the promotion gap for women in medicine, and Google inks a virtual care deal

Welcome back to Path to Recovery, a newsletter that will bring you weekly conversations on how the health care profession will recover from one of the most significant crises of our time. Click "subscribe" above or follow along using #PathtoRecovery.

Let’s jump in, shall we?

#WomeninMedicine: September is Women in Medicine month, and this year comes at a time when the American Medical Association is making a push to address systemic inequalities that have disadvantaged women and people of color. (You can read the AMA’s 2021-2023 Equity Plan here.) In academic medicine, for instance, women hold just 26% of positions at the full professor level, despite making up 48% of assistant professor positions. A Viewpoint in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests three ways to address the promotion gap. Ideas include: supporting women through the work that actually leads to promotions, like applying for grants and developing research ideas, rather than pushing institutional service; nominating more women for awards and speaking engagements; and counting childbearing as a major life event rather than adding time to the promotion clock.

What do you think of these ideas? What else would support women in medicine??

Weigh in below or start a conversation using the #WomeninMedicine hashtag. And let us know if there are people or institutions making progress to address the equity gap.

#VirtualCare: One of the most fundamental ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed healthcare has been the rapid adoption of new technologies, particularly for virtual care. And this week, another announcement: Google and ProMedica, a health system based in Toledo, Ohio, are partnering with IncludeHealth on a new virtual care platform to provide physical therapy to musculoskeletal patients. The partnership is getting attention because, well, it’s Google, which signals there’s increasingly Big Tech firepower in the digital health industry. But the bottom line is this: As procedures like knee and hip replacements have gotten easier to perform, more people are getting them, and that means this is an area ripe for new technologies.?

For next week, I’d like to hear from you: Which areas of healthcare do you think will see the most disruption from virtual care platforms?

Weigh in below or start a conversation using the #VirtualCare hashtag.

#HardCases: The strange ebb and flow of covid “waves” across the country meant that surge-planning efforts often involved out-of-state help to support local clinicians as patients flooded ICUs and emergency rooms. The first example of that happened in New York City, where hospitals were overwhelmed, and under-prepared, during the devastating spring 2020 surge, which saw one of the highest U.S. mortality rates of the entire pandemic. In this week’s #HardCases piece, UC Davis Health CEO Dr. David Lubarsky writes about the 13 days nurse practitioner Paula Wagner spent treating covid patients in the Big Apple — and what the health system learned going forward.

Have you taken any travel nursing or clinical assignments during the pandemic??

Weigh in on this piece or start a conversation using the #HardCases hashtag. (And if you’re a clinician who’d like to submit a piece tothe series, send me an InMail.)

#Pathtorecovery: I asked, you responded: In last week’s issue, I wanted to hear about which financial incentives would be most beneficial to improving morale at a time when many clinicians are facing high levels of burnout. Three themes emerged: Healthcare professionals want more support for wellness and self-care, programs for student loan forgiveness, and greater investment in their career development.

Which option was most popular though?

Take the poll to find out.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!