Report from Vice President for North America
Connie Newman MWIA Regional Vice President for North America
Greetings to All,
We have had numerous activities in September in the North American Region.
FMWC Centennial
The Federation of Medical Women of Canada held its Centennial celebration (Catalysts for Change:100 Years of Medical Women in Canada) in Ottawa Sept 27 to 28. Dr Eleanor Nwadinobi, President MWIA, provided welcoming remarks. The program emphasized the accomplishments of Canadian women doctors and at the Gala dinner, 49 members of the FMWC were honored with a King Charles III Coronation Medal. A major theme was advocacy – for society, patients and physicians. Of the many excellent lectures were “Recognizing and Responding to Family Violence” by Dr Anne Niec and “Passion, Patience Persistence: Three Decades of Advocacy for Physician Wellbeing” by Dr Mamta Gautam. Dr Ojistoh Horn received a standing ovation for her lecture describing the adversities facing indigenous women in Canada. Dr. Kimberly Williams, the 2023-2024 FMWC President, talked about climate change and mental health as emerging issues for healthcare providers. Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh, the new 2024-2025 FMWC President of FMWC, moderated the meeting.
AMWA and Women in Medicine month
AMWA honored Women in Medicine month (September) with the announcement of the women doctors who were honored with the AMWA Leadership Council INSPIRE Award. In addition, in collaboration with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation, a webinar in the series ‘Transforming Healthcare Celebrating Women in Medicine’ was held on September 16th. The webinar featured two physicians who have written books about illness: Dr. Rana Awdish, a pulmonary and critical care physician and the author of In Shock, a critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir based on her own critical illness, and Dr. Jesse Gold a psychiatrist and author of HOW DO YOU FEEL? One Doctor’s Search for Humanity in Medicine. Dr. Nicole Sandhu Past President of AMWA opened the meeting and Dr. Sue Hingle, President of AMWA, moderated the interviews of the two panelists.
MWIA events parallel to the UN meetings
As the MWIA UN representative I coordinated, with the assistance of Dr. Nwadinobi, and moderated a parallel event to the UN Summit of the Future/79th Session of UN General Assembly on September 23rd. The title was “Voices for Future Generations: Youth Perspective on Science, Technology, Innovation, and Digital cooperation: Relationship to International Peace, Security and Gender Equality. The objectives of the program were 1) to understand the views of young people on innovation, technology, AI, digital literacy, and their relationship to gender equality and peace and security; 2) to permit a discussion among attendees on these topics; and 3) to obtain commitments. The program engaged youth voices in a conversation about the benefits and potential downsides of science, technology, innovation, closing the digital divide, and the relationship of technological advances to peace, security, and gender equality. The panel discussed ways to ensure that women and girls become leaders in science, technology and innovation. Panelists were Malak Abou Elenein, a high school student at British International School, Cairo, Egypt; Ana Sofia Mendoza, a college undergraduate at Lehigh University; Chioma Chigozie-Okwum, a post graduate student at Lehigh University Centre for Women Studies and Intervention, and Dr. Yasser Dabees, a first year House Officer at Cairo University Teaching Hospitals. Also speaking were Dr. Eleanor Nwadinobi, Dr. Mariam Jashi and Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bogdu, a distinguished pediatrician and global health leader with a profound commitment to women’s health, and cancer awareness and care. During the last fifteen minutes of the meeting, attendees offered action and commitment statements about advancing technology safely, ensuring digital literacy for all while protecting privacy and human rights, and teaching people how to use the internet safely.
On September 25th, MWIA co-sponsored a parallel event to the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly led by Dr. Mariam Jashi, “2030 Global Agenda for Sepsis for Attainment of Sustainable Development Goals”. Other co-sponsors included Global Sepsis Alliance, UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health, and Sepsis Stiftung (German Sepsis Foundation). Sepsis is responsible for 1 in every 5 deaths but is not visible in the global health agenda. The objectives of the meeting were 1) to present the 2030 Global Agenda for Sepsis, a multiyear strategy. 2) to reduce the human, societal, economic and healthcare burden of sepsis; 3) to reach consensus on the urgent need for reinvigorating the sepsis responses at global, national and regional meetings; 4) to discuss the critical role of healthcare workers, particularly medical women for the promotion and implementation of the 2030 Agenda; 5) to call for the establishment of a high level Political Platform for sepsis to lead integration of sepsis into the mainstream of health and development dialogue, including G7, G20 Summits, World Health Assemblies, UN General Assemblies and World Economic Forums. Speakers were Dr. Mariam Jashi, Dr. Eleanor Nwadinobi, Honorable Richard Baptiste Leite, President UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health and CEO of the Health AI Agency; Prof. Konrad Reinhart, President of the German Sepsis Foundation; Mr. Claran Staunton, Founder of END SEPSIS – The Legacy of Rory Staunton Foundation; Mr. Thomas Heymann, President and CEO of the Sepsis Alliance (US based); and Michael Wong, Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health and Safety; and Dr. Amy Campbell, quality nurse specialist at ECU Health Office of Quality Performance Improvement and Analytics.
Fig 1. Panelists and MWIA Leaders at the MWIA Parallel Event, Voices for Future Generations: Youth Perspective on Science, Technology, Innovation, and Digital cooperation: Relationship to International Peace, Security and Gender Equality