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Miami 2012: 97th American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) Meeting

By Linda | April 16, 2012

The best times are those that are totally unexpected.  And nothing could have been more unexpected than day 1 of the 97th Annual AMWA meeting.  More than 300 attendees enjoying a riveting program that held the interest of a most diverse group of women physicians, from surgeons to psychiatrists, from first year medical students to retired pathologists.  This all started with the four women in the picture 97 years ago.

The program began with a history of the organization, delivered by past president Eliza Chin, MD, and is detailed in a previous post.  Setting the stage of our legacy and our destiny was inspirational.

My roles?  Here goes.

Co-chair of the Gender Equity Task Force.  I needed to present our quandary to the BOD.  We were awarded a grant, but the funding was inadequate.  What can we do?  As we flew back and forth between meetings and strategy sessions out of the box ideas grew and might save the day.

Judge for the student and resident poster session.  We had 50 poster submissions!  All four of those I judged were absolutely fantastic.  The work was substantive, the questions asked important, and the poise of the presenters undeniable.  Fun and informative and, believe it or not, all four were within my clinical experiences from esophageal myotomies to the width of cleft palates and its effect on speech development.

Participant in the scientific session.  Seven one hour sessions.  Not a clunker among them.  Here are some highlights:

  • Marcia Shew, MD on Human papilloma virus vaccine–safety, effectiveness, and myth busting (such as having a vaccine against a possibly deadly sexually transmitted virus will result in greater sexual activity in young women.)
  • Lila Nachtigall, MD on the swinging pendulum on the safety and effectiveness of Hormone Replacement Therapy in women.   She tore apart the now 10 year old recommendations from the Women’s Health Initiative with an depth and persuasive counterargument.  So much so that I am going to revisit this therapy for myself.  I hesitate to give you even the headlines b/c I might not give the whole story correctly.
  • Carolyn Meltzer, MD chair of radiology at Emory University shared with us incredibly exciting advances in imaging.   The highlight of the conference was a 3-D mammogram that rotated, eliminating shadows and really pinpointed the lesion.  Giving us a taste for her own interest in photography was a special treat.  Check out her website–you won’t be disappointed.
  • Randolph Nesse, MD kept us awake and glued to our seats at 3 pm after a very short break.  (This was a marathon day.) “Medicine without Evolution is like Engineering Without Physics” took us way out of the box about our beliefs about how our body works.  He convinced us that certain “illnesses” are have evolved to keep us healthy.  Very counter-intuitive and another one I cannot do justice with any further detail.

The highlight was our special guest evening talk by NY Times best seller author, Rachel Naomi Remen, MD from UCSF (Dana’s medical school in San Francisco).  She echoed my beliefs that we must change the way we see ourselves (and value ourselves–my addition), so we might see what we might become.  And she does this using stories, beautiful stories.  She told us, “Being a doctor is a cosmology, it’s a world view.”  She went on to talk about how the present approach to medical care is about fixing a broken body, a broken world–the embodiment of the male principle.  She challenged us to do what women do–evoke the hidden, make it real and believe in the things you cannot always see.  My take on it:  evidence based medicine can only take the healer so far if she wants to care for and care about people who are suffering and in need of help.

And then I tumbled into bed.  My racing mind and burning thoughts for once extinguished by deeply satisfied fatigue.

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4 Comments

  1. susan brilliant
    Posted April 16, 2012 at 7:05 am | Permalink

    hey- just got back from NEW oRLEANS with Eliza and her 2 friends and Marc- ( Eliza’s last spring break before college) had fun-its a funky charming city -heard lots of jazz……like your blog about the ‘WOMAN PRINCIPLE’ ALOT!!!!-thats the whole call Nathalie was doing during pregnancy-’HEY-THIS IS NOT AN ILLNESS HERE BUT A REMARKABLE MYSTERY and want to support that idea,trust ,trust ,trust….our bodies know what to do…ancestral footsteps walking around …..and of course , be prepared ,just in case…..western medicine.-to intervene - fix , whatever, but not the whole story and dont make this about epidurals and your idea of what it is, which is more about forced deadlines and taking away the empowerment of an amazing life experience( so sometimes women have t.o listen to their inner voice as modern medicine makes some unnecessry noise to distract that sacred convenant..yes ,yes -,the world is so vast in terms of our knowledge and experience,anyway M. Graham taught that-its all there in the collective unconscious-she got it from K. Jung…..all there like a well to tap into and drink from , great wisdom…..also on another note-Lila Mathighal is my gynochologist and I need to do my check up soon! SMALL WORLD!!will revivisit hormones also - never wanted to go there……..she pooh=poohed me-ha -like her alot-just changed to her a couple of years ago-her sister is wonderful also -sent Nat and Brielle to her sister!

  2. Linda
    Posted April 16, 2012 at 7:28 am | Permalink

    Hey, thanks!!!!
    Yes, caring for and about is more than evidence. That feminine power is deep and untapped. Women doctors have to become unshackled. It’s a goal worth pursuing. It takes both points of view to make the world a better place.
    Such a small world. I agree re: hormones, but am taking another look.
    Also Becca was in New Orleans this week–she loved it. Enjoy that beautiful grandchild. I will live vicariously for a while. :-)
    And as always, thanks for reading, thanks for being my friend.

  3. Amanda Xi
    Posted April 23, 2012 at 10:32 am | Permalink

    Hi Dr. Brodsky,

    I stumbled across this post and just wanted to stop by and thank you again for your wonderful words of advice during the AMWA Mentorship Breakfast and this great overview post (which will definitely be helpful in the future when I wish to revisit the sessions!).

    Keep in touch,
    Amanda Xi

  4. Linda
    Posted April 23, 2012 at 11:41 am | Permalink

    Thank you!! Watch for the launch of Women MD Resources. Hope to have more to share that you will find helpful and I definitely want to get your feedback.

    Linda Brodsky, MD
    Linda Brodsky Respected Pediatric Surgeon, Advocate and Mentor for the Next Generation of Women Doctors, and Founder of Women MD Resources

    Women MD Resources



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