Kamya Elawadhi, CCO at Doceree, explains why female leadership is essential in healthcare technology: Female leadership represents a fundamental shift towards a more equitable, efficient and responsive healthcare ecosystem.
At the heart of the health and technology transformation is a transformative force driven and led by some of the most underrepresented yet crucial change agents: women leaders. Their strategic vision and relentless efforts to forge new and innovative paths within the health system are more than just transformational.
Let’s take a look at the pivotal role women are playing in healthcare’s technological renaissance, showing how female leadership is both influential and fundamentally necessary to drive breakthroughs in the field.
Advancing Female Leadership in Healthcare Technology
Though still steeped in the lens of conservatism, women’s leadership in healthcare is paving the way for new trajectories. Breaking down barriers of the past, these pioneers are advocating technology as the answer to centuries-old challenges. The significance of these changes goes beyond the benefits of gender diversity; they represent a more general movement toward inclusivity, efficiency, and patient-centricity in the healthcare system.
Women are at the forefront of healthcare technology, but not just in it. They are paving the way to leverage digital innovation to enhance patient care, optimize operational efficiencies, and truly democratize access to healthcare.
These small changes in individual healthcare organizations add up to big changes overall. Recent statistics from the World Economic Forum show that there are 80% more female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in March 2022 compared to June 2021. This number has increased tenfold since 2002. While this represents just 8% of all Fortune 500 companies, the trend is likely to continue to rise given the expertise and innovation that women bring to healthcare companies around the world.
Combining advertising insight with healthcare innovation
My journey from the world of advertising to cutting edge medical technology is an incredible story of how diverse skills from different worlds come together to unlock endless transformative possibilities. My responsibilities within the workplace include leading projects to leverage digital platforms and refine physician engagement strategies, all to enhance and improve the effectiveness of communications in healthcare.
Our efforts bring the latest technology to the forefront, enhancing our ability to reach and influence specific target groups, and strengthening marketing’s role in driving improved health outcomes in the healthcare sector.
Women’s Unique Contributions to Healthcare Technology
Women’s leadership in healthcare technology may be being redefined, but classic aspects like focus, inclusivity and empathy appear to be at its core. Female leadership that prioritizes inclusivity and empathy is helping to create an array of technologically advanced, end-user focused and innovative solutions to address the growing complexities that come with healthcare delivery.
This includes efforts to identify the unique challenges health care workers will increasingly face in accessing and applying information, such as developing a digital marketing strategy to reach and support health care workers affected by health disparities in care delivery.
Overcoming barriers and seizing opportunities
Women in healthcare and IT have been driving diversity in healthcare IT executive ranks for the past year. But they face tough challenges, from systemic bias to breaking through the glass ceiling to securing venture capital. But these obstacles are also opportunities to demonstrate resilience, innovation, and leadership. Growing recognition of the great value of diversity in leadership is paving new avenues for women to claim their roles and lead innovation in healthcare IT.
According to the latest “Women in the Workplace” report by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company, the number of female leaders leaving corporate America is reaching staggering levels. The disparity in turnover rates between men and women in the corporate world is more pronounced than ever before. This is commonly referred to as “The Great Divide” and is the result of women feeling the need to leave work to meet their own needs.
These success stories of women-led healthtech initiatives not only paint a picture of what’s possible, but also provide an important warning that there is an urgent need to further strengthen support and recognition for the vital role women play in this sector. These stories provide vivid evidence of the potential of women in leadership roles to drive tech innovation in healthcare, and serve as a stark warning that we need to highlight that potential and provide the support necessary to enable women to participate.
Read more: The 5G Revolution: Unlocking the Future of Healthcare
Writing the Future: Women at the Steering Wheel of Healthcare Innovation
The future of women in healthcare technology is indeed bright, simply because in the era of digital transformation brought about and accelerated by recent global challenges, it has become impossible for humanity to ignore the necessity of healthcare technology and how it will force current and future societies to take their place above the health agenda.
Meanwhile, women are well placed to lead this transformation as they have greater innovative skills and greater empathy for leadership. They are driving developments that make healthcare more accessible, more efficient and patient-centered.
The shift to data-driven healthcare is creating unprecedented opportunities for women to leverage their technology and data skills to lead the development of cutting-edge healthcare solutions. Women play a key role in leveraging data to transform healthcare delivery, improve patient outcomes and drive operational efficiencies. The possibilities are endless, and these women are leading the effort to explore them and apply these new technologies in the most powerful ways.
There are many notable figures in the field of medical technology, but Dr. Patricia Flatley Brennan stands out as a huge inspiration to me. As Director of the National Library of Medicine, Dr. Brennan is focused on harnessing the power of technology to find new and innovative ways to revolutionize healthcare. Dr. Brennan’s work on patient-centric information systems and her drive to integrate electronic health records into clinical care has transformed the way healthcare professionals and patients process data.
“Dr. Brennan’s attributes, including his commitment to increasing access to health information, his visionary leadership in the field of biomedical informatics, and his dedication to public service, are the same qualities that excite me and fuel my passion to drive health transformation. Dr. Brennan’s work shows great innovative initiative and an unwavering commitment to improving patient outcomes and health care delivery.”
Women Visionaries in Healthcare Technology
Led by the powerful and unified vision of female leadership, we are at the dawn of a new era in healthcare technology, at the crossroads of perhaps the most profound and comprehensive transformation in the history of healthcare delivery.
With their innovative vision, deep empathetic understanding and complex strategic insight, women leaders are not just participating in this transformative change but shaping it, ensuring that healthtech advancements are not just fueled by operational precision but by a deep commitment to patient care and a profound edict of inclusivity.
From advertising to the forefront of healthcare technology, my stories highlight the influential role of women who leverage their diverse skills and passion for innovation to address healthcare’s most pressing problems. Looking to the future, women’s contributions to healthcare technology will continue to be vital. Female leadership is both beneficial and essential to navigating the complexities of modern healthcare delivery.
So let us celebrate women and their role in this technological revolution for health. Let us be guided by their vision and chart a path towards a future that is more technology-driven, but also more human, equitable and patient-centric. It is a future of bright promise. A future built by women. A future where technology works hand in hand with medicine, progressing in parallel to create a healthier world for us all.
Are you a leading woman in healthcare technology? How have you reinvented technology to make the industry better for patient care? Let us know on Facebook. XOpens in a new window Contact us on LinkedInOpens a new window. We look forward to hearing from you.
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