Female Radiologists in Maryland Make Much Less than Male Counterparts

Female Radiologists in Maryland Make Much Less than Male Counterparts

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Salary disparities still continue to be gender-based in radiology.

Men Less Likely to Specialize in Mammography

Men Less Likely to Specialize in Mammography

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XYs need mentoring too! Male medical students exploring specialization options are less likely to opt for mammography over other imaging modalities.

Gender Dynamics in the OR

study

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Conflict among surgical team members can have real-life consequences in the operating room (OR), and a study published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that gender composition and hierarchies might play a role in team cooperation.

Speed Mentoring

Speed Mentoring

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This is the third post in a new series from #RADxx members who attended AAWR lectures at ACR 2018. Today, author Dr. Kimberly Beavers shares her perspective on the session Speed Mentoring featuring speaker and RADxx co-founder, Dr. Geraldine McGinty.

The American Association for Women Radiologists in conjunction with the American College of Radiology hosted another successful Speed Mentoring session at the 2018 ACR Annual Meeting. The event, in its sophomore year, has grown exponentially both in involvement from leaders as well as interest from residents and fellows. This year’s expanded line up of mentors included a more diverse range of discussion topics. Private practice, as well as academic Radiologists, participated. We had so many dynamic Radiology leaders present to mentor residents and fellows and have only highlighted a few below. A full list of participating mentors is available at the end of this article.

Dr. Geraldine McGinty tackled one of the biggest decision young Radiologists make when entering their careers – academic vs. private practice radiology.

Topics in early career Radiology included an excellent discussion from Dr. Jonathan Flug on how to take the professional leap from trainee to attending. Career development was a very popular topic and residents and fellows had the opportunities to learn expert tips for job interviews from Dr. Frank Lexa and contract negotiation from Dr. Alexander Norbash. For the next stage of his career, Dr. James Brink helped residents and fellows learn how to get promoted.

Radiologists with vast experience in research, such as Drs. Bruce Hillman and Katarzyna Macura, provided invaluable advice on how to get involved in and stay involved in research throughout a successful career in Radiology. Dr. Ruth Carlos also gave specific insights on how to become a reviewer for a radiology journal.

Dr. William Herrington shared his wide breadth of expertise regarding the ACR leadership structure, helping young Radiologists understand the many opportunities for leadership in a diverse number of areas. Regarding leadership development, Dr. Cheri Canon graciously provided her tips on how to be a successful leader. Dr. Carolyn Meltzer addressed the topic of physician burnout while Dr. Susan Ackerman facilitated a discussion on work-life balance. These discussions complemented each other to give residents and fellows the tools they need not only to advance but to also thrive as leaders in the Radiology community.

Dr. David Youmans, Chairman of the Radiology Advocacy Network, discussed the many opportunities available in Radiology advocacy for both residents and fellows. This introduced residents and fellows to the many leadership positions available to advocate for the best care for our patients.

To round out the discussion, Dr. James Rawson paid it forward by offering his expertise on how residents and fellows can become good mentors.

Residents and fellows have the opportunity to be mentors at any stage of training; the time to be a mentor is now! We are greatly appreciative to all of the mentors who participated this year, giving their time to help build the next generation of Radiology leaders.

For a complete list of leaders, please see below. Photos and videos from the event are available on twitter using the hashtags #speedmentoring and #ACR2018.

2018 Speed Mentoring Mentor list

  1. Susan Ackerman, MD — Maintaining Work-Life Balance
  2. Bibb Allen Jr., MD, FACR — Understanding Coding and Billing in a New Practice
  3. Kimberly Applegate, MD, MS, FACR — Making a Career in Radiology Quality Improvement and QA/QI in the Workplace
  4. James Brink, MD, FACR — How to Get Promoted
  5. Cheri Canon, MD, FACR — Success in a Leadership Role
  6. Ruth Carlos, MD, FACR — Becoming a Reviewer for a Radiology Journal
  7. Jonathan Flug, MD, MBA — Taking the Professional Leap From Trainee to Attending
  8. C. Matthew Hawkins, MD — Fostering a Career Focus in Informatics
  9. William Herrington, MD, FACR — Understanding the ACR Leadership Structure and Organized Radiology
  10. Bruce Hillman, MD, FACR – How to Become an Editor of a Peer-Reviewed Journal
  11. Frank Lexa, MD, MBA — Advice for Interviews
  12. Katarzyna J. Macura, MD, PhD, FACR — Writing a Grant and Obtaining Grant Funding
  13. Geraldine McGinty, MD, MBA, FACR — Making the Decision: Academic versus Private Practice
  14. Carolyn Meltzer, MD, FACR – Avoiding Burnout
  15. Alexander Norbash, MD, FACR — Contract Negotiation
  16. Suzanne Palmer, MD — State and Local Practice Leadership
  17. James Rawson, MD, FACR — Becoming a Good Mentor
  18. Kurt Schoppe, MD — What Every Physician Should Know About the RUC
  19. Ezequiel Silva III, MD, FACR — How to Get Involved in Healthcare Economics
  20. Eric Stern, MD, FACR — International Outreach
  21. Nina Terry, MD — TBD
  22. William Thorwarth Jr., MD, FACR — Patient Reported Outcome Measures: Get Ready
  23. David Youmans, MD, FACR — How to Get Involved in Radiology Political Advocacy
Parental/Maternity Leave

Parental/Maternity Leave

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This is the second post in a new series from #RADxx members who attended AAWR lectures at ACR 2018. Today, author Dr. Shannon Kim shares her perspective on the session Maternal/Paternal Leave featuring speaker Dr. Susan Ackerman.

During this year’s AAWR Women’s Caucus, the topic was focused on the discussion of parental/maternity leave. Dr. Susan Ackerman started off the caucus with giving congratulations to the newly induced ACR Fellows. Next, the floor was opened for attendees to share their experiences regarding parental leave at their respective institutions.

Multiple institutions rely on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, which consists of 12 weeks of unpaid leave, which can be used for maternity leave, adoption or foster care placement, care for immediate family members, or for the employee’s own serious health conditions. To qualify for FMLA, the employee must be employed with the company for 12 months, have worked at least 1250 hours during the 12 months prior to FMLA leave, and the employer is one who employs at least 50 employees. Several issues stemmed from the clarification of the FMLA requirements:

  • The requirement for the employer to have at least 50 employees could pose a problem for small radiology groups.

  • Even if you were part time, you still have to meet the minimum threshold for 1250 hours worked within a 12-month period.

  • Adoption is already a huge financial burde and then you’re forced to take unpaid leave.

Although the FMLA is a federal act, it is still for unpaid parental/maternity leave. It was brought up that the United States (U.S.) is one of the very few countries in the world with no paid parental/maternity leave. According to The New York Times in 2013, there were only eight countries without paid maternity leave, including: the U.S., Liberia, and Papua New Guinea.

The discussion then shifted to the importance of working with our governing bodies, including the ACR and the AMA, to develop a consensus statement on parental leave for radiologists (or all physicians). Several medical specialty societies have already followed suit, including the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR):

  • SIR Statement on Parental Leave- “If the IR physician is eligible for FMLA, the physician is encouraged to use the allowed leave. SIR encourages institutions exempt from FMLA to voluntarily allow new parents the opportunity to take unpaid leave consistent with that provided by FMLA if requested. SIR supports maternity leave of no less than 6 weeks for vaginal delivery and no less than 8 weeks for cesarean delivery. In addition, SIR supports paternity leave of no less than 6 weeks. Parental leave should be separate from vacation time and sick leave. Planned and unplanned medical events can keep physicians away from work for extended periods of time. In most practices, it is a courtesy to the ill or injured not to require making up call time missed while recovering. Similarly, physicians on parental leave should not be required to make up missed call time. SIR recognizes the importance of and encourages IR employers to provide paid parental leave. Paid parental leave includes maintenance of full benefits and 100% of pay for at least 6 weeks.” Link to SIR Statement

Further discussion stressed that the overall crux is on the federal government which doesn’t mandate paid leave, so ideally this issue needs to rise up to the level of the AMA.

The active discussion then continued with attendees discussing parental/maternity leave policies at their institutions:

  • Military: Moving towards 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, which was previously 6 weeks. Also, paternity leave is 2 weeks.

  • Small radiology group:Get your call covered during your FMLA time off, but you’re still responsible to make up 100% of your call.

This sparked discussion of the cost to cover the call of a radiologist on parental leave. If the group has to bring in a locums radiologist to cover, where does the cost come from? A valid point was then mentioned—men take more time off later in life due to illness, while women do it early in life due to family/kids, therefore, it should balance out in the end. At UCSD (an example of an academic institution), they write a reserved amount of money in the budget to cover 6 weeks of paid time off.

Everyone agreed that departments/institutions will lose talented women if they do not provide support for parental leave. This may also negatively impact women choosing to pursue a career in radiology. A radiology resident from Vermont, who is currently pregnant, shared that her program provides at least 6 weeks of paid leave (which can be up to 8 wk if needed). She also disclosed that she will choose a job based on how supportive the radiology group/department is.

Someone shared their experience of interviewing for her first job out of fellowship. She did not ask about the parental leave policy because she was focusing on impressing them and was afraid of being looked upon negatively. However, upon reviewing her contract, she did not see anything regarding parental leave. At this point, she asked her potential employers about the policy, and they said that they did not have an official policy regarding parental leave because they did not want to be discriminating.

Multiple people agreed with the fear of the negative stigma of asking about the parental leave policy during interviewing for a job. The floor was asked for input from job interviewers. How often is parental leave asked about? At Emory, they spearhead this issue by informing candidates that they will have the opportunity to speak with HR. The advice was given to future interviewees: Ask your interviewer if there is someone to contact regarding benefits. Then you don’t have to worry about the potential stigma associated with asking directly about parental leave. Also, academic job postings may already have that information included in the online job postings. Next, the head of recruiting at one of the largest radiology groups in the country stressed that radiology practices need to make it a point to talk about the topic straight up. Groups need to already plan for parental leave ahead of time and recruit extra people. Additional experiences were shared:

  • Private Practice in Baltimore (100 radiologists)
    • Parental leave is at least 6 weeks paid time off, up to 90 days (using disability)
    • Part-time partnership track is the same number of years for those who work 75% vs. 100%
  • Resident
    • States that residents can feel discouraged from having kids during their 1st three years of residency because you need to be there for 36 months to be eligible to take the ABR Core Exam in June, so if you take parental leave during that time, you will have to wait until November to take the Core Exam
    • The response included that when exceptions were made early on, residents did not perform well
    • An additional resident (NYU) said that she had her baby as a 1st-year resident and since she was there less than 1 year that she did not qualify for FMLA. She had to use every drop of her vacation time off
  • Private Practice
    • From someone who is the breadwinner of her family, she had the option to get paid up front during maternity leave to care for her family, but then she would have to make up for it later by working without pay.
    • A different private practice radiologist was told she could only use FMLA/disability once. If she wanted to have a 2nd child, she would have to present it to the board to ask what can be done. This policy was stemmed from the fact that 1 of the group’s previous partners had 2 cancers and was felt to have taken advantage of the system.

Someone shared that at her radiology department, there is plenty of parental leave available, but then there is perceived negative stigma of actually using that time. There needs to be a culture change of the view of parental leave. Someone shared the policy from her husband’s job at Citigroup– they mandate that everyone uses their 3 months of parental leave (including both maternity and paternity leave) as an attempt to change the culture. To attract and hold on to talent, groups need to be competitive.

The time to take action is now. What are the next steps/thoughts?

  • A literature review of what other societies are doing (surgeons, pediatrics, etc.)
  • Work with the women’s caucus in the AMA
  • During these initial stages of the development of a consensus statement, need to include the “going back to work part” (including breastfeeding, etc.) and be sure to include trainees
  • New word choice-maybe use “family leave” as opposed to “time off”
  • Contributing to this innovation of the workforce and assisting with the development of a policy statement will help with wellness and burnout in itself
  • Can we work with insurance companies to come up with a product that can cover the employer
    and the employee to help deflect the costs and help to potentially fix the stigma?
  • A call for case studies about positive parental policy experiences at their radiology groups/departments.
    • What policies or programs worked?
      • Example= Childcare at meetings. This is normal at some conferences, but not typically at radiology conferences. Thank you to Dr. McGinty who helped to make childcare available for the ACR meeting this year for the first time in history!

Interested in sharing what policies have worked at your institutions to serve as a case study? Please contact Dr. Katarzyna Macura, MD

Be Fearless...or at Least Appear to Be

Be Fearless…or at Least Appear to Be

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This is the first post in a new series from #RADxx members who attended AAWR lectures at ACR 2018. Today, author Dr. Michelle Dorsey shares her perspective on the session Be Fearless…. or at Least Appear to Be featuring speaker Dr. Cheri Canon.

The title of this talk arose out of a recent conversation Dr. Canon was having with a gentleman at a meeting, who told her that she was absolutely fearless. Dr. Canon felt it was an ironic statement, as she notes that not a day goes by that she doesn’t feel paralyzed with fear. She notes that fear is good, a protective response, but it also has unintended consequences. As leaders, we should not make decisions out of fear. Instead, use fear to guide you.

The feeling of fear is an indicator that something is important and that it means something to you. Frequently, it means that you are afraid to fail. It is important to listen to your body’s responses to situations, and Dr. Canon notes that when she reflects on the times she has made mistakes, it is because she failed to listen to her own internal little voice. Your emotions express yourself in your body and fear is that feeling deep in your belly. You should listen to that feeling so you can manage it. You can’t be truly fearless, because as a leader people follow you, and you make decisions that affect their lives. It is appropriate to have a bit of fear about it as otherwise, it’s just arrogance!

Next, Dr. Canon reflected on what drives fear in her life. For her, budget time is a fearful time as she is managing a department and making financial decisions which will affect people’s livelihoods. She also finds that she gets nervous for her monthly faculty meeting because she cares deeply about the people she will be addressing. She notes that words matter, so we must be careful how we select them. In the past, board meetings also scared her, as she was frequently the only woman in the room as well as the youngest person. She recollected a time when a man commented that he liked having her at the board meetings because he, “loved to see what color your hair is going to be.” She replied, “they now make hair dye that doesn’t interfere with making good decisions.” She notes it is important to be confident and be authentic. Also, being vulnerable and willing to share your mistakes is vital, so that people can relate to you as a real person.

Dr. Canon went on to discuss that being confident changes your physiology. It is good to practice a powerful stance- the superwoman pose– although not in your boss’ office! Studies have shown that hormonal levels change when you assume a power posture, and your testosterone levels increase. These hormonal changes can impact how you conduct yourself. She encouraged us to try it out before our next big meeting.

There are inherent differences that exist between men and women, Dr. Canon remarked. For example, at board meetings, the decisions have frequently already been made before the meeting even starts. Men have pre-meetings, have discussed how they will vote, and know their talking points. Women approach board meetings differently as they prepare and bring data with the hopes that there will be a collective discussion and a group decision. Dr. Canon notes that this is not how board meetings work and instead women should do the pre-work necessary to prepare for the meeting.

Dr. Canon’s advice is to practice empathy, as emotional intelligence is the foundation of good leadership. Empathy is not just being nice but rather taking the time to consider the perspective of the other person. It requires you to pull yourself out of your own thoughts.

Empathy enables you to better understand the impact of your decisions, as well as know where people are coming from, which is critical when you need to convince them of your position. Try to practice empathy every day.

Everything doesn’t have to be perfect, in fact, it will never be, Dr. Canon cautions. We will always fall short and that is the reality. Try to reflect and be insightful about why the project failed. This process should make you feel a bit uncomfortable, as it always stings a bit to examine why it is that you failed. Once you have learned from it, then it is time to move on. Don’t dwell on your mistakes, as there will always be more down the line! If there is a project you are hesitating about or are avoiding confrontation, you need to push yourself forward. It is important to act on something even if you are afraid of making a mistake. Dr. Canon advises that you are not pushing yourself hard enough if you are not making a few mistakes.

Dr. Canon then went on to discuss the differences between introverts and extroverts. She noted that leaders are usually thought of as extroverts but some of the most successful leaders are introverts. She referenced a book by Jim Collins called Good to Great. The book examined companies on the stock market that had a dramatic rise and then sustained that level of success for 15 years. They evaluated the leadership in those companies and found that many were quiet leaders (introverts) yet were very successful. Companies with charismatic, larger-than-life leaders weren’t able to sustain their improvements as those leaders tended to be egocentric, were not interested in a team approach, and just wanted to move forward their agenda. She notes that our current interview processes are flawed, and tend to favor the outgoing, gregarious candidate, but she has seen these types of hiring practices backfire. Attending a one hour webinar on the unconscious bias isn’t going to solve this problem. Introspective, introverted leaders should be recognized and encouraged.

Dr. Canon highlighted the need for mentors and sponsors, with the note that having a sponsor is more impactful than a mentor. Everyone should try to find a sponsor, someone who is willing to put their credibility on the line for you. Women should be sponsors of other women. We need to intentionally pull them up and give back to the next generation of leadership. She encouraged us to think about how you want to craft your legacy-what do you want to be remembered for?

Finding, your passion is the best mitigant against burnout said, Dr. Canon. She was told once that being a Chair is a “series of near-death events.” For her, it has been a process of gaining experience which then gives her perspective that the problems are solvable. You just have to find the right team, be patient, and learn to remain calm. She notes that all things come to an end, both good and bad. You cannot let fear take over. In fact, when you stop feeling afraid, it is usually a bad sign. Fear in other people can manifest as bad behaviors. You should try to connect with other people’s fear, which can allow you to overcome that behavior. But if you can’t quell a bad behavior, then you must promptly act on it as a leader. Do not let bad behavior rule the day.

Dr. Canon concluded that we should embrace our fear. Be strong and power through it.

An interactive discussion followed with highlights below:

  • It is important to build relationships with people outside of work. One way to do the pre-meeting work is by making connections with people. Be authentic in these attempts.
  • Don’t micromanage people! Seek out experience from others, assemble a great team, and appreciate your support staff. Remember to tell your staff thank you.
  • Discussion ensued about how to back out of commitments without disappointing someone. Dr. Canon recommends going through the schedule exercise: look at your schedule and see what events or meetings that you are looking forward to attending. If you are dreading it, then it’s time to get out. You should spend your bandwidth on the things that you love. Everything will fall into place if you do what you love.
  • It was put forward that women do the job first and ask for the title later. Dr. Canon agrees that if you do a good job then the titles will come. But, if the doors are not opening like they should, then it is time for you to be more intentional. See who is on the other side of the door to help you open it. Reach out to them to get their opinion.
  • In a similar vein, it was discussed that women earn their positions (show they can perform in the role before achieving it) while men get their positions on the promise of being able to do well, without actually demonstrating their ability. Dr. Canon noted that she has seen a positive trend that women are asking more and negotiating more, although she is unsure if that relates to the fact that she is a female Chair, which makes women more comfortable with the ask. She notes it is important to take your emotions out of it, know what you are asking for, and present a good case.
  • Imposter syndrome was discussed as another version of fear. It shows you have humility, but you have to power through it and not let it rule your life.
  • Women tend to not reveal things unless specifically asked. Ask!
  • Queen bee syndrome is dying out. In the earlier days, women leaders became self-protective because there was often only one opportunity in an organization for a woman leader, and they had to defend their positions. Now, the behavior is going away.
Roundtable: Does Radiology have a Future in the Connected Hospital?

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

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Amy Patel, a breast radiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and RADxx steering committee member, shares how technology is changing the way radiologists train.

How Can Women Close the ‘Diversity Gap’ in Imaging Informatics?

How Can Women Close the ‘Diversity Gap’ in Imaging Informatics?

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This article shared on DOTmed News discusses how women in the male-dominated field of imaging informatics need to go further than simply mentoring their female co-workers. They should also be their sponsors, putting their names forward for positions and helping to advance their careers.

Parental/Maternity Leave

“Parental/Maternity Leave”- AAWR Women’s Caucus at the ACR Annual Meeting 5/20/18

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During this year’s AAWR Women’s Caucus, the topic was focused on the discussion of parental/maternity leave. This topic stemmed from last year’s discussion of part-time leave. Dr. Susan Ackerman, M.D. started off the caucus with giving congratulations to the newly induced ACR Fellows. Next, the floor was opened for attendees to share their experiences regarding parental leave at their respective institutions.

Multiple institutions rely on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, which consists of 12 weeks of unpaid leave, which can be used for maternity leave, adoption or foster care placement, care for immediate family members, or for the employee’s own serious health conditions. To qualify for FMLA, the employee must be employed with the company for 12 months, have worked at least 1250 hours during the 12 months prior to FMLA leave, and the employer is one who employs at least 50 employees. Several issues stemmed from the clarification of the FMLA requirements:

  • The requirement for the employer to have at least 50 employees could pose a problem for small radiology groups.
  • Even if you were part-time, you still have to meet the minimum threshold for 1250 hours worked within a 12-month period.
  • Adoption is already a huge financial burden, but then you’re forced to take unpaid leave.

Although the FMLA is a federal act, it is still for unpaid parental/maternity leave. It was brought up that the United States (U.S.) is one of the very few countries in the world with no paid parental/maternity leave. According to The New York Times in 2013, there were only eight countries without paid maternity leave, including: the U.S., Liberia, and Papua New Guinea.

Discussion then shifted to the importance of working with our governing bodies, including the ACR and the AMA, with the need to develop a consensus statement on parental leave for radiologists (or all physicians). Several medical specialty societies have already followed suit, including the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR):

  • SIR Statement on Parental Leave- “If the IR physician is eligible for FMLA, the physician is encouraged to use the allowed leave. SIR encourages institutions exempt from FMLA to voluntarily allow new parents the opportunity to take unpaid leave consistent with that provided by FMLA if requested. SIR supports maternity leave of no less than 6 weeks for vaginal delivery and no less than 8 weeks for cesarean delivery. In addition, SIR supports paternity leave of no less than 6 weeks. Parental leave should be separate from vacation time and sick leave. Planned and unplanned medical events can keep physicians away from work for extended periods of time. In most practices, it is a courtesy to the ill or injured not to require making up call time missed while recovering. Similarly, physicians on parental leave should not be required to make up missed call time. SIR recognizes the importance of and encourages IR employers to provide paid parental leave. Paid parental leave includes maintenance of full benefits and 100% of pay for at least 6 weeks” Link to SIR Statement

Further discussion stressed that the overall crux is on the federal government which doesn’t mandate paid leave, so ideally this issue needs to rise up to the level of the AMA.

The active discussion then continued with attendees discussing parental/maternity leave policies at their institutions:

  • Military:
    • Moving towards 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, which was previously 6 weeks. Also, paternity leave is 2 weeks.
  • Small radiology group
    • Get your call covered during your FMLA time off, but you’re still responsible to make up 100% of your call.
    • Making up call used to be as soon as you got back, but this was changed to within 1 year of returning.

This sparked discussion of the cost to cover the call of a radiologist on parental leave. If the group has to bring in a locums radiologist to cover, where does the cost come from? A valid point was then mentioned—men take more time off later in life due to illness, while women do it early in life due to family/kids; therefore, it should balance out in the end. At UCSD (example of academic institution), they write a reserved amount of money in the budget to cover 6 weeks of paid time off.

Everyone agreed that departments/institutions will lose talented women if they do not provide support for parental leave. This may also negatively impact women choosing to pursue a career in radiology. A radiology resident from Vermont, who is currently pregnant, shared that her program provides at least 6 weeks of paid leave (which can be up to 8 wk if needed). She also disclosed that she will choose a job based on how supportive the radiology group/department is.

Someone shared their experience of interviewing for her first job out of fellowship. She did not ask about the parental leave policy because she was focusing on impressing them and was afraid of being looked upon negatively. However, upon reviewing her contract, she did not see anything regarding parental leave. At this point, she asked her potential employers about the policy, and they said that they did not have an official policy regarding parental leave because they did not want to be discriminating.

Multiple people agreed with the fear of negative stigma of asking about the parental leave policy during interviewing for a job. The floor was asked for input from job interviewers. How often is parental leave asked about? At Emory they spearhead this issue by informing candidates that they will have the opportunity to speak with HR. Advice was given to future interviewees: Ask your interviewer if there is someone to contact regarding benefits. Then you don’t have to worry about the potential stigma associated with asking directly about parental leave. Also, academic job postings may already have that information included in the online job postings. Next, the head of recruiting at 1 of the largest radiology groups in the country stressed that radiology practices need to make it a point to talk about the topic straight up. Groups need to already plan for parental leave ahead of time and recruit extra people. Additional experiences were shared:

  • Private Practice in Baltimore (100 radiologists)
    • Parental leave is at least 6 weeks paid time off, up to 90 days (using disability)
    • Part time partnership track is the same number of years for those who work 75% vs. 100%
  • Resident
    • States that residents can feel discouraged from having kids during their 1st three years of residency because you need to be there for 36 months to be eligible to take the ABR Core Exam in June, so if you take parental leave during that time, you will have to wait until November to take the Core Exam.
    • Response included that when exceptions were made early on, residents did not perform well
    • An additional resident (NYU) said that she had her baby as a 1st year resident, and since she was there less than 1 year that she did not qualify for FMLA. She had to use every drop of her vacation time off
  • Private Practice
    • From someone who is the breadwinner of her family, she had the option to get paid up front during maternity leave to care for her family, but then she would have to make up for it later by working without pay.
    • A different private practice radiologist was told she could only use FMLA/disability once. If she wanted to have a 2nd child, she would have to present it to the board to ask what can be done. This policy was stemmed from the fact that 1 of the group’s previous partners had 2 cancers and was felt to have taken advantage of the system.

Someone shared that at her radiology department, there is plenty of parental leave available, but then there is perceived negative stigma of actually using that time. There needs to be a culture change of the view of parental leave. Someone shared the policy from her husband’s job at Citigroup– they mandate that everyone uses their 3 months of parental leave (including both maternity and paternity leave) as an attempt to change the culture. To attract and hold on to talent, groups need to be competitive.

The time to take action is now. What are the next steps/thoughts?

  • Literature review of what other societies are doing (surgeons, pediatrics, etc.)
  • Work with the women’s caucus in the AMA
  • During these initial stages of the development of a consensus statement, need to include the “going back to work part” (including breast feeding, etc.) and be sure to include trainees
  • New word choice-Maybe use “family leave” as opposed to “time off”
    • We need to feel comfortable using it
  • Contributing to this innovation of the workforce and assisting with the development of a policy statement will help with wellness and burnout in itself
  • Can we work with insurance companies to come up with a product that can cover the employer and the employee to help deflect the costs and help to potentially fix the stigma?
  • Call for case studies about positive parental policy experiences at their radiology groups/departments!
    • What policies or programs worked?
      • Example= Child care at meetings. This is normal at some conferences, but not typically at radiology conferences. Thank you to Dr. McGinty who helped to make child care available for the ACR meeting this year for the first time in history!
    • Interested in sharing what policies have worked at your institutions to serve as a case study? Please contact Dr. Katarzyna Macura, MD
SIIM 2018 Recap: Supporting Women in Radiology

SIIM 2018 Recap: Supporting Women in Radiology

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Thank you for joining us to show support for Women in Radiology while at SIIM18. We had over 120 people join us for the event hosted by RADxx and Ambra Health.

 

RADxx Networking Event

Thanks for coming out in full force to our networking event to connect the present and future of RADxx.

Roundtable

The discussion was led by Dr. Amy Kotsenas and Dr. Tessa Cook. The group divided up into tables and each group shared some of the unique struggles they had felt as women in the industry including frequently being the only woman in a meeting, encouraging more young women to enter math and science-based fields, and overall work-life balance.

Following the roundtable session, Dr. Tessa Cook was interviewed by Aunt Minnie.

Watch the full replay below:

Collaboration was a key theme at this year’s show and while collaboration among vendors and technology is critical, there is something to be said for human collaboration as well.

Time and time again, we have seen that when different perspectives come together, ideas are shared that may not have come up previously.

This was the original foundation of #RADxx, a movement started by Ambra Health and Dr. Geraldine McGinty that focuses on networking and mentorship opportunities for leading women in radiology, informatics, and IT management of radiology systems.

We couldn’t continue these initiatives without the support of the community, thank you to all!

-Ambra Health & RADxx

New to RADxx? Here’s how to join the conversation:

  • Monthly Newsletter – Subscribe to connect with fellow RAD women and learn about upcoming events.
  • Join the Community – Connect in on the LinkedIn group or track the Twitter hashtag #RADxx to join the discussion for this dynamic area of healthcare!
  • Resource Library – Check out the latest articles on our blog.