Her Vision, Her Voice:  Women who are shaping the future of healthcare

As we close out another extraordinary season—our third—of Hear From Her: The Women in Healthcare Leadership podcast series, we wanted to share some reflections on the inspiring, informative, and heartfelt conversations, and the remarkable women who were our guests. What was apparent throughout all the conversations is that these fearless leaders do not shy away from a tough —never insurmountable! — challenge or doing their part to reshape the future in every corner of women’s healthcare.

(We hope you were one of the 160,000+ visitors on Medscape, or had a chance to tune in on Apple or Spotify, but you can catch up anytime on any of the 9 episodes, or on Seasons 1 and 2, wherever you get your podcasts.)

Season 3 brought together trailblazers from across the globe—Nigeria, Egypt, Asia-Pacific, India, Italy, UK, and the United States. The women shared their uniquely personal stories, challenges, and triumphs as leaders who are paving the way to a better future. The conversations together offered listeners a powerful tapestry of determined female leadership in action.

One particular theme that resonated throughout Season 3 was the need to educate and empower more women around the world about their own health: how to proactively take charge of their health, how to stay healthy, and why it must be a priority. From contraceptive illiteracy in many pockets of America to deep-seated cultural stigmas around illness in Africa, the knowledge gaps run deep.

“Currently in the United States, there is no standardized, comprehensive sex education curriculum in schools, which has led to a startlingly low level of literacy around contraception, especially among those with lower incomes or who live in rural areas,” says Raegan McDonald-Mosley, MD, MPH, and CEO at Power to Decide, in Episode 6, “Intersection of Leadership and Advocacy: Driving Change Together for Women.” “What is fertilization? What is ovulation? A lot of folks never got that baseline understanding of reproductive health.” Add to that the many myths circulating around contraception and you’ve got an area of women’s health “where there’s a lot of work to be done.” 

Across the globe, two oncology and women’s health experts, Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu and Dr. Nermeen Mostafa, describe similar challenges in educating many African women about cancer screening and prevention. Besides the stigma, they say in Episode 1, “The Only Way We Can Go Is Up: Improving Screening and Management of Female Cancers,” there is often a cultural belief that illness is rooted in the supernatural. So women will visit a traditional healer rather than seeking medical care if they get sick.

“How do we make sure women get the care they need if they’re faced with a cancer diagnosis? It starts with childhood education,” says Shinkafi-Bagudu. “The more we’re able to educate our girls, the more likely they’ll grow into confident and empowered women. Only then will we see better outcomes for cancers.”

We also learned that it's not just women themselves who are ill-informed but often the clinicians who treat them.

“What do I do?” Cathy Nelson-Piercy recalls thinking in Episode 2, “Clinicians' Dilemma: To Treat or Not to Treat Chronic Conditions During Pregnancy,” the top performer of the season.

At the time Nelson-Piercy was working as a medical registrar (similar to a medical resident), and she’d be called to treat pregnant women with acute medical problems. “I would be scared,” she says. “I thought, ‘this woman's pregnant, and I don't know what to do.’ I was struck by my own ignorance, and fear. The reason is, there’s a big evidence gap, and gaping hole of practice, for pregnant women with chronic or acute medical conditions.”

Because clinical trials typically exclude women who are pregnant, data on the safety and efficacy of taking medications to treat both acute and chronic medical conditions during pregnancy is scarce. This not only leaves women with little information but also leaves clinicians in the dark when it comes to advising their pregnant patients. 

“We need to protect women through research, not from research,” says Marie Teil, Global Head of the Women of Childbearing Age Program at UCB Biopharma, our other guest on the episode. At this point changing the paradigm is an ethical matter. “There is no other patient population where we treat patients without data.” We need to move beyond a risk-averse mindset. And, say both leaders, it must be a collaborative effort among pharma, scientific societies, and clinicians.

Getting accurate information out to clinicians and their patients is essential when it comes to vaccination and infectious disease prevention. In the current climate of vaccine skepticism, the spread of misinformation and myths about vaccination is proving as dangerous as the outbreaks across the United States, undermining public health messaging and leading to deaths from infectious diseases that we know how to prevent, say two leaders in immunization, Kelly Moore, President and CEO of Immunize.org, and Piyali Mukherjee, Vice President of Medical Affairs at Moderna Asia Pacific. 

The United States has reported 1288 measles cases this year — the highest number in 33 years, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Episode 4, titled “Vaccines Are the Most Impactful Innovation in Health Equity,” Mukherjee shares her firsthand experience working in a small clinic in southern India about the power of immunization to save lives. In that part of the world, she says, “a flu infection isn’t just 2 days in bed, it's about daily wage workers not being able to work, so there's no food for their children. This is where I witnessed the power of vaccination.” And where her passion for preventive medicine was born.

At Immunize.org we’re “doubling down on our mission of supporting clinicians with evidence-based information and resources,” says Moore. “We realize that healthcare professionals may have fewer options about where to get that kind of educational support now than they have in the past. We want to make sure they can count on us.”

Recently, when vaccine information was temporarily taken off the CDC website, immunize.org “put out a notice that we have all the vaccine information statements and their translations on our website,” says Moore. She and her colleagues saw website traffic double that day. “We wanted to make sure that clinicians could get the information they needed when it wasn't available from the CDC,” she says.

Several episodes this season were educational in a different way, with the promise of a brighter future in several areas of disease prevention. One of those areas is reversing vision loss for people with retinal degenerative diseases.

In Episode 8, “Restoring Vision and Offering Hope for Patients With Retina Disorders,” our guests were Usha Chakravarthy, Professor of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Sulagna Bhattacharya, CEO and co-founder of Nanoscope Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies to cure genetic diseases that cause vision impairment and blindness.

Their excitement about developments that are happening right now was palpable. “We are on the cusp of a major milestone in retinal degenerative diseases, moving beyond just slowing down vision loss to actually restoring sight,” says Bhattacharya. She grew up watching a family member experience the devastation of vision loss, and how it left him disconnected from the world. That experience, she says, was the catalyst for her mission to cure blindness.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” says Chakravarthy, who is recognized internationally for research into the molecular mechanisms of AMD and diabetic retinopathy. “What once sounded like science fiction is now taking place in clinical trials.”

While living forever remains science fiction (at least for the moment), how we age is up to us, say longevity medicine pioneers Sandra Kaufmann, MD, creator and author of The Kaufmann Protocol, and Charlene DeHaven, MD, FACEP, Clinical Director at Innovative Skincare. In Episode 9, “Redefining Aging: A Scientific Conversation on Longevity Medicine,” Kaufmann and DeHaven talk about the decades of rigorous scientific research behind “cellular dysfunction,” or why your cells and organs age on a molecular level, and how we can take steps to slow that down.

“It’s pure science,” Kaufmann says.

The two share their expertise on how modern science is reshaping what’s possible for aging and health. From practical lifestyle changes to high-tech biohacks, they say, it’s within our power to live healthier for longer.

Our final episode of the season featured a one-on-one conversation with Shikha Jain, MD, FACP, founder and chair of the Women in Medicine Summit, now in its seventh year. It was the perfect cap to a season focused on knowledge and empowerment, as Jain founded the WIM conference as a community where women from all medical disciplines could come together for support, networking, leadership training, and strategies for work-life balance—all the things they don’t teach you in med school, she says.

This year’s conference will take place September 18 – 20 at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.

As the leading destination for continuing professional development, with both CME/CE courses as well as non- accredited activities for physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, Medscape Education is proud to host these insightful conversations with our amazing guests who bring their world of knowledge to the rest of the world.

And we are honored by the recognition we’ve received for our podcast — including winning Gold in the AVA Digital Awards in both 2024 and 2025.

We were also proud to feature as guests on Episode 7 two of our very own leaders — Eliza Reshefsky, Director of Strategic Partnerships, and Sara Thorpe, Director, Clinical Strategy. Both women have been at the forefront of Medscape’s “Innovations in Women's Health Coalition,” which unites leaders from key healthcare organizations who are committed to addressing critical gaps in women’s health. The coalition’s mission is to enhance educational training and resources for healthcare professionals across all medical specialties to help drive meaningful change.

Despite tremendous strides in medicine, women still face a number of barriers when it comes to staying healthy, says Reshefsky, who set up the founding member network. What are some of those key barriers? If you haven’t already, check out “Redefining Women’s Health: Shifting the Focus and Changing the Future,” to find out, and learn more about the IWHC.

As with the Coalition, our podcast series brings together healthcare leaders who envision a future where all women have equal access to quality healthcare and opportunities for optimal health and wellbeing. All of our guests in Season 3 are as passionate as we are about closing the gaps in women’s healthcare and ensuring that both clinicians and patients have the education they need to ensure the best patient outcomes.

If this series has taught us anything, it’s that sharing knowledge along with insight has the power to transform lives and spark innovation. By exchanging ideas, experiences, and information, we empower others, strengthen communities, and create opportunities for collective growth.

Join us for Season 4, coming this October, as we continue to spotlight the women leading the change in healthcare around the world. 

If you haven't already listened, catch up on Season 1 and 2 here: 

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