Human First, Physician Second: Creating Meaningful Connection

As an introvert, socializing in real life, especially with multiple people at a time, drains my energy. Yet, I enjoy them. Human beings are not meant to live in solitude. I am so grateful for the opportunity to connect with other amazing women in the Women In Medicine Summit, organized by Dr. Shikha Jain. I do my best to go to conferences like this at least once a year. Why? The power of connection is more than I can imagine.

Since the pandemic, most of us have experienced some degree of isolation. Virtual meetings are not the same as real-life encounters. When you are with someone, you can sense their energy – they can sense yours too. You get the full experience of non-verbal connection.

When we gather for a common cause, such as in this summit I attended, our voices are amplified as a group. We get to empower one another to speak up. Besides the obvious fact that the healthcare system is way overdue for an overhaul, there are other issues in medicine, such as the gender gap in how patients are cared for – women patients are more frequently dismissed of their presenting symptoms to anxiety or exaggeration, for example. There is the gender gap of compensation – over lifetime, women physicians earn two million dollars less than male physicians. While women make up more than 70% of the healthcare workforce, only about 25% are in senior leadership roles. These are just some of the issues we tackled.

It is important to realize that healthcare is best in collaboration and not competition. I would say this is true for other professions too. When it is about collaboration, the focus is on serving rather than winning your competition. It is for the greater good. When you are in a room with other people with a common goal, collectively you are more creative. You come up with more ideas and you are more willing to share those ideas. When you identify a problem, you figure out a constructive way to get to the solutions. That is the power of connection and collective thinking.

It does not have to be winning on one side and losing on the other side. Collaboration brings about win-win situations. In medicine, that means the patients win and the clinicians win. I think that is the best of both worlds. Happier physicians serve patients better because medicine is more than just treating the diagnoses; it is about creating meaningful relationships with trust, kindness and compassion.

The power of in-person connection is evident in the deep networking you can create. Once you meet that person in real life, the know-like-and-trust factor increases significantly. Think of the last time you meet someone for the first time in person. You talk to them, get to know them, the next thing you know, you are introducing them to someone, or referring someone to that person.

When we get together, there is this invisible yet palpable bond. We are connected not just physically but emotionally. There is that “vibe”, as my children like to call it, we share in the room. Human connection is empowering. We get together to address problems and come up with solutions. We lift one another up by more connection, by collaboration, by the power of knowledge. Together, we advance healthcare. Together, we create a patient-centered service model while taking care of the healthcare workers.