Denver Medical Study Group Meeting, March 25, 2021: Women in American Healthcare: Problems and Promise

In this presentation titled, Women in American Healthcare: Problems and Promise, Dr. Patty Gabow will discuss the current and future state of women in healthcare, where we are and where we need to go from here.

Women interact with the healthcare system as both recipients and providers of care. Currently, they do not experience gender equality in either domain. Women bring unique perspectives and skills to society and healthcare. Yet, while women constitute 83% of frontline healthcare workers, they make up only 30% of executives and 13% of healthcare CEO’s. This steep pyramid reflects society’s and healthcare’s failures to create a level playing field for women, and the barriers of bias that women face. But there are examples that times are changing, and we can see more clearly what must be done.

Participants will:

• Gain an appreciation for the barriers that women face in achieving equity and equality in health, healthcare, and leadership.
• Learn the perspective and skills that women bring to the tables of leadership.
• Consider the changing environment and what remains to be done.

About Our Speaker

Dr. Patty Gabow spent her medical career at Denver Health, ultimately as CEO for 20 years, retiring from that position in 2012. She is a professor emerita of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a Master of the American College of Physicians. She has authored over 170 articles and book chapters and two books, including most recently “TIME’S NOW for Women Healthcare Leaders: A Guide for the Journey.”

She was a founding member of the federal Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission and currently serves on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Board of Trustees, and the Lown Institute Board (Chair). She has received numerous awards including NAM Gustav O. Lienhard Award, AMA Nathan Davis Award for Career Public Servant, the AAMC David E. Rogers Award and the NCQA Health Quality Leader.

She is a member of the Manufacturing Excellence Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Social Insurance. She is a graduate of Seton University and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology.

Patty’s hobbies include writing articles and books (more like work), tennis, hiking, cooking (especially Italian food—Governor Hickenlooper once suggested I open a restaurant after an Italian dinner here!) and reading.