Women in medicine are trailblazers, leading the way in developing opportunities for young female students and physicians in a historically male dominated profession. We see women advocates and leaders who continue to help bring diversity and equality to the workforce.
Learn more about how these nine AMA members are moving medicine by using their platforms as female physician leaders to be powerful advocates for women’s health.
Ami Shah, MD
Dr. Shah is a board-certified radiologist and director of mammography and women’s imaging at New York City Health and Hospitals. Born to a middle-class family in Mumbai, India, Dr. Shah frequently heard about the obstetrician who delivered her and her sister. The woman had started a clinic in Mumbai where she delivered babies safely regardless of a mother’s ability to pay. As Dr. Shah admired and respected this obstetrician, it showed her that she wanted to protect women and children and champion their right to health and well-being.
Rashmi Kudesia, MD
As a reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Kudesia bears daily witness to how lacking the health infrastructure is in allowing women to understand their reproductive health, take appropriate steps to preserve their fertility or pursue infertility treatment, and be as healthy as possible during those processes and pregnancy itself. Dr. Kudesia is an advocate for reproductive empowerment, which is women receiving empathetic, patient-centered health care that gives them the knowledge they need to make informed choices about their bodies.
Joanna T. Bisgrove, MD
Now a family physician in Wisconsin, Dr. Bisgrove had originally wanted to be a doctor for deaf and hard-of-hearing patients. However, she found herself caring for patients with a wide range of disabilities, as well as advocating for women’s health and health care for other disadvantaged groups. As a hard-of-hearing physician, Dr. Bisgrove continues to break boundaries and advocate for a country where there are no barriers for persons with disabilities anywhere.
Kimberly Chernoby, MD, JD
As an attorney and an emergency physician, Dr. Chernoby focuses her advocacy efforts on legislative and regulatory barriers that interfere with patients’ access to care. One of her favorite aspects of work is caring for young women. She provides women with information about their health and well-being, which allows them to make informed decisions that can positively impact other areas of their life.
Kavita Shah Arora, MD
Girl scouts were taught to always leave a camp site better than it was when they arrived. Medicine is Dr. Arora’s way of making the world a better place—one patient at a time. As an ob-gyn in Cleveland, she values the amount of trust her patients have placed in her hands, heart and judgement—whether it is to deliver their newborn baby, as they go to sleep on the operating room table, or in the clinic to keep them healthy.
Nicole L. Plenty, MD
While she initially wanted to be an attorney, Dr. Plenty’s interest in medicine and research heightened after her cousin passed away from complications of pregnancy. She is now an ob-gyn and maternal-fetal medicine physician in Indianapolis. Dr. Plenty is also an alternate delegate for the AMA Women Physicians Section (AMA-WPS) which allows her to continue to advocate for policies related to improvement in women’s health issues and working daily to decrease maternal mortality and morbidity.
Anna Yap, MD
Dr. Yap, an emergency medicine resident, and a member-at-large of the AMA Resident and Fellow Section Governing Council, has worked on quite a few policies that the AMA has adopted. She also continues to educate students, residents and physicians about issues that they might not have enough exposure to. These issues include implicit bias, LGBTQIA and minority issues, and women’s health.
Tani Malhotra, MD
What inspired Dr. Malhotra to pursue a career in medicine was her desire to make a difference and contribute to the betterment of the lives of others. She is now a maternal-fetal medicine fellow in Cleveland, which allows her to advocate for, and empower, women through her relationships with them as a physician to help improve their health.
Lynda G. Kabbash, MD
A past chair of the AMA-WPS Governing Council, Dr. Kabbash worked to adopt policies to address issues such as women’s health. As an allergist-immunologist in Boston, she also works to improve empathy and reduce burnout among women physicians and other medical professionals.
This September, the AMA is marking Women in Medicine Month by celebrating trailblazers, advocates and leaders. Learn more about recent AMA advocacy efforts to address issues such as women’s health, medical research, and pregnancy and childbirth.
