DoctHERS Highlights Women’s Health and Media Impact

“If there’s a skill that you develop in medicine, it’s the ability to communicate and the ability to communicate very difficult, sometimes very painful, sometimes very uncomfortable or embarrassing information,” she said.

That message was shared with an enthusiastic audience of Jacobs School students, residents, faculty, alumni and other health care providers and community members who attended the Oct. 10 evening event celebrating women in medicine.

UB DoctHERS comprises a network of women physicians, scientists, faculty, health care professionals, residents and students who address current issues in the medical and scientific fields in order to foster advancement, mentorship and equal opportunities for future generations of women in medicine and science.

In addition to participating in informal gatherings, attendees listened to presentations and Moore’s keynote discussion titled “Women Healing the Nation: Making an Impact in Health Care and the Media.”

Moore is a physician and prominent advocate for and educator of women’s health, known for delivering relatable, direct commentary and advice. She is founder and president of the health communications and consulting firm Sapphire Women’s Health Group LLC and hosts the podcast “In the Ladies’ Room with Dr. Donnica.” 

She has appeared more than 850 times as a guest and contributor on programs such as “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” In 2020, Moore was awarded a SUNY Honorary Degree. 

While welcoming the audience, Lauren M. Kuwik, MD ’08, chair of UB DoctHERS, outlined the night’s events and highlighted the importance of the topics discussed. “Tonight, our focus is on women’s health issues and how the media and we, as health care professionals and advocates, can drive meaningful change,” she said.

DoctHERS has also served as a platform to connect students seeking faculty mentors and sponsorship for research and educational projects. Before the keynote discussion, third-year medical student Nitya Murali shared preliminary outcomes of a recent UB family medicine study looking at the efficacy of doula support in a multicultural and underserved population.

Second-year medical student and UB DoctHERS co-president Caleigh Loughran discussed her work in addiction medicine and interest in pursuing a project optimizing care for pregnant individuals who are also experiencing a substance use disorder.

Both students are seeking sponsorship and networking opportunities to expand their research and interests.

While addressing the audience, Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School, thanked the DoctHERS organizers and underscored how DoctHERS strengthens the Jacobs School’s commitment to women’s health. “This is a visionary program,” she said. “It really sets forth the importance of women’s leadership and focus on women’s health here at the Jacobs School.”

She also remarked on the urgency of addressing maternal mortality.

“Sadly, nationwide we’re faced with a crisis about high maternal mortality, especially among women of color,” she said, noting that the statistics are profoundly troubling for Erie County.  Yet, she said how inspiring it was to see so many young leaders in attendance focused on maternal health.  

Before introducing Moore, Sarah L. Berga, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, shared recent highlights from her department. “We’ve started the first family planning division for UB, and I know a lot of the medical students are participating," she noted. “We’ve also expanded our maternal-fetal medicine specialists, a very important group for us, from one to four.”

The department’s faculty has further grown and continues to accrue grant funding, she added, including support for emerging research on the fourth trimester, the postpartum period during which diabetes, depression and other maternal health issues can intensify. 

Sitting across from Moore in the M&T Auditorium, Berga moderated the discussion and asked Moore about her own journey in medicine, thoughts on media misinformation, and challenges facing women’s health, among other topics.

Moore recalls being a college student at Princeton University in the 1970s and being drawn to medicine. At that time, “there were no women gynecologists in New Jersey,” she said. In fact, women physicians on the whole were rare.

When she soon after traveled to an American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) conference, she was taken aback by being suddenly surrounded by women physicians. “It was a room about this size, and there were 400 women physicians," she recalled. “I had never met a woman doctor; I had never seen one on TV.”

Over time, Moore was able to connect with many women physicians and mentors who shaped her career. As a medical student at UB, she helped launch an AMWA student chapter before earning her MD in 1986.

While there are comparatively more women doctors today than in the 1970s, the understanding of women’s health still must be broadened. “Sometimes people think of women and women’s health as a niche population.” Moore said. “I have to remind everybody that we’re the majority of the population.”

Moore also stressed that women’s health implies much more than reproductive care. “It’s really important to remind people that women’s health is not a euphemism for reproductive health.” Further, women’s health is hardly just the responsibility of obstetricians and gynecologists. “It is the responsibility of every single physician regardless of what your field is,” she said.

But advancing understanding of women’s health has been hampered by the current media landscape and spread of misinformation. “When people hear medical information, especially misinformation, on television, they think or assume that it’s true,” Moore said.

Yet there are ample opportunities to address this misinformation. “Social media means that every single one of you has your own Oprah show. Every single one of you has your own sphere of influence,” Moore said.

Even with contentious and politically charged health topics like abortion and vaccination, Moore reminded attendees of their obligation to set the record straight when hearing falsehoods. “You have a moral and medical obligation to correct that,” she said. “You can be nice about it, but you can just say, ‘Actually, I’m a doctor,’ or ‘I’m a medical student, and that’s not true.’”

In terms of the maternal mortality crisis, Moore described the many factors behind it, such as hypertensive disorders, diabetes, obesity and other comorbidities. Recently, COVID-19 also increased maternal mortality rates.

Addressing mortality rate causes can tie into addressing misinformation. It’s also key to improve health care access, which Moore said is the overall biggest challenge to women’s health.

Women in rural communities, for example, often struggle to get to faraway hospitals capable of labor and delivery care. She noted too that simply getting an appointment with a gynecologist can take six months, an unacceptably long time.

Despite the fraught U.S. health care system, Moore advised attendees to “change what you can change.” Find special patient populations to assist, medical students to mentor, and new ways to confront women’s health issues, she encouraged. “That’s the beauty of being a physician,” she said. “You really can make a difference.”

The UB DoctHERS symposium is made possible by funds from the Medical Alumni Association, faculty and alumni donors.