Strategies for Recognizing and Eliminating Gender Bias for Healthcare Leaders

Women in healthcare leadership, both physicians and non-physicians, continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles and have a more difficult time advancing their careers than their male counterparts.

This book explores the phenomenon and reasons behind the lack of women in healthcare leadership roles and offers practical strategies for addressing this gender leadership inequity. The historical, social, and policy origins are identified within the context of unconscious biases, with solutions built upon examining the archetypal stories underneath these biases, including those of several contemporary healthcare leaders.

Gender imbalanced leadership teams in healthcare perpetuate policies and cultures that are not conducive to equal opportunities, which is contributing to high turnover and attrition among women professionals in an industry that is 85% female worldwide. Irrespective of one's gender, healthcare leaders can learn to identify the barriers and reframe solutions based upon these fresh narratives.

Most policy and healthcare industry explorations of these issues do not explore the rich scholarly work of gender bias at the cultural level. As a bonus, this book also has a vast bibliography and reference component that can serve as an excellent source for those seeking deeper exploration of the issues the book addresses.

Grace E. Terrell, MD, MMM, CPE, FACP, FACPE, is a national thought leader in healthcare innovation and delivery system reform, and a serial entrepreneur in population health outcomes driven through patient care model design, clinical and information integration, and value-based payment models. She is also a practicing general internist. She is chief product officer of IKS Health, an international healthcare company designing simple solutions for the complex problems in healthcare. She has served as CEO of several companies, including Eventus WholeHealth, LLC, a company focused on providing holistic care to medically vulnerable adults, and Cornerstone Healthcare, one of the first medical groups to make the "move to value" by lowering the cost of care and improving its quality for the sickest, most vulnerable patients. She is the founding CEO of CHESS, a population health management company, and the former CEO of Envision Genomics, a company focused on the integration of precision medicine technology into population health frameworks for patients with rare and undiagnosed diseases.Terrell has served as vice chair of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee, the chair of the board of the AMGA, is a founding member of the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Center, the co-author of Value-Based Care and Payment Models and Reframing Contemporary Physician Leadership: We Started as Heroes.She is currently executive in residence at Duke University School of Medicine's MMCi Program, a member of the board of trustees for Guilford College, and a senior advisor for Oliver Wyman management consulting firm.