Did you know September is Women in Medicine Month? The American Medical Association created this observance to highlight the accomplishments of women physicians and honor those who support advancing women with careers in medicine. Digestive Disease Week^® (DDW) is proud to bring awareness to and help advance gender equity in medicine.

“Gastroenterology has the widest breadth of any field. We are at the bedside, doing procedures, in the lab and teaching. Women are doing all of these things — and we have the opportunity to be leaders in all of these roles.” – Rotonya Carr, MD, DDW 2022 speaker

Appreciated being given the opportunity at #DDW2022 to highlight the importance of mentoring women in medicine. ~18% women in adult GI & ~42% women in peds GI. Note the numbers on this slide. #WomenInMedicine #GITwitter pic.twitter.com/1kFdT6NnBY

— Maria Oliva-Hemker, MD (@molivahemker) May 24, 2022

In honor of Women in Medicine Month, learn more about some of our impressive female speakers at DDW 2022. If you attended DDW, you can view recordings of their sessions through our virtual platform.

Rotonya Carr, MD

Dr. Carr discussed the status of women in GI as part of the Gastroenterology Women’s Coalition (GWC) Symposium. She discussed her own career path and highlighted literature on how various factors impact the role of women in gastroenterology. “I want to challenge some of the assumptions about why women are successful,” she said. “It’s not a straightforward answer. Women can have all the things that we say they need to be successful, but there are still gaps. There is no exact equation for success.” Read more.

Jun Sun, PhD, MS, AGAF

Dr. Sun currently serves as the AGA Institute Council Microbiome & Microbial Therapy (MMT) section chair and co-chair of the AGA Institute Council Basic Science Subcommittee. Her presentation, “Aberrant Enteric Neuromuscular System and Dysbiosis in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,” covered the impact of the microbiome in patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). View her session recording.

Anne Marie Lennon, M.B.B.Ch., PhD

Dr. Lennon gave a presentation about how novel molecular techniques provide a promising method to help distinguish which cysts are malignant or at risk of progression. Dr. Lennon is a certified gastroenterologist whose interests include patients with pancreatic cysts, pancreatic cancer or precancerous lesions and the role of endoscopic ultrasound. View her session recording.

Shanthi Srinivasan, MD, AGAF

Dr. Srinivasan is the co-editor of Gastro Hep Advances, AGA’s newest peer-reviewed journal, as well as the AGA Institute Council Neurogastroenterology & Motility (NGM) section vice chair. She spoke about how to best prepare manuscripts to get accepted in Gastro Hep Advances. Watch the session here. She also presented “Gut Microbiota as Biomarkers for Diagnosing and Monitoring Functional GI Disorders,” on how gut microbial composition and function can be used to detect functional GI disorders. Watch now.