The commitment By Michelle Clark, Vanessa Lisséus–Wright, and Hirschel D. McGinnis, MD Behold the “unicorn” practice A
s children, most of us encountered the phenomenon of unicorns, an elusive creature that blends
the normal with the extraordinary. Unicorns have become a symbol adopted by royalty, religions and organizations to signify boldness, strength, pride, hope and healing. They may be mythical but, even in our modern age, unicorns of a sort may still be glimpsed. In interventional radiology, where there are high disparities of representation among women (8.2%) and underrepresented minorities (1.8%), there are some “unicorn” practices where representation far exceeds the norm.2,3
Breaking gender barriers Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), the world’s oldest and largest private cancer center and a leader in cancer treatment and research, is also spearheading female representation. With an IR department of 22 physician providers, five of whom are women (23%), MSKCC has a female workforce that surpasses the national average.
Anne M. Covey, MD, FSIR, an attending at MSKCC, joined in 2000 and was surprised to find that the IR department was already rich in talented female IR providers. “It was really remarkable,” she says. Upon her arrival, there were four members of the IR department, three of whom were women including the chair of the department. When asked about whether this played into her decision to join, she says, “In retrospect I’d like to say it was a conscious decision. It probably did play into my decision, but I don’t think I was aware of it. I liked and felt comfortable with the group.”
Female-dominated and -led spaces are often subjected to stereotypes and assumptions, however. For example, when a woman exhibits a behavior
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“It’s well accepted by the entire staff that the women in the group are equally in a position of power and hold the same respect that men do.”
that is explicitly dominant, it may negatively impact both her “likeability” and “hireability.”1
According to Dr.
Covey, Karen T. Brown, MD, FSIR, former attending at MSKCC and current chief of IR at the University of Utah School of Medicine, paved the way for future colleagues by defeating such prejudices at this practice. “She shouldered a lot of the negative associations with a woman in power and it made it much easier for the rest of us,” says Dr. Covey.
According to Amy R. Deipolyi, MD, an IR at MSKCC, her female colleagues were “such amazing doctors that those prejudices were all defeated. They
already broke the glass ceiling, so I didn’t have one to break.”
Transcending these attitudes has enabled MSKCC to embody a sense of inclusion. “It’s well accepted by the entire staff that the women in the group are equally in a position of power and hold the same respect that men do,” says Dr. Covey.
Unicorn practices are not magically perfect, though. Like many other disciplines, even the MSKCC team is challenged in integrating and supporting providers with young families. “I think we have a lot of work to do,” says Dr. Covey. “Isabel G. Newton, MD, PhD,
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