Charged: Stories from the Women Leading Health Care

When Dr. Yolonda Colson passed her thoracic surgery boards in the early 2000s, just over 100 women had joined the field ahead of her, and she was the only woman in her department in her first attending role. But over the course of her career, she’s watched the number of women in the field grow steadily. Now, as the chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Mass General, Dr. Colson recognizes the value of diversity in the field. Dr. Colson talks about how she’s improving care for lung cancer patients, her career path and the important role that fostering community, seizing opportunities and breaking down perceived barriers have played along the way. 

As a practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Jacqueline Olds has spent decades working with patients of all ages and life stages, helping them through life’s challenges. And while no two people are the same, Dr. Olds has identified one common theme among her patients—loneliness. And while that feeling may not be permanent, it can have a serious impact on our lives.  

Over the past 25 years, she and her psychiatrist husband, Dr. Richard Schwartz, have worked to bring loneliness out of the closet and help all of us build stronger, long-lasting relationships. She discusses ways to combat loneliness, the importance of building positive, supportive relationships, both romantic and platonic, and elements that help a relationship last. 

As the opioid epidemic has increased in severity, so has the number of patients diagnosed with cancer who are also facing substance use disorders. As a radiation oncologist specializing in brain tumors, Dr. Helen Shih is accustomed to treating patients with very serious prognoses. However, her experience treating two young patients with brain tumors who were also facing addictions tied to opioid use, shifted her perspective on this work and inspired her to learn more about the challenges for these patients. In this episode, Dr. Shih discusses how these patients motivated her to think more about specialized care for patients with this dual diagnosis. 

Most of us know from experience that a good night’s sleep can make all the difference in our health and well being. Tips and props to improve sleep have been promoted more and more in recent years. Despite all the attention that sleep gets these days, the biology of sleep and its function is still not well understood. Sleep researcher Dr. Richa Saxena is working to change that by studying all of the genetic information that makes up a person. Her team has identified dozens of genes related to sleep and their connections to other health problems like cancer, psychiatric disorders and diabetes. Dr. Saxena discusses her research and how she hopes it will change our relationship with sleep. 

Physicians put in a tremendous amount of work into providing quality care for their patients, but sometimes the challenges that physicians face go unnoticed. Many physicians experience burnout, which leaves them feeling stress, exhaustion and less enjoyment in their work. More women than men report feelings of burnout. In this episode, we hope to spark discussion about the challenges that the women at Mass General face. 

Happy New Year from the Charged team at Mass General!  

In honor of the new year, we’ve asked some of our past and future guests about their resolutions for 2020. We hope this inspires you as you think about your own plans for the new year.  

In the United States, one out of eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime which, for many patients, can be a devastating thought. In the past two decades, treatment for breast cancer has come a long way, and Dr. Barbara Smith has been at the forefront of the movement of improving care for patients as well as being a pioneer in nipple-sparring mastectomies. 

In this episode, find out how Dr. Smith broke the mold to give new hope and better outcomes to breast cancer patients.

Since 1990, the number of people in Massachusetts experiencing homelessness has more than doubled. One of the medical barriers to patients who experience homelessness is the lack of dermatological care. In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Tan discusses the dermatological challenges that someone facing homelessness may experience and her work with Boston’s Healthcare for the Homeless program to make this care available. 

The holidays can be stressful, not matter what. But if you or a loved one is facing a serious illness, this time of year can be even more difficult. Our team has been thinking a lot about an episode from our first season with Dr. Vicki Jackson, a palliative care specialist at Mass General. Her work focuses on helping her patients live well, no matter their diagnosis or circumstances, and this advice can be especially helpful in the midst of holiday stress.  As we head into Thanksgiving, we are re-sharing this episode. Happy Thanksgiving from the Charged team at Mass General in Boston!  

Pregnant women have historically been excluded from clinical research due to an abundance of caution for the safety of them and their babies. But consequently, these women are often left out of medical advances. Endocrinologist Dr. Camille Powe is passionate about changing that for women with maternal diabetes. In this episode, she discusses her work to better understand diabetes and pregnancy, as well as how she hopes to develop more personalized treatments for these patients.