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Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
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14 Oct, 14 tweets, 7 min read
This 👇🏿👇🏼👇🏾

Women in medicine have choices on how to consume attention and airtime. If women wish to be counter sexist stereotypes that depict us as petty, maybe the causes we care about and invest the most time and attention in should reflect well on our priorities and values.
Outrage is easy to manufacture. Is the level of outrage matched to the issue?

As some have tweeted, don’t like a company? Don’t buy their products. The market will take care of @wearfigs whose advertising ridicules both women & DOs. Ridiculing customers is a bad business move.
The market is not a factor that will address these issues. With most physicians employed, other clinicians also employed, penetration of Wall St & PE into healthcare, and evidence of higher mortality rates for Black and minoritized populations, many things to be outraged over
Are you paying attention? You are an “asset” to be “liquified” when someone buys your hospital and residency program, mismanages it of just gives up on a 170 year legacy and sells you.

blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/t…
Maybe if you had any understanding of the systems you are a part of

you would get how our willingness to treat humans like objects can be extended to you

But sure, let’s have outrage if a black trainee smiles too much or over TikTok and scrub ads. 🙄

npr.org/templates/stor…
What I am spelling out is if justice and social justice are not good enough reasons to care or educate yourself - which is evident from people’s priorities - then do so out of pure self-centeredness

this affects you too

exploitative systems affect all

nytimes.com/2019/06/08/opi…
The “ok boomer” will miss out on this kind of wisdom from decades of experience

Who are you getting your advice from? Especially if you are listening to people trained in marketing they will focus on manufacturing social media outrage

Systems matter

medscape.com/viewarticle/92…
Which part of your social media campaign is fixing this? >215K dead now & 300K dead predicted by Dec

I get it
when you feel powerless:
pick a petty issue, manufacture outrage, score a “win”

But let’s use our resources wisely when we are in a pandemic.

cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspecti…
We are right before an election. What should you focusing your social media on? What are you doing to make a difference in who chooses the next set of Supreme Court Justices & fills the federal bench? Think about who has control over your legal choices

nytimes.com/2020/03/14/us/…
Just one example why the courts matter

How much do you understand any of the systems you live in and how much control they have over you, your rights, your speech, your body?

Compared that to one ad

What are your priorities?

thehill.com/homenews/state…
Are you okay with the threat to IVF?

Are you okay with taking away choices from families experiencing infertility?

With products and companies, just choose not to buy it.

With your health choices, the law and who is elected/appointed can take away your choices themselves.
Women get hired/rewarded for policing others and punishing for poor compliance and some of us pick up that mantle when it is not needed.

Be strategic instead. Those who complain about the glass ceiling may not be demonstrating strategic leadership.

law.com/corpcounsel/20…
Advice on how to communicate in a way to identify/brand yourself as a “strategic” thinker and leader

“Effectively link your idea to strategic outcomes and value drivers.”

forbes.com/sites/forbesco…
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More from @usnehal

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
14 Oct
Hear, hear

As a confident WOC willing to enter male dominated, non-diverse spaces (women >20% of my class & rare in tech)

I hear from men and women:
I take up too much space, I talk too much, etc, etc.

If invited 6x to podcasts in 2019, is that "too much"?
Who decides?
In the marketplace of ideas, lack of women o BIPOC in a space, what is the metric of too much/little? A recent thread on leadership coaching specific to #WIM: importance of having manners if one wants a seat at the table

How about results as the metric?
nehalgroup.com/news
I'm successful as an advocate, having been a Health Advocate of the Year in 2012 by @Drsforamerica in 2012. Part of being an advocate is bringing issues to the forefront that may not be the priority of decision makers. One communicates on it (albeit, at times, relentlessly) ImageImageImageImage
Read 14 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
13 Oct
I know some doctors like to say “don’t confuse your google search with my degree” -personally, given errors made by peer review, from Wakefield to #MedBikini (cyberstalking = scholarship?), I don’t consider a patient’s Google search something to ridicule news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-lif…
In fact, I prefer to “Don’t confuse...”

“...your ivory tower ignorance...”
or “...your PhD in leadership....”

“....with my actual experience”

like of being a CMO of a $100m 14-Center FQHC in neighborhoods where a Black woman is 12x more likely to die of maternal mortality
I am not interested in how many books you have read or written or leadership programs you started at non-diverse institutions

until you show me you have done the work & have immersed yourself in the settings you study...

..with TRUE partnership and humility, not just photo ops
Read 5 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
12 Oct
Absolutely true @askdrstephanie - in fact, I have seen that seeking fairness, accountability, accuracy can even result in a vicious backlash if the other person is will be willing to manipulate a narrative and play the victim to distract from harm to others or exploitation.
Anyone who talks about "optics" or "reputation" or deletes a lot of things is already signaling they care about image, popularity, and what others think. That often is a barrier to ethics, fairness, accountability, or accuracy. We can't solve messy problems by being prissy.
That's honestly why I am so glad I am moving out of #MedTwitter spaces and the actual hospital spaces represented by them into #STEM and #hackathon spaces. Instead of judging people and gossip, roll up your sleeves and get 💩 done, whether with high school students or retirees.
Read 4 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Oct
Please start to do this. If you find something not factual, take the time to highlight, cross out, write notes on the image. We are highly visual creatures and the red X will communicate much better than your facts or words.

Make the “wrong” or “not factual” a clear visual.
Further, think of unintended consequences. Will what you put out there take a life if its own?

I have seen too many of those paid to instruct #STEM professionals on #SciComm & #MedTwitter professionalism

fail to understand this aspect of #SciComm - how will others repurpose?
How often in re-sharing a conspiracy theory post are you merely driving traffic to that site or person? It is a numbers game. In your “OMG look at this!!!!” are you contributing to this?

Please stay away from those who share a new “look how bad” example

sciencemag.org/news/2018/03/f…
Read 11 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Oct
This is the second time in 24 hours the focus has been in being polite from within #WIM #PROWD

Traits I value:
visionary, innovative
being accurate
humanism
pro-mental health

Polite is a subjective term, often means aligning w/ status quo. Polite people quietly avoid bullies.
Yes, @KamalaHarris is able to smile through her debates and adhere to expected gender norms and avoid any hint of the racist trope of “angry” as a Black woman. But is that really what makes her qualified? Or is it a career worth of experience as well as times she persisted?
What are our priorities? In a busy world, we will only have a chance to achieve 3-5 max. If we put polite and being on time in those top 3-5, where does addressing safety, quality, inequity, mental health fall? Are we judging someone on timeliness who may have chronic illness?
Read 30 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
10 Oct
Absolutely. Sound even so the “don’t talk to her, DM me instead.” Also, plenty of men gossip or encourage women to gossip and spread gossip to achieve an agenda or neutralize someone.
Typos in above.. oops. But you get the drift.

Isolating people, preventing communication with someone, moving communication to dark spaces, DM conversations about others ..are all red flags for bullying.

oncentral.org/news/2012/09/1…
Bullies often flip the narrative and play victim which makes it hard to assess

Step back. Look at actions

Who is using gossip and isolation? Who is shining sunlight and being direct?

Who escalates emotions each time they are shown to be inconsistent?

journey.support/2019/09/07/bul…
Read 5 tweets

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