Dr. Akanksha Mehta
speaker
40 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard Jan 2025
Dr. Akanksha Mehta’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
see what else is happening in the national landscape, how other programs do things better or worse, what they can learn from other trainees, and to build some of these relationships very early on. We have been talking about how we got to know some of the greats in urology after having been in practice.
Well, wouldn't it be nice to have known a great in urology as a co-resident or a co-medical student? Totally different flavor. So I think it's a tremendous space for fostering those kinds of relationships.
You know, I think the key, for me at least, has been, as I was trying to figure out my own mid-career piece, was the direction that you want your career to grow in. And you don't realize how many possible directions there are until I think you get into your mid-career phase because you are so focused in your early career phase on building your practice,
If you're at an academic center, perhaps building your academic credentials, or if you're in private practice, maybe building your referral base. But once you hit that mid-career stride, then you start to look for something beyond just clinical medicine. And some of it is all about, you know, what gives you purpose. But even...
Whether you wish to stay in academia or wish to stay in the private practice setting, there are many ways to help your career grow. For me, what was most helpful was conversations with other women who were doing lots of different things in urology. You know, maybe they were chairs, but chairs.
Maybe they were CMOs, or maybe they were really intentional about their service roles in organizations like the AUA or other subspecialty societies. And there are pros and cons to all of that. You cannot possibly do it all, so you have to pick and choose. But it gives you a flavor of offering, so to speak. And I think Simone made a really good point about allyship.
The network that I have created within SWU has also extended to people outside of SWU, including the men in urology. And I have found that I've built relationships with people I would otherwise, again, never have crossed paths with, whether we taught a course together or were nominated to be on some committee together or participated in some kind of like joint AUA level course. think together.
And they have become, you know, a sounding board for some of my concerns. Again, somebody outside of my immediate sphere who is very neutral. Those are people that I have received some of the best advice from. And for that, I'm really thankful.
I remember that session. I actually remember thinking, gosh, this is a great talk because you could apply it to any path, not just chair, but maybe you want to be section president or maybe you want to have a leadership role at the school of medicine or the hospital that you work at. Similar process, right? Lots of preparation that goes into it, some unknown, some uncomfortable prep process.
but has to be done.
Yeah, I mean, related to what I was saying earlier, I think the needs of the incoming generation of urologists are going to be different than what they were for us. I hope, you know, I hope that they will not be fighting some of the same battles that women were fighting as urologists. 20, 30 years ago, even 10 years ago. So that will be wonderful to see that they have less to worry about.
I think it will open up the space for, yeah, some innovation, some creativity, and probably setting the stage for organized urology in a continue to play a huge role with state society, I mean, state societies, regional urology organizations, and AUA at the national level, I would hope that this organization just becomes an integral part of organized urology in all those different spheres.
Yeah, first of all, I just want to make it very clear for all of the listeners that this is not an exclusionary society. You know, this society was born out of a need to support women who were in the field of urology because it was a small minority, but it was not set up with the intent to exclude others. We do have male members of our society, which is great.
And I think attendance of male urologists at our meeting, particularly the AUA, based SWOO meeting has grown tremendously over the past few years. Part of it is because the content is appealing, but part of it is also because as an organization, we have deliberately reached out to invite our colleagues, our allies, those urologists with whom we feel already a sense of camaraderie and support.
And I think as the word gets out that A cadre of individuals is going to continue to grow. So much of the work that comes out of our professional organization is applicable to women, but also to the urology community at large. I mean, we have done, our task force have focused on like census work and working with industry and how do you attract the best and the brightest people.
talent, residents in urology, how do you make sure you reduce bias? I mean, these are not things that are relevant just to women or minority groups in urology. They're relevant to all of urology. So I think seeing the importance of some of the causes that we have embraced is going to be the key to get more people involved.
I don't think as a society we could have flourished as much as we have if we didn't have support from our male colleagues. So I think that support has always been there, perhaps a little bit behind the scenes, but we would love to see more of it at the forefront as well.
I remember Paulina Ray Blatt giving a talk where she told us to plant mint. And to this day, every time I pick mint in my backyard, I remember that meeting.
All right.
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