On the evening of Tuesday, July 29, the "Women in Radiology" group had the pleasure of listening to Gretchen Purcell Jackson, MD, PhD, FACS speak on the topic of "Work/Life Balance."
The Vanderbilt Women in Radiology initiative was established in January 2015 to promote career advancement of female clinical and research faculty and nurse practitioners within the Department of Radiology. The co-directors, Dr. Stephanie Spottswood and Dr. Lucy Spalluto, designed and are implementing a structured faculty development program consisting of multiple educational modules, supported by regular meetings, educational seminars with expert speakers, and mentorship sessions. The purpose is to develop knowledgeable, successful, resilient women as measured by retention, promotion and movement into leadership positions.
One of Dr. Jackson’s “ take-home” points was to have realistic expectations for one’s career and life plans, with frequent re-evaluation of one’s values, goals and priorities -- especially when there are big life changes, such as marriage, child-bearing, or significant job changes.
Dr. Jackson is a tenured Associate Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics, and Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Jackson is a board-certified general and pediatric surgeon and an internationally recognized informatician with over 20 years of contributions to surgical science, informatics research, and innovations in health information technologies.
She earned her Ph.D. in Medical Informatics at Stanford University in 1997, and she held informatics faculty and leadership positions at three universities during her surgical residency and fellowship. Her doctoral thesis proposed electronic representations for scientific articles to facilitate search in the medical literature. During the early phases of Internet adoption, her expertise guided professional societies such as the American College of Physicians, and journals, such as Annals of Internal Medicine, as these organizations developed web-based medical content. Dr. Jackson's current research is focused on empowering patients and families through health information technologies. She is the research director of the My Health at Vanderbilt patient portal, and her work explores the use of and disparities created by such technologies. The Agency for Health Research and Policy awarded Dr. Jackson a $1.5 million grant to study of the information needs of pregnant women and their caregivers to inform the design of health information technologies.
