Welcome to Our Voices Our Future, the podcast
where we amplify the voices driving change and
equity within medicine and beyond. Brought to
you by the Gender Equity Task Force, a committee
of the American Medical Women's Association,
we're here to challenge norms, break barriers,
and ignite conversations that matter. I'm Megan
Utzi, and in each episode we'll bring you candid
discussions with leaders, change makers, and
advocates working to create a more inclusive
and just world. No more silence, no more waiting.
You're listening to our voices, our future. Let's
get into it. Today we're welcoming Rhea Manohar,
an incredible friend that I met through AMWA
and a third -year medical student from St. George's
University. Rhea holds a master of public health
with a concentration in maternal and child health
from George Washington University's Milken Institute
of Public Health and a bachelor of science in
microbiology and immunology and another in public
health from the University of Miami. She served
as the Co -Vice President of the OB -GYN Education
Committee for St. George's University Women in
Medicine chapter in Grenada, where she developed
and implemented hands -on workshops focused on
reproductive health and strengthened medical
students' abilities to navigate physician -patient
communication. Prior to medical school, Rhea
worked as a research associate at Forest Marsh
Group, leading qualitative and quantitative public
health research and campaign development for
federal agencies such as the CDC, NIH, DHHS,
and CPSC. Rhea is also a very active member of
our Gender Equity Task Force and the Reproductive
Health Coalition within the American Medical
Association. And when she's not pursuing medicine,
she enjoys reading, exploring her artistic passions,
and spending quality time with friends and family.
Thanks for being here today, Ria. Thanks. So
to start us off, can you share a bit about your
journey into medicine? What kind of inspired
you to pursue this path and how have your experiences
along the way kind of shaped your why? Yeah.
So I think my why has kind of changed over time.
When I was a kid, it was like, I want to be a
doctor. I loved going to the pediatrician, seeing
how the different tools worked, understanding
what was going on with the science as I grew
up. As I moved to college and did undergrad and
then my master's, I think I gained a better understanding
of what medicine was. Specifically at Miami,
I kind of came out of the bubble that I was living
in and I got a better understanding of cultural
inequities and socioeconomic inequities. And
that kind of led me to understand that medicine
is not necessarily in that bubble. that a lot
of people perceive it to be it's not necessarily
just like a person comes into the clinic and
they are affected by like whatever disease that
they're encountering right now. It's not just
strep throat. It is like them becoming a part
of a greater world that affects their medicine.
And to me, That's what I'm interested in at this
point. How does the clinical medicine tie in
with the greater perception of the world with
like socioeconomic issues? That's very deep.
I love that. I actually was just rotating like
last week and one of the residents was like,
you know what, I feel like we need more education
on like socio determinants of health. Like these
things really matter. And you don't really, some
people don't see that until you start practicing
as a doctor, right? You are lucky you have your
background in public health and you've gotten
to kind of explore that. And I think that that's
probably going to make you a better doctor because
you've had this experience and passion within
it. But yeah, they're so like intertwined with
each other. Yeah, specifically like at Miami,
I understood just how little education, both
I had and patients had about different things.
For me, it was always like, I knew nothing about
reproductive health. I came from Tennessee, I
got the very subdued version of health education.
And then for me, it was like, I need to teach
myself, I need other people to learn this. And
then I saw it in clinic, like it's on the clinicians
and a lot of times to teach the patients about
what is going on with them as well as like what
are the opportunities available for them with
their own health. Yeah, absolutely. So kind of
talking about this background that you have in
public health with your MPH focusing on maternal
and child health, how has that public health
foundation kind of influenced the way that you
have approached your medical education and plan
to approach your patient care in the future?
Yeah, I think I kind of just talked about this
a little bit. But I think for me, public health
is now a huge part of my medical education. As
I'm learning about different diseases, like infectious
diseases or even different pathology. you understand
a little bit more about who is getting these
diseases, who is more at risk for these diseases,
and what can we do about that. So for me, public
health is what does this look like in the broader
landscape? What kind of advocacy do these people
need in the future? What kind of educational
resources can we provide? What kind of systemic
issues are affecting why people are getting certain
diseases? I love that. So as a co -VP of your
OB -GYN education committee for the women in
medicine chapter, you developed these workshops
that kind of focus on reproductive health and
communication. Can you kind of share like what
even motivated you to get that position and then
continue the work and what you've kind of learned
from those experiences. And I want to add like,
especially on the island and not in the States,
like somewhere that things are very different
than they are back in the US. Yeah. So for me,
Since about midway through undergrad, OB -GYN
and reproductive health has kind of become a
passion of mine. It really intertwines all those
pieces of medicine and public health that I love,
from advocacy to clinical work and to understanding
those systemic changes. I have a long background
in health education now. It's something that
I'm specifically super passionate about. for
the OB -GYN committee, I realized that a lot
of medical schools, particularly at SGU, we have
these like OSCEs and these different clinical
scenarios in which you're supposed to be understanding
how to talk to patients. But you don't necessarily
get to do that with a lot of like hot. topic
issues and reproductive health is definitely
one of those. Maybe it's because a lot of people
may not have those conversations in their clinical
life. Maybe it's just something that the school
doesn't want to touch on. But it's such an important
thing for people to understand because those
are such personal decisions. So one of the things
that I really championed was kind of an Oski
speed dating situation in which we gave people,
uh, different little like clinical situations.
Um, like if you had somebody coming in for genetic
testing and they were more, they, the genetic
testing showed that their child would be more
at risk for like Down syndrome or PKU. Um, other
situations where like, people coming in for cervical
cancer testing with pap smears. How do you have
those conversations with people? So different
students went around to the different stations
and kind of got to talk through that. And I think
that's something that you don't necessarily get
to do in a medical situation, medical school
situation until you get to much further down
your line. And I think as I've been in clinicals,
I know you're not like to that threshold, yeah,
but I am somebody who has wanted to like seek
out those conversations because it's very true,
like how do you have these conversations with
people? How do you approach it? How do you start
it? Like I want to see this in action by other
people, however understandably it's a very private
conversation and then when you get to clinicals
they're like well we don't really want like med
students staring at this conversation. You know,
like sometimes it's uncomfortable as well. I
know like when I'm in the ED, I try to go whenever
like a trauma comes in and the doctor goes to
update the family. Like I want to go with them
to the family because I want to see how these
interactions happen. I want to be able to form
a great way to have these conversations in the
future. However, it's very true when I rotate
their OB -GYN. This is a very private thing and
I feel like most of the places that we do rotations
at are within like underserved communities where
residents serve as well and those people are
a little more scared because they may be a little
less educated on the subjects and they usually
don't want an audience when these conversations
are happening and so that's so important to be
able to seek out these opportunities where we
have the ability to know how to say these things
because who wants the doctor who's having this
conversation for the first time and who's never
experienced how to have this conversation? No.
And I think reproductive hair specifically is
so unique in that it is shaped by these private
conversations, but these private conversations...
are so multifaceted. It's from like how you believe
either religiously or culturally ties so much
into those conversations, what's going on with
you specifically. So it's like not just the education,
it's also where people are coming from and what
they want to do with their health. Yeah, that's
so important. That's so cool that that's something
you tackled for students. I think that's incredible.
And now to continue on to your active memberships
within the Gender Equity Task Force and the Reproductive
Health Coalition. I have seen your work and I
know you do so much and you're very passionate
about it. So tell us a little bit about the work
that you do with them and how has being a part
of these initiatives kind of shapes your perspective
as a future provider, physician. Yeah. So I think
definitely the work with the gender equity task
force is what I've kind of put my whole heart
into right now. Because before medical school,
I was out of school for a little while and I
was working on public health work and I saw Like
I was working on these public health campaigns
and understand the research and talking to people
about why they believe these things. And we put
out campaigns to help educate people or we'd
put together like CDC documents for doctors to
be like, these are the kinds of conversations
that you want to have. But for me, it only went
so far. Like I love. getting to understand why
people work in certain ways and why we need to
have these conversations. But I also wanted to
be part of those conversations. So I think for
me, being able to work on the gender equity task
force is kind of the beginning of the merging
of those two worlds for me. I get to utilize
that communication and public health and advocacy
aspect of my life. and put it together with the
clinical knowledge that I'm gaining through school.
That's so cool. How full circle, and you get
to see it come together before like practicing,
you know, like you're not even there, but you've
collided you two worlds beautifully and you're
making a difference doing it, right? You're educating
people, you're doing a lot of great work, so
that's super exciting. So with the Gender Equity
Task Force, you've engaged in issues like the
intersection of gender, advocacy, and access
to healthcare. Let's talk a little bit more about
the gender equity efforts and how they influence
medical education and practice. What are some
of the trends you've seen through your work and
misinformation and things that you think have
been big in what you've been tackling and important
issues? Oh gosh, I feel like every time I work
on something for the Gender Equity Task Force,
I'm learning. And that's a really cool place
to be in. One of the main things that I work
on is the Gender Equity Task Force blogs that
we put out with the weekly blogs. The topics
can really be anything. A lot of the ones I work
on are reproductive health focused, but we've
also tackled different topics. Some of them are
tech related. Some of them are communication
related. And every time I sit down to write a
blog, I also have to sit down and educate myself
about what's going on. I think that everybody
doesn't necessarily have the opportunity to sit
down and do that research, but through the gender
equity task force and through these communication
and education initiatives that we're putting
out, it's giving people a little Snapchat of
that research and kind of starting conversations
that maybe were just in people's heads. So for
me, it's really just been interesting to see
how much gender affects how the world works in
different ways. Like I would never have perceived
certain things. And especially as technology
moves on, we were just working on an AI related
one. And I was like, I hear about AI in the greater
space, but what does that mean as we move forward
into a healthcare space? Yeah, I love it. I think
that the work is so important and it's so there
and I I I love the gender equity part of it just
because I think that the world is oblivious to
the fact that there are still gaps. And yeah,
it's been so cool working with you and kind of
getting to educate ourselves. I think in some
respectives, I was oblivious as well. I mean,
there's many facets that there's just so many
places in which I know that there are gaps in
all of our education. And I think that in so
many ways that almost makes us better students
because we have that understanding when we go
into clinical settings of like people don't want
to be misinformed. People are misinformed because
of the educational resources and the conversations
around them. So being able to kind of Be aware
of that bias. I think a lot of people go into
these conversations are like people are just
miseducated. People are just misinformed. But
why are people misinformed? It's not that they're
just putting on blinders for the rest of their
lives. I love that. I think that's a very great
outlook onto things because I think a lot of
times in these more like controversial topics,
people kind of point fingers at each other. But
looking at it from the perspective of people
don't want to be misinformed. It's just something
that happens as a nature of our world we live
in is a great way to look at it. I love I love
that perspective. I think it brings a lot of
grace to the topic of the misinformation and
help shape how you kind of attack those situations
as a future provider. So all this work you've
done, balancing the research, the advocacy, your
medical student and training, it takes a lot
of passion and resilience. How have you kind
of like stayed grounded and found this balance
while pursuing all of these goals that you have?
Um, I think a lot of that comes from before when
I was doing when I was working as well as doing
my MPH I had to learn that balance a different
way like as a full -time student and a full -time
career professional You go to school early in
the morning or you're at school at night and
you still have to put your best foot forward
when it comes to both of your work products,
your school work products, and your work work
products. So it gave me a better understanding
of timeliness. Like how much time does it really
take for me to do these things? And tackling
that in different ways of like I am very tied
to my calendar. I have so many to -do lists at
this point. So understanding like I am okay.
with getting these things done, but it's okay
if I don't get to these other things today. And
giving yourself grace is a lot of it. You won't
be able to do everything every day, but there
are times in which you can focus more on something
and let something else slide a little bit and
then come back to it. And it's not going to be
the end of the world. So can you finally just
give us some advice to other students, especially
women in medicine or men who are advocating for
women in medicine, and how to just get involved
in this advocacy work and who are trying to find
the voice that they want to have within the field?
I think that those voices are constantly evolving
and that there are so many opportunities if you're
willing to seek them out. I think specifically
medical students feel like they can't put their
voice out there or they don't know who to reach
out to. And I think AMWA has been a really great
space for that. You get to connect with other
medical students who are passionate like you
are, and you get to connect with physicians who
are really interested in mentoring and amplifying
the voices. of students or these issues that
you're working on. So I would say as a student,
like find your people, find your space, and there
is always room for you to explore your passions
and advocate and find that niche of medicine
that you're really interested in. You just have
to search it out. Find your people. I love that
so much. Thank you, Ria. Your work is inspiring,
and having this talk with you today has been
great. I appreciate you being with us today.
Of course. So that's a wrap on this episode of
Our Voice is Our Future. We hope today's conversation
inspired you, challenged you, and reminded you
of the power of raising your voice. The fight
for equity doesn't stop here. Join us in the
movement. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts,
and if you love this episode, share it with someone
who needs to hear it. Until next time, stay bold,
stay vocal, and keep the conversation going.
This is Our Voices, Our Future.