World View

Our Ig Nobel Prize-winning smart toilet research confronts societal taboos and uses humour as a gateway to advance serious dialogue about health technology. It is a call to action to embrace innovation, foster richer scientific discussions and support pioneering research for tangible health advancements.

Novel technologies that target the gastrointestinal tract could revolutionize diagnosis and therapy of digestive and other disorders. Development of these technologies requires multi-disciplinary teams that include clinicians, engineers, policymakers, bioethicists and patients.

Despite the paucity of women in endoscopy holding leadership roles, inroads are being made as more female endoscopists are promoted within this exciting field in gastroenterology. There are many benefits from increasing diversity in the workplace, including boosting morale, minimizing gender bias, providing role models and improving patient outcomes.

Advances in hepatitis B management are still not reaching most of the affected community. A major barrier to this translation is stigma. Research and clinical communities have a responsibility to mitigate stigma and ensure that the voices of the affected community are considered in decision-making conversations.

The transition from postdoc to PI is one filled with excitement, anticipation and empowerment, with moments of self-doubt and imposter syndrome thrown in for good measure. Relatively few postdocs successfully cross this chasm, making it even more important to nurture those who do.

There has been little or no formal training for clinical trial methodology for clinicians. Coupled with the growing complexities of randomized controlled trials, a focus on training is needed to develop the next cadre of clinician trialists.

Interfacing with the medical community as a gay South Asian physician, mother and patient lends itself challenges, but also a unique perspective that can change the heteronormative culture of medicine.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has disrupted research and restricted travel, threatening valuable research opportunities for early-career researchers. Support networks are critical to help overcome the challenges of relocation during this time.

Transition from a Fellow to an Attending can be challenging; these challenges can be amplified for women, especially at a new institution. Here are lessons I learnt that might help others with improving this transition.

Think of which expression you use: ‘cirrhotic patient’ or ‘a patient with cirrhosis’. Nurses will pick ‘a patient with cirrhosis’ because their training enables an intuitive understanding of the patient as a person — more emphasis on the person is needed.

Being a patient–scientist offers a unique perspective into the daily challenges of living with a disease, the quest to find a cure, and the need to expand the breadth of patient education.

Physician–scientists are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between practising clinicians and biomedical scientists, but many challenges threaten this career path.

Being the first woman to serve as the president of the World Gastroenterology Organisation gives me the opportunity to reflect on the place of women in gastroenterology and enables me to assess both how far we have come and the scale of the tasks still facing us.

The cost of being a woman in a procedural medical field is hefty in academia, and when amplified by being Black, the cost can be incredible to bear.