Every 3- 4 months, on a given Sunday, women physicians of Indian origin put aside their busy work schedules of practice and surgery, family obligations and the like, and meet under the umbrella of the women’s forum of IMANE ( Indian Medical Association of New England) to interact and discuss issues of common interest.

 IMANE's Women's Forum was relaunched last year under the leadership of Dr Manorama Mathur, Dr. Mohani Malhotra, and Dr. Prema Ramdev. Women physicians from diverse specialties across the New England region met and presented their ideas at a meeting hosted at the home of Dr. Bhanu Gandhi. Drs. Manju Sheth & Deepa Jhaveri were nominated as Co-Chairs. Some of the ideas presented for the forum included helping with social causes related to women and developing a support system, partnering with local organizations for mutual benefit, fundraising, networking with other women physicians, promoting Indian culture, and empowering women to be achievers.

 To achieve this, the group has the following objectives when they meet:

-to look out and interact for their professional and social issues,

--to look into the social and medical issues of our community and implement ways to be of assistance,

-- Involvement, amongst themselves and with the leaders of other like organizations for an efficient delivery of their message and help,

 Dr Mohani Malhotra, who served as a reservist in the U S Army medical core as a radiologist, for over 12 years and retired as Lt Col is the moderator of the forum." As the moderator for the group, along with the two co chairs, I help formulate the agenda; and then it’s my job to steer the ship and keep it sailing smoothly during our meetings, so everyone stays focused and the process progresses in an orderly and professional manner”.

Dr Manju Sheth, an internist from Lynnfield and affiliated with Northeast Health systems brings her cheery enthusiasm to the forum. She admits that it has been a remarkable success. ‘Women Doctors are so thrilled to see each other sometimes after a break of 3 months and have a lot to share so we do often get carried away”. A typical afternoon lasts 3 hours at the home of one of the physicians in the group who plays host.  Chai, chat and networking happens for 30 minutes followed by introduction of the team, agenda & speaker of the day. This is followed by a Q&A session for an hour and a round table discussion for 30-45 minutes moderated by Mohani and a wrap up by Dr Deepa Jhaveri. On the turnout, Manju says “In fact we are swamped with demands to meet more often & are seriously thinking of doing more meetings from next year”.

Dr Deepa Jhaveri, a podiatrist adds.”I love the energy and positive feel that we've created and hope to make it grow.  Furthermore, I hope to make this forum a niche for women physicians to be able to get together and discuss social, professional and ethical issues while being able to network in a warm environment”.

The next meeting to be held on November 8^th will present speaker Sonal Pandya, a plastic surgeon at Lahey on the topic of Non surgical Procedures in Plastic surgery. Other topics in the past have been on exercise and nutrition, preventive health care, and anti aging methods.

To get involved or know more contact the co chairs Dr Manju Sheth &Dr Deepa Jhaveri at iwfmd@yahoo.com.

|