The American Medical Association recognizes September as Women in Medicine Month, honoring the significant contributions of women to the field of health care. 

Throughout the month, the Department of Medicine will feature Q&As with a handful of our own women physicians across a variety of specialties and at different stages in their careers.

Erin Lowery, MD, MS, associate professor, Allergy, Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine, is a transplant pulmonologist and director of the UW Health Lung Transplant program.

How has being a woman shaped your career in medicine?

My first recollection of gender impacting my career came during my white coat ceremony, where I was a proud member of the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine class of 2004, the first to consist of 50% female students. I was fortunate during residency and fellowship to also experience what felt like equal numbers of male and female colleagues.

However, in pulmonary and critical care (PCC) medicine, women do not comprise an equal share. As recently as 2020, little over one third of PCC fellows are women, with about one third of PCC attendings being female. Therefore, in academics for PCC medicine, there are fewer female role models, mentors and sponsors. But this did not deter or shape my career, as my clinical and research mentors—both male and female—were very supportive of my career path.

Transplant pulmonology was appealing to me as a physician given the longitudinal nature of care through the transplant process. While there are no data about specific physician gender disparities in the field of lung transplant, women remain in the minority. Looking for comparable data from liver transplant, only 32% of transplant hepatologists are women. Of the 243 liver transplant centers, 13% had a woman in a leadership role as part of their program. And, as a transplant pulmonologist, I work daily with thoracic and cardiothoracic surgeons—fields with even greater gender disparities.

There is much work to do, and women physicians realize the importance of networking and sponsorship particularly in fields where we are underrepresented.

This led me, along with four other women leaders in lung transplant, to start Women Inspired Lung Transplant Doctors, a network of female lung transplant physicians. The goal is to provide a forum for mentorship and sponsorship, and to pursue more representation of women at the podium at national conferences and in published works in the field.

Who have been your greatest personal and/or professional mentors as women in medicine, and why?

My greatest personal and professional mentor was Dr. Elizabeth Kovacs. She is a PhD researcher and immunologist focused on the pulmonary innate immune system and responses to various different factors such as aging, burn, and alcohol use. Dr. Kovacs took me under her wing and mentored me on research and on life, emphasizing personal connection, networking and navigating the research infrastructure.

I am fortunate to have amazing role models and mentors who are medical directors in lung transplant including, Dr. Marie Budev from Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Maria Crespo at University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Erika Lease at University of Washington in Seattle.

At the University of Wisconsin (UW), Dr. Maryl Johnson is a giant in the transplant field having served as president of UNOS (The United Network of Organ Sharing), President of the ISHLT (International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation) and President of AST (American Society of Transplantation). She is a guiding force, mentor, and demonstrates how national involvement can influence policy and one’s career.

Finally, one reason I chose to relocate to UW was the Department of Medicine Chair, Dr. Lynn Schnapp—a female physician, researcher, role model and fellow woman in pulmonary and critical care medicine.

As the medical director of the UW Health Lung Transplant program, have you seen gender play a role in pre/post lung transplantation care? If so, how – and are you involved in any research on this that you can share?

In transplantation, there are notable gender disparities that have been pointed out in the literature. There are more men identified and/or diagnosed with advanced lung disease. Whether this is due to a male predominance in those with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) or whether there are disparities in diagnosing lung disease in women, there are fewer women than men added to the lung transplant waitlist.

I was involved in a small project looking at data from UNOS and waitlist factors for men and women that we presented at the American Transplant Congress in June. We found that despite female lung transplant candidates having lower lung function and similar oxygen requirements compared to males, their lung allocation (priority) scores were lower, median waitlist times were almost twice as long and female candidates had significantly higher waitlist mortality.

We plan to continue this work to evaluate whether the new allocation system in lung transplant, adopted in March 2023, improved these noted disparities.

Overall, there is still much work to be done.

Responses have been lightly edited for length.

Photo credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine.