Fellows Fellows’ Corner

Second year fellow, Gayathri Krishnan, MD, creates online platform for women professionals in the field of Infectious Diseases

Women in Infectious Diseases (WIID) is created for women professionals in ID to collaborate, promote, support, advocate, embrace, encourage and nurture each other and to celebrate all the amazing work being done by women in the field of Infectious Diseases. Our motto in WIID is “for women, with women, by women in ID”.

According to AAMC, 39.7% of active ID physicians in USA in 2015 were women. This calculation does not include the vast number of other women professionals in ID such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, ID pharmacists, public health professionals, researchers, ID epidemiologists, and Infection Preventionists. Providers in Infectious Diseases worked tirelessly over the last 12 months to provide high quality care to patients with COVID-19 and other infections associated with it. Many studies have reported that working women have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Issues such as burn out, mental health, racial and socioeconomic disparities, gender bias, and childcare responsibilities are just a tip of the iceberg. The gravity of the challenges facing women in ID has not been adequately acknowledged.  By creating Women in Infectious Disease (WIID), the goal is to focus on all women professionals in ID, beyond each institution and country, and reach out to those who do not have other networks to rely on for support, mentorship, education, amplification, celebration, and queries. This all-inclusive group will comprise women professionals in ID in a wide range of healthcare roles, stages of training and spheres of clinical practice and research across the globe.

Dr. Krishnan invites all women in the division to join our Facebook group; all women and allies to follow us on twitter; and everyone to share this information with their colleagues in ID around the world.

Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook and support this vision.