GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: Why are there so few women doctors in Japan? Now we know

domingo, 19 de agosto de 2018

BioEdge: Why are there so few women doctors in Japan? Now we know

BioEdge: Why are there so few women doctors in Japan? Now we know

Bioedge

Why are there so few women doctors in Japan? Now we know

by Michael Cook | 17 Aug 2018 |

More deep bows of apology and expressions of profound regret in Japan – this time at Tokyo Medical University, where officials have admitted that they had been systematically altering the test scores of women applicants to favour men. An internal investigation has revealed that TMU administrators lowered the scores of all female applicants because they feared that they would leave the profession when they had children.

The investigation was originally opened after a government official offered a TMU academic preferential treatment for a research grant in return for his son’s admission. It turns out that TMU also raised the scores of other applicants in order to secure donations from their parents.

Many doctors had suspected that such shenanigans were responsible for the low ratio of women entering medicine. The ratio of women who pass the national medical exam has remained at around 30% for nearly 20 years. The scandal at TMU has strengthened the suspicions that other medical schools are discriminating unfairly against women.

“If you go abroad, 50% of doctors are women, and there are many female professors (at medical schools),” Kyoko Tanebe, an obstetrician, told the Japan Times. “That always made me question the state of Japan, where we rarely see a woman in the professor’s seat.”

“Instead of worrying about women quitting jobs, they should do more to create an environment where women can keep working,” Yoshiko Maeda, the head of the Japan Medical Women’s Association, wrote on the Association’s Facebook page. “And we need working-style reform, which is not just to prevent overwork deaths but to create a workplace where everyone can perform to the best of their ability regardless of gender.”

Saturday, August 18, 2018

It’s not an original thought, but with every amazing technological advance comes an unheard-of and very dangerous drawback. Smashing the atom gave us nuclear power and the atom bomb. The automobile gave us hitherto unimaginable mobility and tens of thousands of deaths on the road. The Pill gave women control over their fertility and led to birth rates so low that some countries are in danger of disappearing.

And the mobile phone? Where do we start? This week, with selfies. They give Millennials a buzz, but according to cosmetic surgeons, they also can lead to a psychological disorder which has been dubbed “Snapchat Dysmorphia”. Young women (mostly) are so used to altering their images with apps that they demand the same service from cosmetic surgeons.

“This is an alarming trend because those filtered selfies often present an unattainable look and are blurring the line of reality and fantasy for these patients,” report the authors of an article in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.

It would take a sharper mind than mine to define the problem, but our relationship with technology is problematic. We don’t foresee the problems and we can’t control our dependence. Since so much of contemporary bioethics revolves around the proper use of technology, this is something we always have to bear in mind.