Dr. Akanksha Mehta
Appearances
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
It's an interesting question because, you know, I think it's sort of a catch-22. You don't realize what's important until you get into that. role and you realize what you're missing. You know, so Simone and I probably both trained at the time when there were even fewer women residents in urology.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And it was sort of a prize commodity having one or two in your program that you could relate to or who understood the struggles you were going through. And now there are so many more, which is wonderful to see. I think when applicants are applying into urology, they may not quite
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
fully grasp the value of having a program that has a strong representation in terms of women residents or even women faculty, but it does make a difference. And having a forum for residents through SWOO really helps bolster how important that is because sometimes residents will end up at a program, you know, not realizing that they're entering a program where there are very few women colleagues.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And Sewell provides them with a space that they can really pursue all of those questions, concerns, projects, queries that they would have otherwise been able to pursue within their program. But even for those trainees who have strong women representation at their program, I think this is an outlet to them.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
see what else is happening in the national landscape, how other programs do things better or worse, what they can learn from other trainees, and to build some of these relationships very early on. We have been talking about how we got to know some of the greats in urology after having been in practice.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
Well, wouldn't it be nice to have known a great in urology as a co-resident or a co-medical student? Totally different flavor. So I think it's a tremendous space for fostering those kinds of relationships.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
You know, I think the key, for me at least, has been, as I was trying to figure out my own mid-career piece, was the direction that you want your career to grow in. And you don't realize how many possible directions there are until I think you get into your mid-career phase because you are so focused in your early career phase on building your practice,
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
If you're at an academic center, perhaps building your academic credentials, or if you're in private practice, maybe building your referral base. But once you hit that mid-career stride, then you start to look for something beyond just clinical medicine. And some of it is all about, you know, what gives you purpose. But even...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
Whether you wish to stay in academia or wish to stay in the private practice setting, there are many ways to help your career grow. For me, what was most helpful was conversations with other women who were doing lots of different things in urology. You know, maybe they were chairs, but chairs.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
Maybe they were CMOs, or maybe they were really intentional about their service roles in organizations like the AUA or other subspecialty societies. And there are pros and cons to all of that. You cannot possibly do it all, so you have to pick and choose. But it gives you a flavor of offering, so to speak. And I think Simone made a really good point about allyship.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
The network that I have created within SWU has also extended to people outside of SWU, including the men in urology. And I have found that I've built relationships with people I would otherwise, again, never have crossed paths with, whether we taught a course together or were nominated to be on some committee together or participated in some kind of like joint AUA level course. think together.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And they have become, you know, a sounding board for some of my concerns. Again, somebody outside of my immediate sphere who is very neutral. Those are people that I have received some of the best advice from. And for that, I'm really thankful.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
I remember that session. I actually remember thinking, gosh, this is a great talk because you could apply it to any path, not just chair, but maybe you want to be section president or maybe you want to have a leadership role at the school of medicine or the hospital that you work at. Similar process, right? Lots of preparation that goes into it, some unknown, some uncomfortable prep process.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
but has to be done.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
Yeah, I mean, related to what I was saying earlier, I think the needs of the incoming generation of urologists are going to be different than what they were for us. I hope, you know, I hope that they will not be fighting some of the same battles that women were fighting as urologists. 20, 30 years ago, even 10 years ago. So that will be wonderful to see that they have less to worry about.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
I think it will open up the space for, yeah, some innovation, some creativity, and probably setting the stage for organized urology in a continue to play a huge role with state society, I mean, state societies, regional urology organizations, and AUA at the national level, I would hope that this organization just becomes an integral part of organized urology in all those different spheres.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
Yeah, first of all, I just want to make it very clear for all of the listeners that this is not an exclusionary society. You know, this society was born out of a need to support women who were in the field of urology because it was a small minority, but it was not set up with the intent to exclude others. We do have male members of our society, which is great.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
I actually got involved with SWOO because I was invited to speak at one of the SWOO meetings. This was the Scottsdale meeting. And I must have been, you know, five or six years into clinical practice at the time. There were very few women faculty at Emory Urology at the time. So I was really looking for broader mentorship in the urology community.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And I think attendance of male urologists at our meeting, particularly the AUA, based SWOO meeting has grown tremendously over the past few years. Part of it is because the content is appealing, but part of it is also because as an organization, we have deliberately reached out to invite our colleagues, our allies, those urologists with whom we feel already a sense of camaraderie and support.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And I think as the word gets out that A cadre of individuals is going to continue to grow. So much of the work that comes out of our professional organization is applicable to women, but also to the urology community at large. I mean, we have done, our task force have focused on like census work and working with industry and how do you attract the best and the brightest people.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
talent, residents in urology, how do you make sure you reduce bias? I mean, these are not things that are relevant just to women or minority groups in urology. They're relevant to all of urology. So I think seeing the importance of some of the causes that we have embraced is going to be the key to get more people involved.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
I don't think as a society we could have flourished as much as we have if we didn't have support from our male colleagues. So I think that support has always been there, perhaps a little bit behind the scenes, but we would love to see more of it at the forefront as well.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
I didn't know very much about this organization at all other than the fact that it existed. And it ended up being such a fantastic meeting, completely different from any other urologic meeting that I had ever attended. There was so much camaraderie. There was so much support. There was urology, of course, but there was so much more than just urology.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
I remember Paulina Ray Blatt giving a talk where she told us to plant mint. And to this day, every time I pick mint in my backyard, I remember that meeting.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
All right.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
Social media and PR by Chi Dang. Administrative support provided by Jean-Louis Kinebrew.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And they happened to announce at the meeting that there was a position open on the board. I spoke with some of the board members about what that is. entailed and ended up applying and joining the board. And it's been a fantastic ride. I mean, the board has changed so much. The organization has changed so much during my time on the board. All for the better.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And that, I think, has been the secret sauce to why this organization has been growing exponentially and attracting more and more members from really the full kind of career trajectory of urology, from medical students to residents, but also women who are in practice, early practice for sure, but also mid-career and late career. You know, we're really trying to draw in everybody.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
I think that women urology as a community is growing and SWU is growing as an organization in parallel with that. So it's been really, really wonderful to see that change.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
Yeah, my answer would be very similar. You know, I think the success of an organization like SWOO has come from the fact that it has changed a lot since its inception. And the mission and the flavor of the meetings has also changed. The early meetings and probably this is the reason why many of us didn't know about this organization, were focused on, you know, urology as a clinical practice.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And they were themed in the sense that there would be an endourology or a female urology or a infertility sexual medicine focus to the program. And there were tremendous, you know, female urology speakers at those meetings who practiced in that subspecialty. But the flavor of the meetings has changed to focus more on career development.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And that's really what the membership wanted and needed and wasn't getting at the other professional society meetings. We are all members of the AUA or whatever other subspecialty organization that we belong to. And We fill our tank in terms of that subspecialty knowledge at those meetings.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
But what we don't get anywhere else is the networking and the career development and the ability to reach out to somebody who has succeeded in an aspect of their career to ask, how did you do it? And what were the pitfalls? And how could you help me get there too? And that's a void that this society fills that no other subspecialty fills for all of us.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
And that, I think, has been the secret sauce to why this organization has been growing exponentially and attracting more and more members from really the full kind of career trajectory of urology, from medical students to residents, but also women who are in practice, early practice for sure, but also mid-career and late career. We're really trying to draw in
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
everybody and have a space where people feel that they have a role, you know, either as a mentor or a mentee or both.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
What we don't get anywhere else is the networking and the career development and the ability to reach out to somebody who has succeeded in an aspect of their career to ask, how did you do it? And what were the pitfalls? And how could you help me get there too? And that's a void that this society fills that no other subspecialty fills for all of us.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
I would echo everything Simone says. And I think as the footprint of the organization has grown, it has become a powerful voice at the national level and on the national scene to advance some of the issues that are important to women urologists. You for AUA-related advocacy issues.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
We have a presence at the AUA national meeting, whether it comes to courses or content programming or providing input into what the meeting schedule should look like and what topics should be part of the focus of each annual program. I mean, that's tremendous. I think
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
That was not always the case, but I see great value in the partnership that the AUA has looked at with our organization, as well as with the other subspecialty societies who started maintaining a speaker database a few years ago. And initially, before the word got out, it was used pretty sporadically. And now I feel like we have a request for the speaker database
BackTable Urology
Ep. 211 Mentorship and Growth Through the Society of Women in Urology with Dr. Simone Thavaseelan and Dr. Akanksha Mehta
Every month, if not more than once every month. So it does get our membership out there as potential speakers, as really leaders in their field, which is, of course, one of the missions of our organization. And I think we do it well.