Magnificent Seven: Female leaders in healthcare you need to know todayMagnificent Seven: Female leaders in healthcare you need to know today

Today on International Women’s Day 2020, we reveal seven exceptional female professionals achieving great things in healthcare around the world:

Reenita Das

Reenita Das, Partner and SVP, Transformational Health, Frost & Sullivan, was recently named in the Top 100 Women in Wearable and Consumer Tech by Women of Wearables. She founded GLOW (Growth, Innovation and Leadership of Women) at Frost & Sullivan after becoming the first woman partner in the company. She explained: “Gender diversity is a big issue today. I realised that I had to do something for the billions of women who have not been heard yet."

Dr Sana Farid

Dr Sana Farid is the co-founder of Munfarid, an enterprise that strives to uplift society through VR. She has amassed valuable experience working with VR and immersive technology. She is also co-President of the MENA chapter of the VR/AR Association, which brings together innovators from around the world to collaborate on the development of immersive technology.

Dr Maliha Hashmi Dr Maliha Hashmi

Dr Maliha Hashmi

Where to begin? Dr Hashmi (image, right) is a NEOM executive, a recent speaker at Medlab Middle East 2020, and one of five global experts selected by the WEF to share their vision of life in 2030. She also received her Doctor of Law & Jurisprudence Degree from Harvard Law School, her Master’s degree in History of Medicine & Ethics from Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and concentration in Healthcare System Design Management from MIT Sloan. She was named one of the Top 20 College Women in the US, making it into the Who's Who ln America list. A notable female leader in Saudi Arabia, Dr Hashmi advocates women empowerment in the GCC region.

Dr Maryam Matar

Dr Maryam Matar is a genetic scientist, which is impressive enough, but she is also Founder and Chairperson of the UAEGDA, established with the aim of increasing awareness programmes in order to prevent the occurrence of common genetic disorders in the UAE and throughout the region. In 2014 she was selected among the Twenty Most Influential Women in Science in the Islamic World.

Dana Al Mazrouei

Emirati artist Dana Al Mazrouei was recently commissioned by the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) in London to create a unique art installation for The Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children. The centre promises to bring together pioneering research and world-leading clinical care to drive new tests, treatments and cures for children with rare and complex diseases.

Nancy Steenbakkers

Nancy Steenbakkers, founder and CEO of UltraZonic in Belgium, was a nurse for 20 years and used to assist in the operating theatre. Responsible for the cleaning of surgical instruments, she spotted an opportunity, explaining "It is very hard to clean these instruments. I was observing a lot of hospitals and noticed the same issues and problems across the world, when it comes to patient safety and ensuring the medical instruments are cleaned properly." UltraZonic is now a three-year-old business and their main focus is precleaning. That's what we call a problem solver!

Dr Emily Stein

After her grandmother suffered a stroke due to poor oral hygiene, Dr. Emily Stein, CEO of Primal Health, decided to take the matter into her own hands. Armed with her microbiology and rheumatology knowledge, she started the company to make people healthier by focusing on promoting oral hygiene. Dr Stein completed her Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Department of Immunology & Rheumatology at Stanford University, and she also holds a PhD in Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Is there a female healthcare professional who you find inspirational? Let us know by commenting after the article.