International Women’s Forum Convenes Women Leaders Globally on COVID-19

From Left: IWF Panelists Ivy Ng, Helena Orfanos-Boeckel, and Lucy Clare Hone

The International Women's Forum (IWF) Pittsburgh held a virtual Global Panel on September 24 to facilitate discussion of the global response to COVID-19. An inspiring group of international women healthcare leaders joined the call to reconnect via this network. Jewish Healthcare Foundation President and CEO Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD moderated the panel, which the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and Women's Health Activist Movement Global (WHAMglobal) conceived.

Karen Feinstein and Debra Caplan, MPA, President of IWF Pittsburgh and Chair of WHAMglobal opened the meeting, followed by an introductory panel of experts on COVID-19, featuring Professor Ivy Ng, Group CEO of Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd. and IWF Singapore Member; Dr. Helena Orfanos-Boeckel, Internist/Nephrologist, Functional and Preventive Medicine, of Praxis Fur Ganzheitliche Innere Medizin and IWF Germany Member; and Dr. Lucy Clare Hone, Director, New Zealand Institute Of Wellbeing & Resilience and IWF New Zealand Member. Panelists shared challenges and successes of their countries' responses to the pandemic at various stages, highlighting strengths including robust contact tracing, isolation, lockdown procedures, personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, resource conservation, and high-quality, regular communication with the public.

Breakout sessions followed, moderated by IWF Forum Healthcare Leaders Laura Berger, Debra Caplan, Karen Feinstein, Teri Fontenot, Diane Holder, Usha Raj, MD, Fleur Sack, and Dolores Sukhdeo, to facilitate reflection, connection, and learning among the global attendees and leaders.