May 22, 2025
3 min read
Key takeaways:
- Sharon Malone, MD, called on providers to reclaim their power and rebuild trust in medicine.
- Providers can use technology to “leverage the expertise of a few over many,” Malone said.
MINNEAPOLIS — It is a challenging time to be a women’s health care provider, but there are ways physicians can reclaim their power while navigating uncertainty, according to Sharon Malone, MD.
In her keynote speech at the ACOG Annual Clinical & Scientific Meeting, Malone, an OB/GYN, bestselling author and menopause expert who has been featured on podcasts from both Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, described her experiences growing up in the Jim Crow South, her monumental career and how it all informs her work as a practitioner and advocate today.
Throughout the course of her speech, Malone offered various insights and tips for today’s women’s health care providers, but some significant points were about reestablishing trust in medicine and using technology to use limited knowledge to care for the masses.
Malone said mistrust is ailing the medical field today.
“We have to acknowledge that mistrust in the community — some of it is sown by a lot of not good actors who are out there in the space, but then we also have to acknowledge the fact that some of the mistrust that we have is earned,” she said. “We have failed to establish trust with our patients.”
For some, disillusionment with the U.S. health care system is because of pervasive and persistent racial and ethnic disparities, Malone said. Fighting this could help build trust.
“The first thing to do is we need to acknowledge the problem exists and what our role is in it because that’s the only way we’re going to change anything,” she said. “I think we’re going to have to be a little bit more creative about it. We realize that we do not have an engaged federal partner, so we’re going to have to do it on our own.”
She encouraged attendees to seek support from state and local legislatures, local health departments and public/private partnerships, “because the answer is not ‘do nothing.’ We can’t afford to do nothing,” Malone said to applause. “That’s our charge: to name it, recognize it and make sure that our behaviors do not further cause harm.”
Malone said mistrust does not exist because providers intended for this to happen, but because care continuity is becoming rarer.
“Many of you will not have the luxury of practicing in the environment I practiced in. I was in one place, one practice, 30 years. I know your mother. I know your children. I watched you grow up. We have the luxury of time to be able to establish trust,” she said. “How do you establish trust in an environment where there’s a constant churn, where you … constantly have to reestablish? The key is technology. Let’s figure out more innovative ways to address it.”
Malone stressed the importance of understanding technology “and how it can be our friend.”
“We’re not going to clone any more doctors. Even if we double the number of residents that we have now — which we won’t, we know that we cannot even afford to,” she said. “Then [we need to] figure out how we’re going to use technology to leverage the expertise of a few over many.”
Technology could help the few providers care for women in rural areas, or who are in maternity care deserts, she said.
“We just got to figure out how to democratize care in this country,” she said. “Otherwise, those inequities, those disparities that I’ve talked about, they’ll just get bigger and bigger and bigger, and the haves will have more, and the people who don’t — even people with Medicaid — will not be able to find a doctor to service their needs. And that is unconscionable.”
Malone told the audience to consider the benefits tech could offer for the work that contributes to administrative burden and burnout.
“There are partners out there that are able to offload some of your work such that you can go about the business of doing the things that you came to work to do,” she said.
Malone stressed that, even in uncertain times, physicians have more power than they may think.
“Understand this: the situation is the situation, but you have the power. Don’t ever forget that,” Malone said. “If you’re an employee, then demand your rights as an employee. Everybody else does. Remember we’re the prize here.
“There’s a physician shortage. You need us. None of this works without your physician workforce,” she continued.
