Could you briefly introduce the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA)?
Mary Stutts: The HBA is a 50-year-old organisation. We’re in over 80 locations globally. We have approximately 150 Corporate Partners who are our members. We are a professional association, a 501(c)(6), and the majority of the biopharma companies in the world are our members. When organisations become Corporate Partners of the HBA, they make our services available to their employees. We are very much focused on leadership acceleration, closing the gap between women’s health and men’s health, and building the healthcare workforce pipeline of the future.
With healthcare systems worldwide warning of a talent gap in the coming decade, how do you view this challenge, and why is early engagement with future professionals so critical?
Stutts: As a society, we are headed for a major workforce crisis. Baby boomers are starting to retire, but many of them are still working because they are healthy and they can. That is good for society because we do not have the workforce to replace them. In healthcare, it takes years to build a highly skilled workforce. Our Corporate Partners have asked the HBA to help secure that future workforce by going further upstream to get students in middle school and high school interested in healthcare careers. We can’t wait until they’re in college.
What are the major areas the HBA is working on globally?
Stutts: One major area is ensuring HBA experiences are available to global employees. That’s why we have our HBA Academy, a digital learning platform. Another major area is our HBA Think Tank, which generates data on pressing issues. Closing the gap between women’s health and men’s health is a huge focus because women have not historically been included in clinical trials.
Dr Deepa Desai: Historically, women were not really included in equal proportion as men in clinical trials. That shift is happening in the last decade, globally including India. Our corporate partners have realised this gap and they’re seeking our help to reduce it.
How do you see technology, especially AI, impacting equitable healthcare?
Stutts: Technology can help address bias in healthcare. Women, and people of color, were often not offered participation in clinical trials or innovative therapies for decades. Now we have AI platforms that can identify physicians who see diverse patients. I don’t care if the doctor is purple — what color are their patients? What gender are their patients? That’s the kind of data we now have.
AI also helps with diagnostics. At Stanford, we were one of the first to use ambient listening AI in exam rooms. It listens to both the doctor and the patient. By the time the doctor gets back to the office, the AI has printed out a summary in the electronic health record.
I always say: AI is not what will take your job. What could take your job is people who use AI.
Dr Desai: Everyone talks about jobs getting redundant because of AI, but I feel it will get more focused. If you equip yourself with that talent, you know where to look for the needle in the hay. AI will enhance us and our capabilities
What unique challenges do women leaders in Indian healthcare face, and how is the HBA addressing them?
Dr Desai: There has always been a perception in India that if you want to be a leader or create global change, you have to be in the U.S. or Europe. The HBA gives a platform to all voices. Through summits like this, when you look at the stage and speakers — it’s men and women, majority from India, leading global operations and strategy from here. The biggest benefit is offering possibilities. A woman in India now sees that her story can go to the world, and world stories can come to India.
Stutts: This is about patient outcomes. People most trust people who look like them. If we are really going to improve patient outcomes, we need a representative workforce — diverse cultures, women and men. Companies do better with balanced leadership. We want the women and men in the HBA to be well qualified to take their seat at the table.
What skills should women leaders focus on to grow in healthcare?
Stutts: Initiative. Innovation. Strategic thinking and strategic agility. Women often have these skills, but they are not always encouraged. With the HBA’s mentoring and leadership programs, like the Global Ambassador Program, women get leadership skills they may not get in their companies.
Dr Desai: The HBA gives them a practice run — a “net practice.” Someone might be in middle management at their company but hold a senior role within the HBA chapter. They exercise skills, navigate challenges, and then apply them in corporate life. That’s why so many from the Community get promoted in their respective firms.
How rapidly is India growing within the HBA ecosystem?
Stutts: In India, within just three years, we had to create the Asia-Pacific Operating Board. Normally this takes 10 years. India is our fastest-growing operating region.
Dr Desai: When HBA came to India 30 months back, we were just 15 founding women who saw this vision and now we have the highest community numbers, highest influence, highest survey responses. The energy, talent, and passion were already here — we just never had a platform to voice it. Now we are growing in an accelerated mode. And some programs that we run here, the West is imbibing from us.
What can India learn from global markets, and what can global markets learn from India?
Dr Desai: India can learn from the 45 yrs of Global market’s experience, esp. their failures. This collaboration is ensuring that we do not take 45 yrs to reach where they are currently.
What the West is learning from us is agility — the “Jugaadu” nature. We see possibilities in everything. When there is less number of seats and more competition, you think of new ways. That is why the West learns adaptability from India.
How does HBA look at diversity, equity and inclusion beyond gender?
Stutts: The HBA is an enterprise solution for workforce development for our corporate partners because we focus on increasing inclusive leadership in their organisations. Inclusive leaders understand and model effectively leading, developing and advancing women and men of all cultures and all generations. If done correctly, inclusive leadership increases retention and productivity.
What is the HBA’s engagement with regulators or government institutions in India?
Dr Desai: We are at the beginning of that journey. The FDA is setting up offices here. The leader of the FDA institution in India is a woman, and she is connecting with regulators in India to improve clinical trials. India is at one of the lowest percentages of quality concerns in the FDA global database.
At HBA, we are slowly expanding to include policymakers, hospitals, education institutions — not just pharma and biotech.
Stutts: As companies expand here — Amgen, Pfizer, J&J, Novartis and many more — they want to understand what governmental relationships they need. Their investment in India is huge and will continue to grow.