I think what is important is to have the leaders proactively thinking about the gender issue. Examples? Faculty members need to be inclusive and to mentor young women and to include them in their plans, creating the conditions to allow their participation in committees and boards preparing the next generation of leaders. Journals need to include women in their editorial boards. Conference organisers must include females in the scientific committee as this will naturally lead to a higher inclusion of women as speakers in the event. Societies need to include women in their boards and in their guidelines committees.
Of course, all these processes need to be based on expertise. We do have enough experts in all fields of critical care to allow participation. We don’t need to be patronised. We only need to get away from conscious and unconscious bias and to have people proactively thinking on gender balance.
World intensivists are coming to Rio for the World congress and Brazilian congress in November. What are you looking forward to?
This will be a superb meeting with more than 90 international speakers and a very carefully designed scientific programme. We have covered the main areas of critical care with great experts. The venue is superb, quite appropriate for scientific and networking interaction. We are expecting more than 5000 delegates. I am sure this will be a wonderful congress and an unique opportunity for learning and gettting connected.
Dr. Machado is Professor of Intensive Care and head of the Intensive Care Section of the Anesthesiology, Pain and Intensive Care Department at the Federal University of São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil. She is one of the founders of the Latin America Sepsis Institute (LASI), which is devoted to quality improvement process in Brazilian hospitals as well as to the coordination of multicentre studies in the field of sepsis.
What are your key areas of interest and research?
Sepsis, quality improvement, haemodynamics.
What are the major challenges in your field?
Getting people committed. Using our time wisely.
What is your top management tip?
Always say “I don’t know” if you don’t know something.
What would you single out as a career highlight?
Being part of the Latin America Sepsis Institute.
If you had not chosen this career path you would have become a…?
I have never thought about being something else.
What are your personal interests outside of work?
Books, cinema.
Your favourite quote?
“Of all forms of inequality, injustice in
healthcare is the most shocking and most
inhumane.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
