20 Years, 20 Leaders: Connie Newman, MD
“Humanistic care helps to heal the patient and also helps to prevent burnout in physicians.”
Our connection to the experiences of those who came before helps to define the present and future of medicine. The Foundation is celebrating 20 years by joining in conversation with 20 women leaders in all aspects of medicine to understand their stories and how their experiences will shape the next generation.
Connie Newman, M.D., is an endocrinologist and physician-scientist who is a nationally respected leader in hypercholesterolemia and statin safety. Dr. Newman is an adjunct professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine and Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. She is a committed advocate for women’s rights and access to reproductive healthcare.
Here’s what we learned during our conversation with Dr. Newman.
Why did you choose to go into medicine or your related field?
I decided to become a doctor in the 1960s, when I was 12 years old, after reading the novel David Copperfield and Charles Dickens’ portrayal of sick and unfortunate children. My father, a pediatrician, was very excited about my decision to become a doctor and introduced me to three women physicians. I have three brothers and all four of us became doctors.
What’s your core philosophy?
I believe in kindness and respect for everyone. I also believe in service, in making a positive difference in the lives of others.
What motivates you?
My core philosophy motivates me. My research has been motivated by the need for disease prevention. For the past 20 years, I’ve been working on large randomized clinical trials of statins which show that they have effects in not only reducing cholesterol but also in reducing heart disease, and death. When the safety of statins was questioned about five years ago, I became actively involved in communicating the safety data from these trials, in order to demonstrate that statins are safe and very rarely are the cause of the muscle aches that people complain of. I’m determined to write and speak about these data because statins are taken by millions of people in the United States and the world, and save lives. It is important that people who need to lower their cholesterol continue their statin treatment. I am the lead author of the American Heart Association Scientific Statement on the safety of statins, which was published in 2019. I also serve on the FDA advisory committee for endocrine and metabolic diseases. This important work motivates me.
How do you motivate others?
I motivate younger doctors by listening to them, by responding to their questions, by convincing them of the value of their work. I give them a broader view by talking about how I confronted barriers in my career path and made them into opportunities.
What challenges have you had to overcome?
Implicit (unconscious) bias against women. I was an assistant professor with tenure and asked a male colleague for help in getting a promotion. He asked, why do you need a promotion? Does your husband not earn sufficient money? I was taken aback but did not back down. I immediately defended myself and he agreed to support me. I also changed my career preference in my third year of medical school from pediatrics to internal medicine, knowing I would not likely be assigned to the residency of my choice as a result of the change. I was accepted by Beth Israel hospital in New York City, which led to a three-month research opportunity at Rockefeller University. It was so positive that I decided to devote my career to academic research.
Humans fail. Please share a time when you failed and what you did next to move forward.
I tend to be positive and not think about failure. I love a quote by Winston Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” Five years ago, knowing there was a lot of misinformation about statins, I wrote an article on the topic and submitted it to a highly respected journal, where it was rejected. So, I worked on the article and tried again. I submitted it to a more prestigious journal, where it was immediately accepted.
Who was your most important mentor(s) and why?
My first mentor was my father, who inspired me with his courageous work in an infectious disease hospital during the polio epidemic. He showed me through his example what it meant to be a humanistic doctor, to treat patients with dignity and respect. Humanistic care helps to heal the patient and also helps to prevent burnout in physicians.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned?
It’s important to speak up about what you want, be it a raise in salary or a new job. Throughout my career, many of the advancements I’ve had occurred because I asked for them. During my medical school training I spoke up about wanting to help the pediatric endocrinology division, and that led to a paying summer job in research, and an important paper on high blood pressure in children. When I was an assistant professor of medicine and wanted to be promoted, I didn’t wait for the chair of medicine to notice me. I made it clear that I was interested. I was working in the pharmaceuticals industry and learned about the executive director position in the Department of Regulatory Affairs. I spoke to the vice president in my area and asked her to support me in applying for the job and she did. Growing up with three brothers who were very close in age I had to fight to be heard. Women in medicine need to speak up.
How do you define success and how do you measure up to your own definition?
I admire people who do work that provides value to others. During the Covid-19 crisis, I admire people who keep essential services going, whether they work in a hospital or a grocery store. I’ve been successful in advocating for reproductive rights and in my work on the safety of statins. I like to think that my work has added value for others.
What do you see in store for the future of medicine and the related fields?
I see technological advances and the greater ability to diagnose and treat disease through genetic testing and gene therapies. I see greater capabilities for telemedicine. But I also see less time in the patient-doctor interaction, less time for doctors to create a compassionate connection with patients. We need to show patients that we care about them, which helps them heal, and also brings meaning to our work. I hope that the next generation of doctors will preserve humanism in their relationships with their patients.
What advice would you give to the next generation of women in medicine and the medical sciences?
It’s important for women to speak up about what they want in their careers. Learn to promote yourself, develop the one sentence speech about your accomplishments that you can use in an elevator when you meet the chair of your department. Learn to negotiate. Above all, realize that every patient is important and deserves respect and compassionate care.
The Backstory on Dr. Newman
Dr. Newman is a graduate of Weill Cornell Medical College (1978) and Wellesley College (1974). In 2018-2019, she was president of the American Medical Women's Association. Dr. Newman has written numerous papers on statin safety and statin intolerance and chairs the Writing Group for the American Heart Association’s Scientific Statement on the safety of statins. She also chairs the Writing Committee for the Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline on the management of dyslipidemia in people with endocrine disorders. Dr. Newman is a member of the FDA Endocrine and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee.