Female Disruptors: Susan Nicholson of Johnson & Johnson On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Be relentless. There is a fine line between being relentless and being a pest. People don’t want to do the hard thing. If you’re trying to enact real change and disrupt a space, it means that people must do something different. They must mobilize funds they weren’t planning to spend. They must be inclusive in things they hadn’t thought of before. They must really campaign relentlessly for their idea or initiative. Keep it simple, and ask for support. Always be cognizant of both the need and your goal. Make your ask while also offering value to the other person.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Susan Nicholson.
Susan Nicholson, MD, FIDSA, is the Vice President of the Health of Women team within the Office of the Chief Medical Officer at Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Nicholson is a trained internist with fellowship training in infectious diseases and clinical pharmacology with over 20 years of healthcare industry experience. As the leader of Johnson & Johnson’s Health of Women team, Dr. Nicholson is committed to bettering the health of women now and for future generations by delivering life-changing healthcare solutions tailored for women.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I received a medical doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh and spent several years studying the molecular pathogenesis of disease, including as a Howard Hughes Research Scholar at the National Institutes of Health, and as an Aaron Diamond Fellow at the Weill Cornell Medical College.
I have been working at Johnson & Johnson for about 16 years across pharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumer products sectors. I’ve worked in clinical research, medical affairs, and medical safety. Because of the depth and breadth of my experience at J&J, I feel that I have a broad view of the power of our company to create meaningful change in the culture of health care.
In 2018, we formed the Health of Women team, a cross-enterprise strategic women’s health initiative within the Office of the Chief Medical Officer. We leveraged the company’s deep legacy and innovative approaches to addressing global health challenges to support the development of sex-specific science and drive action for meaningful public health solutions.
As a champion for women’s rights and equitable health treatment, I love having the ability to combine my personal passion with my scientific research acumen in this leadership of J&J’s Health of Women team.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
The Health of Women team is leading transformative change to better the lives of women now and for future generations. We’re a team of physicians, OBGYNs and public health experts who understand the health needs of women, and we champion inclusivity for women with a science- and evidence-based approach.
One of the ways that we’re disrupting the health care industry is through the development of sex-specific data insights. Women make up half of the world’s population, yet they remain under-represented in clinical trials. Even when women do participate in research, often data are not analyzed to explore potential differences between males and females. This creates gaps in understanding how females and males experience disease and respond to treatment differently. When we are able to break down the data, it becomes clear that in some cases, women and men have different experiences that may require unique approaches.
As an example, we recently published a literature review which focused on understanding the differential effects of sex on sequelae from COVID-19 and on Long COVID syndrome to better inform clinical management and mitigation strategies for this disease. In addition to finding that females are 22% more likely to develop Long COVID than males, we also found that only 35 of the 640,634 total articles in the literature provided sex disaggregated data in sufficient details about symptoms and sequalae of COVID-19 disease to understand how females and males respond to Long COVID. This tells us that the scientific community is still missing the opportunity to highlight sex differences that have impact in the clinical care for women and men affected by COVID-19 and Long COVID. When we are able to see the full picture, we can better design effective interventions — where females and males get the optimal health outcomes to treatment. This is the type of research that we’d like to see others in the industry undertaking as well. While a single study or review is a drop in the ocean, if we collectively work together to include sex-disaggregated data in our research, we can truly disrupt the health care industry to ensure effective interventions and health outcomes.
We are also focused on addressing the Black maternal health crisis in the United States, where Black women are three times more likely to die during pregnancy and postpartum than white women. Our commitment to helping address maternal health inequity for Black women and all pregnant people is anchored by “Our Race to Health Equity.” Johnson & Johnson aspires to help eradicate racial and social injustice as a public health threat by eliminating health inequities for people of color. Our Race to Health Equity is a commitment of $100 million over the next five years to invest and promote health equity solutions.
Our team is supporting multiple pilot projects to investigate the creation of a targeted digital ecosystem of maternal health care services, in collaboration with providers, community organizations and mothers to close the Black maternal mortality gap. Through these pilot projects, we are taking a scientific approach to understanding specific needs in communities with high maternal mortality, to develop and test solutions and to scale programs that are proven effective. While these tools are specifically being designed to include the needs of Black women, I believe that all pregnant people could benefit from fit-for-purpose digital interventions.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I have no kids, have never been pregnant, and I’m not an OB/GYN, so in some ways, the space I work in, particularly in maternal health, felt very foreign when I first started. I really felt like an outside observer, but an observer with scientific expertise, compassion and most definitely a woman’s perspective.
There was a bit of awkwardness at first, but you have to be willing to embrace the fact that you don’t have all of the answers. You have to ask smart questions and surround yourself with people who bring together the right perspectives in order to make a meaningful impact.
Over time, I became less concerned about the awkwardness, and focused on asking smart questions and elevating female leaders that could help get the job done.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
When I first started to build the Health of Women team, I talked to everyone I could find in the women’s health space, because I wanted to collect as much information and advice as possible. I found a lot of people were uncomfortable embracing the concept that we need to change our way of doing things to improve health outcomes for females. They wanted to stick with the status quo. But a number of my mentors were excited and willing to be a champion for the work — which has been invaluable.
One such person was Joanne Waldstreicher, the Chief Medical Officer at Johnson & Johnson. She deeply believed in my vision to help transform the health of women now and for future generations. She went to the mat for me to help turn this vision into action. That made all the difference.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
In the health care industry, the only way you can truly be disruptive is to have people buy into your idea. You need to prove the value of your idea or initiative.
When it comes to our focus on improving the health of women, the value we can bring is limitless. When the health care industry is set up to better support women — and to ensure that their wellbeing and interests are always part of the equation — it helps everyone. That is the disruptive value we are working to achieve.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
- Be persistent. Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, the founder and president of the National Birth Equity Collective, and I talked many times at the start of my journey into the maternal health equity space. She is truly an amazing advocate for Black women. She is the embodiment of persistence. If you’re trying to enact change, there will be challenges and bad days, but you have to persist. Sometimes failure becomes a success because you learn lessons that fundamentally change your approach. And that is progress.
- Leverage your strengths. I believe in the power of connecting with people on an emotional level to help gain support, especially when it comes to a cause as serious as the health and welfare of women. Telling a good story and bringing the issue to life for people is absolutely critical. What I tell people is, “Whatever you think is easy and you don’t understand why other people don’t, that is your gift. Use it!”
- Be relentless. There is a fine line between being relentless and being a pest. People don’t want to do the hard thing. If you’re trying to enact real change and disrupt a space, it means that people must do something different. They must mobilize funds they weren’t planning to spend. They must be inclusive in things they hadn’t thought of before. They must really campaign relentlessly for their idea or initiative. Keep it simple, and ask for support. Always be cognizant of both the need and your goal. Make your ask while also offering value to the other person.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We certainly aren’t done yet! A lot of work is currently underway to help improve maternal health outcomes for Black women and all pregnant people who are most impacted by maternal health inequities in the U.S.
As mentioned earlier, we are supporting a series of pilot programs to investigate the creation of a comprehensive digital ecosystem of maternal health care services. As an example, Johnson & Johnson is collaborating with leading universities in Georgia to assess PM3, a digital intervention to address important needs for Black women and other pregnant people during the postpartum period — which is a critical time for the mother and infant. Developed by Black women for Black women, PM3 aims to standardize postpartum hospital discharge education. The goal is to facilitate the transition of postpartum care among Black women and all pregnant people and to address known access barriers and social determinants of health for rural Black postpartum women.
We look forward to sharing results from this trial and understanding how this and other solutions being piloted can support Black women and all pregnant people and lead to better outcomes.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Ladies, let’s get real. We are often selling our ideas to men, and men frequently don’t fully understand the unique health needs of women or are unwilling to listen because it makes them feel uncomfortable.
When you talk about women’s health, people automatically think of reproductive health and organ-specific disease, but the health of women is much broader than that. It’s cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental health, immune disorders — the list goes on.
I think that is one of the biggest challenges, to find leaders who are willing to truly listen and understand. The best leaders are willing to do both.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
I love Dan Ariely. He writes books and gives great TED talks. Dan discusses perception and how we often perceive things incorrectly because our mind fills in the blanks. The idea that what you see may not be real is fundamental to the way I approach things.
I always go into a situation acknowledging that what I see may not be right. I focus on asking questions and learning from people with real, lived experiences to help fill in the blanks, instead of filling them in myself.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Every single person should be an advocate for women and their equal treatment, however you self-identify. We need to elevate every woman and ensure they have equitable access to health, education and economic opportunity.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
You never know what other people are going through. You can never fully walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, so be compassionate and empathetic.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow me on LinkedIn under Susan Nicholson MD FIDSA.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: (Yourname and company) On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.