Women leaders driving change in women’s health: from prevention to holistic care

The IHF Women in Leadership Special Interest Group, in collaboration with ICON Group, launched a new webinar series on 31 March focusing on the important role of women leaders in improving women’s health. The first session brought together global experts to explore how leaders can advance prevention, screening and awareness while addressing persistent gaps in women’s healthcare.

Prevention

Dr Penny Kechagioglou, Chief Medical Officer at Icon Cancer Centre UK, highlighted the urgent challenge of improving women’s physical and mental health and overall wellbeing, which is influenced not only by cultural norms, social determinants, power dynamics, and access to care, but also by economic inequality, education, policy environments, and systemic biases within healthcare systems.

As a cancer specialist, Dr Penny highlighted the importance of reaching women with prevention advice and support. Up to 30 percent of breast cancer cases could be avoided through lifestyle changes such as regular physical activity, a healthy diet and reduced alcohol consumption, and the Icon Cancer Centre UK provides and partners for integrative oncology services (nutrition, psycho-oncology, exercise medicine) as part of its offer to patients. Dr Penny also co-hosts the Cancer Talk podcast to raise awareness and highlight the importance of screening, early detection and of a global integrative oncology model of care. This move beyond a purely clinical approach to a more holistic approach was echoed by the other speakers, and initiatives such as exercise programmes during treatment and multidisciplinary care teams are already showing positive results for both physical and mental health outcomes.

Early detection and screening

Dr Preetha Reddy shared her experiences with Apollo Hospitals Group India, in a country where many women express a fear of screening and there is historically a culture of women’s health ‘taking a back seat’. In 2025, Apollo opened the Athenaa Hospital, Asia’s first gender-intelligent hospital, showing its commitment to improving women’s cancer outcomes. Athenaa’s approach integrates diagnostics, treatment and psychological support, while placing strong emphasis on early detection and awareness.

Community outreach has been central to this work. Over five years, more than two million women have been screened by Apollo for breast and cervical cancer through mobile units and local outreach programmes, including taking prevention and screening messaging to workplaces and colleges. These efforts show how bringing care closer to communities can significantly improve access and outcomes.

Addressing the mental health gap

Professor Nazanin Derakhshan from the UK, who is an international pioneer on research in anxiety and depression, highlighted that mental health remains one of the most overlooked areas for women experiencing cancer. A large proportion of patients experience anxiety, depression or trauma, yet many receive no psychosocial support. This gap has serious implications, as mental health is closely linked to treatment outcomes and quality of life. Evidence also shows that self-reported psychological distress is associated with reduced predicted survival in women with breast cancer.

To address this, Professor Nazanin established the Centre for Building Resilience in Breast Cancer, focusing on research, psycho-education and specialist practical interventions to support and empower women with both primary and metastatic diagnoses.  In her role as head of the Growth and Resilience in Trauma Centre at the National Centre for Integrative Oncology (NCIO) her efforts such as training healthcare professionals in psycho-oncology and developing accessible support programmes are helping to bridge this gap.

From awareness to action

Despite much progress over the past few decades, many women, and particularly those in underserved or vulnerable groups, continue to face barriers in accessing prevention advice, screening and diagnosis.

Improving women’s health is a system-wide priority. Achieving better outcomes will require coordinated action across health systems, policies, and communities, with strong leadership driving lasting change. Women leaders have a vital role to play in shaping more inclusive, effective, and sustainable health systems, and we look forward to continuing the conversation at our next webinar in June.

You can catch up on the recording of this session here.