Contribution of pioneer women hematologists in India in the 20^th century

Abstract

Purpose: There is an increasing interest in the contribution of women in science and various branches of medicine. Hematology is a recently developed specialty. The purpose of this review was to explore the contribution of pioneer women hematologists of India in the last century when the subject was developing across the world including India. Methods: PubMed database was searched up to 1999 with the following keywords – women, hematologist, hematopathologist, hemato-oncologist, and India. The Indian Journal of Hematology, Indian Journal of Pathology, Indian Journal of Pediatrics, National Medical Journal of India, and Indian Journal of Medical research were manually searched for hematology articles written by women hematologists before 1999. Authors own experience from the intimate knowledge in the field for more than 40 years helped in the search. Women involved purely in blood banking were not included in the study. So also, many women hematologists who grew up at the end of the 20th century and continued to contribute to the subject were not included as the pioneer hematologist. Results: Between the 1930s and early 1950s, only one lady from the UK came and worked in nutritional hematology in India. Subsequently rose quite a few of them in that specialty mainly from major academic medical centers in India. Their teaching, research, and institution-building capability were exemplary. Conclusion: Considering hematology and related specialty being a recently developing subject, the contribution of women hematologists as pioneers in the field is exemplary and worth emulating.