Dr Candysurfvival: Waves, Saves & Wipeouts

My handle is @drcandysurfvival & my title is Candice Myhre, MD, (aka Dr. Bikini), Emergency Medicine Physician & International Surfdoctor. My July 24th instagram post went viral when I stood in solidarity with female healthcare workers regarding a sexist article in the Journal of Vascular Surgery which determined female physicians are unprofessional if they wear a bikini on social media. The image of me saving a life in a bikini synergized the unprofessional & professional images of women. 

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"Female doctors, nurses, NPs/PAs, all healthcare professionals - we can wear a bikini, a dress, or we can wear scrubs. This does not change how good we are at being a healthcare provider. We can wear WHATEVER we want on our free time, and still save your life. We have to drown out the sexism in medicine and keep it moving. It’s 2020 people. Sexism is cancelled."

This is the story of how I accidentally became the spokesperson for the #medbikini movement to cancel sexism in 2020.

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I have used my platform to speak out on media outlets, podcasts, magazine articles, panels for medical students & residents. I have embraced my mentoring role and look forward to empowering female health care workers. I have also created a Medbikini Facebook page where HCW's experienceing sexims can connect to discuss and plan solutions.

By the global community taking back the image of Dr. Bikini as a powerful shehero I was inspired to finish writing my book about an International Surfdoctor: Sex, Surf, Suture, Scars.  I will use my experiences in travel surfing to write a fiction/non-fiction travel adventure book, sell a drcandysurfvival kit & a few more surprise inventions.

Background:

The viral photograph is from a filmed scene of Dr. Bikini: Untold Stories of the ER, in which I re-enacted a true life-saving event in my life. I wrote the story of the rescue and the TV editors turned it into a TV program.  I was surfing in the ocean when a woman was hit by a 24 foot boat and suffered life-threatening injuries. I managed her care by myself in an underdeveloped country by performing multiple procedures and transfers including from ocean to island, island to mainland hospital and evacuation by jet to a developed country.

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