59 Top Physician Blogs Worth Reading

While the majority of physicians haven't exactly embraced the rise of social media, here are some of the physician thought leaders who have.

The following blogs are not listed in any order but randomly placed in a general category. We've intentionally not linked to any blogs that have no recent posts and aren't currently active. If there's a blog that should be included in this list, please list it in the comments of this post.

Note: If you're looking for the blogs of our contributing authors, you can find links to them all next to their contributing authors bios.

Medicine & Specialties

These doctors write about outside interests, but their individual specialties tend to be their blogs focus.

1. ExpedMed: On Wilderness Medicine if you're in to adventuresome CME.
2. Uncommon Student MD: Student doctors in medical school and residency.
3. Doctor Anonymous: Passionate about medicine and social media.
4. Dr Helen: A forensic psychologist commenting on popular culture, politics and psychological issues.
5. A Life In The Day Of A Basics Doc: This roadside doctor handles trauma and writes about his experiences. Sobering and riveting.
6. Dr. Grumpy: This docs sick of patient shenanigans, the stupidity of insurance companies, and the daily insanity.
7. Movin' Meat: This Pacific Northwest physician posts stories of ER drama and healthcare reform issues will make you think.
8. Doc Gurley: A board-certified Internist physician and the only Harvard Medical School graduate to have been awarded a Shoney’s Ten-Step Pin for documented excellence in waitressing.
9. A Life In The Day Of A Basics Doc: A a blow-by-blow account of accident scenes, including shattered glass and drunk drivers.
10. MDOD: A collective of physicians from diverse specialties, all writing under pseudonyms, this blog shares case studies and humorous stories from work.
11. 33 Charts: Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. blog focused on pediatric health and social media
12. High Tech Surgeon: If you’re curious about the latest technology or the possibility of surgery performed by a robot, this blog is for you. Written by a general surgeon grounded in the practical applications of these innovations.
13. Clinical Correlations: NYU Department of Medicine educational site inspiring both new and seasoned physicians alike that internal medicine is much more than a job.
14. Cacoethes Cognitum: Group site who make a pastime of turning medical cases and discussions into medically irrelevant history lessons, philosophical rants, and displays of one-upsmanship.
15. At Your Cervix: (Best Name) RN blog about your cervix and stuff.
16. Respectful Insolence: A pseudonymous surgeon/scientist concerning medicine and quackery, science and pseudoscience, history and pseudohistory.
17. Mothers In Medicine: A group blog by physician-mothers, writing about the unique challenges and joys of tending to two distinct patient populations, both of whom can be quite demanding.
18. Bioethics Discussion Blog: Once a week or so, Dr. Bernstein offers a blog entry of varying interests, always in the world of bioethics.
19. Docnotes: Health, technology, family medicine and other observations.
20. The Dermatology Blog: All about skin care written by a dermatologist.
21. Buckeye Surgeon: Ruminations by a non-academic general surgeon from the heart of the rust belt.
22. Clinical Cases and Images: CasesBlog: This blog offers health news, updated daily, by a former Cleveland Clinic assistant professor of medicine.
23. Doctor David’s Blog: Follow the musings of a pediatric oncologist.
24. Dr. Deb: This lady is all business. She’s a psychologist specializing in trauma and depression and uses her blog for educating the public.
25. Dr. Len’s Cancer Blog: Dr. Lichtenfeld is Deputy Chief Medical Officer for the national office of the American Cancer Society.
26. Gruntdoc: A highly popular blog written by a doctor who once served in the U.S. Navy.
27. RangelMD: Learn more about sickness with a dash of cynicism from this highly popular doctor’s blog.
28. Aggravated Doc Surg: Takes on massive chunks of history to explain how the medical system ended up in such a mess. Posts are detailed and well-researched, but it’s the punchy writing that keeps you engaged.
29. Retired Doc’s Thoughts: Although some entries focus on health care debates, the focus here is on internal medicine, endurance training, exercise and gerontology.
30. Suture for a Living: Although this plastic surgeon is into ‘stitches’ in quilts as well as on bodies, the focus is more on medicine and health than on sewing.
31. California Medicine Man: Medical issues in the news. California Medicine Man is a physician and assistant professor at UCLA.
32. The Underwear Drawer: This is a personal online journals os an anesthesiology resident in Atlanta and “what happens next.”
33. A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure: Analysis on issues relevant to surgeons, from insurance to policy.

Healthcare & Medical Issues

These blogs are focused on healthcare, managment and how it all works (or doesn't).

1. Life As A Healtcare CIO: Life in the world of healthcare IT, supporting 3000 doctors, 18000 faculty, and 3 million patients
2. MD Whistleblower: When not performing colonoscopies, this physician is tacking big issues in the medical field through his blog. His passion for high-quality medicine is evident in the consideration with which he composes each post.
3. Not Running A Hospital: Advocate for patient-centered care, eliminating preventable harm, transparency of clinical outcomes, and front-line driven process improvement.
4. DB's Medical Rants: Will Pay for Performance improve medical care? Do physicians need to be trained in emotional intelligence? An educated opinion formed by years of hands-on experience.
5. Health Care Reform In America: Dr. Kenneth Fisher on problems that make health care so outrageously expensive.
6. Bad Science: Dr. Goldacre is an award-winning broadcaster and medical doctor who specializes in tearing apart dodgy scientific claims made by “scaremongerers.”
7. Doctor & Patient: An IVF specialist who believes in information therapy and runs the world's largest free patient education library.
8. Fixin’ Healthcare: Dr. Newberry is a physician, former Dean of College of Medicine and Academic VP & Provost at MUSC in Charleston, SC (retired) and currently at Nutritional Health Centers in Greenville & Spartanburg, SC.
9. Health Care Renewal: A variety of doctors contribute to this blog, which is focused on health care renewal.
10. KevinMD.com: Join the hippest, most happening doctor on the Internet today as he tackles health care issues from the lens of a primary care provider.
11. Medical Humanities: This blog, written by a slew of medical personnel, focuses on the intersection between medicine and the arts.
12. DB’s Medical Rants: Dr. Centor contemplates medicine and the health care system in this interesting blog.
13. MD Whistleblower: Get it while it’s hot! Dr. Kirsch enjoys writing about controversies in the doctor-patient relationship. When he’s not writing, he’s “performing colonoscopies.”
14. Notes from Dr. RW: Learn about strange happenings in the medical world, including the interface between medicine and politics, from this blog.
15. The Covert Rationing Blog: Learn about healthcare rationing in America from Dr. Rich, a former professor of medicine.
16. Wachter’s World: Dr. Wachter is MD is Professor and Associate Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He also writes this highly popular blog for and about doctors and their environments.

Physician blogs around the world

Docs blog everywhere. Here are some great blogs from down under, across the pond, and elswhere.

1. Angry Doc: Angry Doc is anonymous, but he is located in Singapore, and his interests and opinions have garnered a large following over the years.
2. Practice What I Preach: Thoughts on writing and parenting from a child psychiatrist and writer.
3. Bad Medicine: This UK blog focuses on…yep, bad medicine; but, in a totally engaging way.
4. Bagga’s Blog: Dr. Paul Baggaley is a Christian family doctor from Perth, Australia with an interest in obstetrics and pediatrics.
5. Doctor Bloggs…The official online diary of Nasty Gnome Party: A highly political medical blog colored by a great British humor lens and focused on the British National Health Service (NHS).
6. National Death Service: UK NHS horror stories drip from this “gotta watch this train wreck” blog.
7. Nip/Fuct: ‘Dr. Vegas,’ located in the UK, tags himself as a “greedy doctor looking for job satisfaction.”
8. The Jobbing Doctor: Follow this UK general practitioner who works in a “large industrialized conurbation outside of London.”
9. The Junior Doctor: This junior doc is training somewhere in the UK and “loving it.”

Ok... Some nonclinical physician blogs too.

Although these physicians are practicing clinical medicine, their outside interests seem to take front stage on their blogs.

1. Freelance MD: Only the most awesome physician lifestyle community on the web.
2. Zdogg MD: Slightly Funnier Than Placebo - Zdogg's a hospital physician and purveyor of fine medical satire.
3. In My Humble Opinion: This blog is deeply personal. A primary care physician who shares what’s in his heart regarding medical reform and the future of the profession. 
4. Academic Life in Emergency Medicine: Emergency medicine doc at SFGH with an academic niche posting on technology and how it can transform the landscape of medical education.
5. The Doc's Almost Wife: A nursing student, engaged to an orthopedic surgery resident. Posts discuss illusive life balance, meeting prospective office partners, and miscellany.
6. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter: Tales From the training of a physician.
7. Musings of a Dinosaur: if you want great writing and humor that makes you snort your coffee up your nose, this is the blog for you.
8. Notes of an Anesthesioboist: Combine a specialist with an oboe and this is what you get.
9. Suture For A Living: A plastic surgeon in Little Rock writing about medicine and surgery as well as sewing and quilting.
10. The Blog that Ate Manhattan: A "Gyno-Food Blog" which focuses on both.
11. The Doctor Is In: Dr. Bob is a Christian doctor who has a very popular blog.
12. Physician Law: Regulatory and transactional health care attorney blogs legal.
13. Medical Spa MD: Physicians in non-surgical cosmetic medicine.

Ok, if you're a math guru you can see that there's more than 59 blogs here, but round numbers always smack of contrivance and we hate that.

Think there's a physician blog that should be included in this list? Please add it as a comment. (Blogs that fit in this list only please.)

Canada’s Great Opportunity To Reduce Maternal & Childhood Mortality

By Keith Martin MD, MP

March 8th is the 100th Anniversary of International Womens Day.

What an extraordinary opportunity this is to introduce an initiative that will save the lives of nine million women and children who perish every year from preventable and treatable causes. As Chair of the UN Commission for Accountability and Transparency on Maternal and Child Health, Prime Minister Harper has the chance to lead this initiative.

Up until recently, the international community has paid scant attention to the catastrophic loss of 340 000 pregnant women a year. Millennium Development Goal 5: to reduce maternal mortality by 75 per cent and achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015, has actually been the most neglected of all the MDGs. Yet this is the most important one because it can positively influence all the other goals from poverty reduction, access to education, child health, and much more. No other MDG has this power. Dollar for dollar investing in maternal health has the most profound impact on a population’s well being. With this knowledge what should Prime Minister Harper’s next steps be?

Initiatives to address the world’s major health challenges have tended to focus on specific diseases and discreet interventions: anti-retroviral medications for AIDS, bed nets for malaria, and vaccinations for an array of communicable diseases. All of these interventions are very important. However, to effectively implement them you need a mechanism. The tendency to silo our efforts to address specific diseases, rather than develop a system to implement effective public health measures has weakened our ability to save lives and reduce suffering.

Herein lies Mr. Harper’s great opportunity. In his new role he should advocate that resources be used to fund the one common pathway that will not only reduce maternal and child deaths, but can also be used to:

Treat the most common killers in the developing world (gastroenteritis, pneumonia, malnutrition, tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS etc) Address the increased burden of chronic diseases (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes etc.) Manage an array of other health care problems (the 17 neglected tropical diseases that affect 1.4 billion people worldwide, the deplorable lack of access to basic surgical procedures etc.).

The common pathway to address these health challenges is access to primary care. This is the bedrock of a good public health system and is comprised of access to reliable diagnostics, medications, adequate nutrition, clean water, sanitation, electricity, basic surgical capabilities, and most importantly, skilled health-care workers. This is the pathway through which everything from public health education, prevention programs, treatment, and follow up can occur. If you do not invest in a strong primary care system and fit specific interventions into that framework, then you can have scattered, disjointed, individual activities that do not create the long term capacity building low resource communities desperately need.

Investing in primary health care will save the lives of many of the 340 000 pregnant women and 8.8 million children who perish annually. It will also enable local service providers to prevent and treat the greatest health challenges of our time. Mr. Harper can do much to direct the $40 billion pledge by the G8 and UN to strengthen primary care systems in the developing world. He could effectively do this by partnering with organizations that already have sites and reliable logistical systems in place.

Through augmenting existing public health facilities and using reliable non-governmental organizations like The World Food Program, Medecins Sans Frontieres, the International Red Cross, and faith based groups that have successfully been providing care for decades in areas no one else dared to venture into, Mr Harper can leverage these investments and reduce administrative costs by not inventing new pathways.

It is also crucial that interventions have a long term horizon and are guided by the recipient nation, not the donor. Programs that come from distant Western organizations and do not receive local buy-in often fail.

Every dollar spent in primary care ultimately reduces health-care costs by $4 and social costs by a staggering $30. Thus, investing in primary care makes excellent economic sense: healthy people are productive people who can then lift their families, communities and countries out of poverty. Sick people cannot do this. With renewed funding and interest in maternal and child health Canada has a remarkable opportunity to facilitate the most profound change in the health of the world's poorest people.

Carpe Diem Mr. Harper.

About: Dr. Keith Martin is a physician and Member of Parliament. He is also the founder of the Canadian Physicians Overseas Program, Centres for International Health and Development, and www.canadaaid.ca an online mechanism that links people’s needs with those who want to help them.

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First Nonclincal Physician Jobs Posted

Physician Advisor Houston: Accretive Health has posted the first nonclinical job to our new nonclinincal jobs board!

If you're looking for physicians to fill a nonclinical job, please post it. It's free (for now), which is a terriffic price.

Our goal is to add not only nonclinical jobs, but volunteer, temporary and unusual jobs for docs.

Click to read more ...

Health 2.0 San Diego

What can you expect to see at Health 2.0 San Diego?

Companies and creative leaders who are pushing the curve on innovation to tackle three major challenges of our time in health care: prevention, wellness, and the role of food; the user-driven disruption of traditional clinical research; and how smart technology and service design canlower the cost of healthcare. All with the audience mix and engaging format that only a Health 2.0 conference can deliver! 

Register here

San Diego 2011

Following our biggest and highest rated Fall Conference ever, Health 2.0 announces its Spring Fling for 2011. Following trips to Boston and Paris in our two previous Spring Conferences, we’re returning to the scene of our first Spring Fling in 2008 — San Diego.

Click to read more ...

Freelance MD: The First 100 Days

Freelance MD's first 100 days of growth is awesome.

Actually, it's really impressive. Here's the chart showing Freelance MD's growth from our launch in mid November of 2010 through the end if February 2011, the first 100 days.

Traffic Overview

In looking at the numbers there are a couple of things that stand out immediately. First, there's a huge gap between the number of visitors and the number of page views that show that there are almost 3 page views for each reader per visit. This is a fantastic ratio and indicates that new readers are actually clicking around the site and not just leaving. If the gap were narrow, we'd know that people were coming to the site but not finding it interesting so this gap is a good indicator of how 'sticky' the site is.

Of course we're still growing traffic at a very respectable pace too. I'd expect to see this trajectory flatten and even have a few bumps but it will certainly continue this upward trend. Breaking 10,000 unique visitors in the first 100 days is fantastic and we're on track to hit all of our traffic and interaction goals.

You'll also notice that we have more than 700 Facebook likes and a growing community of physicians interating in the Freelance MD LinkedIn Group that I'd invite all docs to join.

We've also been contacted by a number of other medical and physician sites that have asked to be able to distribute our content to their audiences. The most notable of these new partner sites is KevinMD.com which is among the web’s most prominent and influential clinical health care blogs. These sites will choose selected posts from Freelance MD that speak to their audiences and republish them to their own sites.

We've also received quite a few inquires about joining or writing for Freelance MD (We've got some really great guest posts already)so we've written a number of posts to get help you get started, from how to add a Freelance MD badge to your website, to how to write a guest post, to how to become a contributing author.

There are also a number of new parts to the site that we've just launches. They're a little bumpy right now as we work out all of the technology kinks but they're live and working.

There's a new nonclinical jobs board, a resources directory and a calendar of upcoming events. There will be many changes to all of these as we add additional functionality and integrations.

It's been some heavy lifting in the last 100 days and there's more to come but Greg and I are committed to making a Freelance MD a must-have portal for physicians looking for more control of their career, income, and lifestyle.

Nonclinical Physician Jobs & The Long Tail

By Mehul Sheth DO

As I read The Long Tail by Chris Anderson I could not help but draw parallels to the world of medicine.

In the same vein as seminal books such as The World is Flat and Connected, this book looks to make sense of the new world view introduced by the internet. The basic premise is that in a world of infinite options (movies, songs, books, etc) the blockbuster hits are no longer the only way to be profitable. With no cost to list an MP3 in iTunes, it is as profitable to sell 1 million copies of 100 blockbuster hits as it is to sell 100 copies of 1 million less popular songs. There are three main reasons the internet has helped with this shift, one of which is democratization of the tools of distribution.

This paradigm shift has affected medicine in at least two ways. One is witnessed by the super-specialization of clinical medicine. For example, within pediatrics you can sub-specialize in gastroenterology. From there you can further sub-sub specialize in nutrition and from there you can go one level deeper into feeding disorders. One of the reasons such a niche can exist is because individuals and institutions can promote these fields not only to recruit providers, but also patients who have a specific interest in that type of treatment. At the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin there is not only a feeding disorders clinic, but also an intense 2 week inpatient program that draws patients from all over the world. This could not exist in the pre-internet world where the enchachement area for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin would include, at best, the entire state of Wisconsin and some of northern Illinois. With the internet the cost of distribution (in this case information of their center) is not only essentially zero, but is also technically easy. You need only to look around at your colleagues to realize that the number of niches is incredible!

More interestingly, to me, is how this democratization has expanded not only clinical jobs, but non-clinical physician jobs. The contrast is exemplified by my father and I, both physicians. My father is an anesthesiologist working for 30 years at the same hospital in service of a small farming town. In stark contrast, I work as a physician executive for Allscripts, a health IT company, working from home and traveling on an almost weekly basis. As I think of physicians in my father’s cohort I find that most of them fulfilled this classic role of clinical physician. Those that went outside of clinical practice did so after years of 70+hour weeks solidifying their clinical prowess thus resulting in promotion to administrative roles that carried heavy titles. Although many of these physicians did their non-clinical role well, a number who were great clinicians did not perform so well outside of the examining room.

But a deeper dive into that generation reveals that many of them had great interest in things outside of medicine. An internist comes to mind who, like my father, has been practicing for many years in the same town, but who also regularly wins stock picking contests. The short term rate of return that he can extract from daily trading is in the triple digits. I can only think that if he had trained 30 years later he would have many more opportunities to take his avocation and turn it into his vocation, combining both medicine and financial analysis. In fact, there are numerous joint medical school programs that bestow not only and MD but also a JD, MPH, MBA, PhD at the time of graduation. And if you don’t complete your second degree before residency, many training programs allow you to get a second degree as part of their program. This has become possible with the increased distribution of information associated with non-clinic careers. There are websites, including nonclinicaljobs.com conferences, such as Medical Fusion and SEAK, and list serves, such as the drop out club, to name a few that have taken advantage of the ease of distribution to cast a large net to help physician find satisfaction in their careers. The unhappy doctor of yesteryear who found his joy in his hobbies now can find a career that combines his medical knowledge to bring about greater job satisfaction.

The internet has profound effects on the career choices of physicians, only some of which I’ve named here. I’d love to hear about other ways the ease of information distribution has helped with physicians’ career choice.

About: Mehul Sheth DO is a physician executive with Allscripts and career coach. His expertise is at the intersection of medicine, technology and social media, having used Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to effectively engage with a wide variety of nonclinical jobs and opportunities. Dr. Sheth is accessable via his LinkedIn profile and his blog at http://techpedsdoc.wordpress.com

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Want the Ideal Medical Clinic? Collaborate With Your Community

By Pamela L. Wible, MD

Dissatisfied with assembly-line medicine?Dreaming of life off the hamster wheel?

Don't wait for politician-saviors. Convene with your neighbors.

Physicians nationwide are taking a novel approach to healthcare reform: They're listening to citizens. All across America doctors and patients are joining together to create ideal clinics, hospitals, and regional healthcare systems based on the real needs and wishes of the communities they serve. Could the future of American health care begin in your own backyard?

Physician as Public Servant

Americans typically rely on elected officials to uphold the will of the people, and for decades partisan struggles have prevented meaningful healthcare reform. Given current repeal efforts, outcomes are never guaranteed. But now physicians—traditionally confined to our exam rooms—are taking direct action to fulfill community needs.

In 2004 an epiphany led me into neighborhoods to meet face to face with citizens in my hometown of Eugene, OR. I thought, "Why wait for legislation? Why wait for another election? I'm an MD, fully licensed, board-certified in family medicine. What's stopping me from serving the public?"

I began by hosting town hall meetings and inviting ordinary citizens to help me create the clinic of their dreams.

From living rooms and Main Street cafes to neighborhood centers and yoga studios, I met directly with people and listened to their wisdom. Bus drivers and businessmen, housewives and healthcare workers, teachers, college students and folks of all ages gathered to design a new model, a template for the nation.

I asked each participant to imagine walking into an ideal clinic in an optimal healthcare system. Community-members shared their visions; most submitted written testimony. My job was to implement their ideas where feasible.

From nine town hall meetings over six weeks, I collected one hundred pages of written testimony, adopted 90% of the feedback, and opened our clinic one month later. For the first time my job description was written by my patients, not administrators.

A Community Prescription

What do people really want from their healthcare givers? Surprisingly, it’s nothing too extravagant. Here are their top ten recommendations, many in their own words:

1. Real relationships: People want practitioners who are fully present and willing to touch them emotionally, spiritually, and physically. One woman's simple request: "Hug me!"

2. Physician role models: Happy, healthy doctors inspire patients to live happy, healthy lives.

3. Integrative healing: People want all healing arts professionals to be working in concert for their wellbeing. They also want easily accessible, on-site complementary therapies such as massage, yoga, and acupuncture.

4. Sacred space: An ideal clinic is "a sanctuary, a safe place, a place of wisdom . . . a place where we rediscover our priorities."

5. Easy access: Same day appointments offered and everyone receives care when they need it.

6. Relaxed appointments:  Visits are, at minimum, thirty minutes. Patients want to be able to speak uninterrupted and "feel heard, understood, and cared for."

7. Patient-centered care:  One citizen's advice: "Abolish cookie cutter medicine—everybody does not need the same thing."

8. Community orientation: Patients want a doctor who is part of the community and "knows everyone by their first name . . . knows patients in a social context."

9. Creative financing: Offer your patients an array of different payment options: Consider monthly stipends for services. Offer sliding scale discounts. Accept donations, bartering, and insurance when possible.

10. Heath education:  "Transition from an acute care delivery system based on intervention to one of continuing education of all possibilities of health and wellbeing."

What Ideal Healthcare Looks Like

By soliciting community input, I was able to design my clinic to best serve my patients' needs. My practice model enables me to spend time getting to know the people I serve.

By following my community’s instructions and indications, I now work in an ideal clinic. Our cozy office is housed in a wellness center tucked into a wooded residential area. Yoga, massage therapy, counseling, and a solar-heated therapy pool with hot tub are available on-site. Before appointments, patients may relax in the hot tub instead of a waiting room. Then a short stroll along a walkway leads to a living-room-style office with overstuffed chairs and pillows.

With no administrators or staff, patients enjoy direct 24/7access to their doctor by phone and email. Appointments are thirty to sixty minutes long, scheduled on weekday afternoons and evenings. Sessions begin on time—guaranteed—or patients get to choose a present from the gift basket. I do accept most insurance plans. Uninsured patients receive a 30% discount for payment-in-full at time of service. Alternatively, patients may trade skills such as massage or donate handmade items to the gift basket.  Nobody is turned away for lack of money.

A Populist Movement

Open since 2005, our model has inspired many other physicians to recapture their dreams and reinvent their careers by collaborating with citizens to design innovative clinics. Hundreds of ideal practices are now open nationwide.

Inspired citizens and loyal patients rally around these novel community-designed practices: Volunteers donate hand-sewn flannel gowns; Citizens mail unsolicited checks; Patients assist with billing and office work. It’s quite amazing what happens when patients and physicians actually work together!

Now hospitals are joining the movement. In October 2010, a hospital system in western Wisconsin—inspired by our clinic—invited citizens to design their dream hospitals. The desires of disenfranchised groups—from school kids and the elderly, to the Amish community and Hmong immigrants—were specifically sought and embraced.

Over one thousand people attended events, sharing heartfelt visions through written and verbal testimony. The hospital even had children submit drawings. Implementation is now underway, and as America's first dream hospital becomes reality, more and more hospitals will follow its lead.

What's they key to delivering ideal health care? Put patients--not politicians or corporations--in charge! Why wait for Washington? Follow Wisconsin.

A Cure for Frustrated Physicians

My parents—both physicians—warned me not to pursue medicine. Today, my colleagues continue to steer young people away from a career in medicine. Why? Here's a partial list of grievances: low reimbursement, loss of autonomy, patient overload, loss of respect, the malpractice crisis, bureaucratic red tape, corruption. At a time when America is in greatest need of primary care physicians, our numbers are decreasing (See Escape From McMedicine)

According to a survey by the Physicians’ Foundation, half of all primary care docs have considered leaving medicine (The Physicians' Foundation Survey, Merritt Hawkins & Associates. November 2008.). Some transition into pharmaceutical or insurance company positions. Others opt for administration or early retirement. In my last employed position at a five-physician practice, four female physicians left medicine to pursue teaching, homemaking, waitressing, and other "more meaningful" careers.

Most who don't escape become victims. Three quarters now believe medicine is less rewarding or no longer rewarding, and claim they are overextended, overworked, or at full capacity. Many physicians—having lost their dreams, their inspiration for practicing medicine—simply function in survival mode.

So what's the solution?

Singer Joan Baez once said:  "Action is the antidote to despair." Physicians are in a unique position to bypass partisan discord and enact real change. I believe it's time to step out of our offices and embrace our communities. I realize doctors don't usually ask for help, but sensible solutions are literally right next-door. I looked everywhere for answers, but it was ordinary citizens in my hometown who came to my rescue. They designed our clinic, saved my career, and helped me find a way out of my misery.

I invite you to talk with your neighbors, to engage with your community, and most importantly, to act on what they tell you!

Resources:
Ideal clinics:  http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/ideal-clinic.php
Ideal hospitals:  http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/ideal-hospital.php

About: Pamela L. Wible, MD is a pioneer of community-designed medical practice. Her model has sparked a populist movement that has inspired the creation of Ideal Clinics & Hospitals nationwide. Her community-designed model is featured in the Harvard School of Public Health’s newest edition of Renegotiating Health Care: Resolving Conflict to Build Collaboration. Dr. Wible's site is at http://www.idealmedicalcare.org

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