The Operating System I walked into medical school orientation in shorts and a T-shirt. Everyone else had business casual. I had showed up dressed for the wrong century. At some point that first morning, the facilitator asked us to go around the room and share three words that described us. I don’t remember most of […]
Excellence is not a destination. It is a lifelong journey. And for physicians, that journey often begins with purpose, gets distorted by performance, and is restored through truth. We started with purpose. Maybe it was the optimism of youth. Maybe a bit of naïveté. But we wanted to serve. To help. To make a difference. […]
You spent years mastering your clinical skills. You crammed for exams, fretted over simulated patient encounters, and stayed late to learn from the “interesting case” that was admitted during sign out. But, surprisingly, at some point the clinical work becomes the easy part. The real challenges are when a patient loses trust after a difficult […]
Physician Development: Growth Never Stops It was a hot August day. I walked into my first day of medical school orientation wearing shorts and a T-shirt, flanked by two roommates. One roommate I had known through all of undergrad, the other I met just a few days before through an old-fashioned “roommate needed” posting on […]
Series: Part 1: System Transformation | Part 2: Provider Solutions | Part 3 In this final installment of our three-part series, we shift the spotlight to patients and communities. The American healthcare system spends more than any other country yet delivers underwhelming outcomes: life expectancy lags peers and lifestyle-related chronic diseases are the norm. High […]
Series: Part 1: System Transformation | Part 2 | Part 3: Patient Approaches In the first article of this series, we explored how systemic dysfunction, high costs, and poor health outcomes fuel burnout among the people who deliver care. Nearly half of physicians still report symptoms of burnout, and the numbers are similar or worse […]
Series: Part 1 | Part 2: Provider Solutions | Part 3: Patient Approaches Editor’s note: This post is the first in a three-part series examining the burnout crisis in U.S. health care and outlining a blueprint for system transformation. Part 2 explores what providers need to thrive, and Part 3 examines how to build programs […]
Medicine teaches us how to care for patients. We also need to learn how to care for ourselves. As a pediatrician, I am trained to monitor development. At well visits, we assess growth and milestones. We ask about speech, motor development, social engagement, and cognitive progress. When something is not progressing as expected, support is […]
Update April 2026 Medicine should challenge you, not break you. It is a profession that demands rigor and sacrifice, but there is a meaningful difference between leaning into a healthy growth edge and slipping into harmful strain. Feeling engaged, stretched, and motivated to learn is invigorating. Chronic exhaustion, cynicism, and detachment are signs something has […]
Updated April 2026 Medicine has always been challenging. For many physicians, that challenge is part of the draw. It is what gets you out of bed after a long shift, what motivates you to prove you can do hard things and make a real difference. But in 2026, working in healthcare has become more exhausting, […]
