The whole world has an opinion on whether President Biden (or any older Presidential candidate) should be required to have mandatory cognitive testing… what’s yours?

In this episode of HeART of Medicine, Dr. Payal Kohli and special guest Dr. Scott Humphreys, who is a psychiatrist and a medical director at Colorado Physician Health Program, debate whether doctors should have mandatory, scheduled cognitive testing to be allowed to practice medicine. After all, being a doctor is also a profession where (literally) another person’s life is in your hands!

They also debate the pros and the cons of mandatory retirement, “quitting while you’re up” and whether doctors should be held to a different standard than other professions. For example, it may be ok for someone who works at a desk job, but would it ok for a surgeon to have “normal” age-related left-right confusion? Or slower response times? They discuss the challenges (and the hefty price tag) of comprehensive cognitive testing and implementation in medicine and how medicine creates an environment where cognitive issues are exacerbated. Finally, they touch on what happens when someone fails the cognitive test - how do you take away their ability to practice medicine while still preserving their identity as a doctor?

This episode humanizes the figure in the white coat and asks “Is Mandatory Retirement Just What The Doctor Ordered?”