On this episode of the Family Docs Podcast, Dr. Cynthia Chen-Joea discusses physician wellness and the pursuit to recapture the joy in medicine with Drs. Lauren Brown-Berchtold and Kim Yu. 

Guests:

• Cynthia Chen-Joea, DO, MPH, CPH, FAAFP - Dr. Cynthia Chen-Joea is a physician career and life coach, double board-certified in Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine, and the founder of Thrivation, dedicated to coaching early-career physicians break free from burnout and build sustainable, fulfilling careers. She is also the co-founder of Physician Contract Negotiation, empowering physicians to advocate for their worth and navigate their careers with confidence. She serves as the Director of Inpatient Medicine at Charles Drew Family Medicine Residency Program and Medical Director of Copa de Oro Medical Group.  Her previous leadership positions include, Physician Advisor, Secretary-Treasurer of the Medical Staff and Department Chair of Family Medicine at Emanate Health.   A passionate advocate for physician well-being and healthcare transformation, Dr. Chen-Joea has held multiple leadership roles at the local, state, and national levels working in advocacy within her specialty organization. She currently serves as the New Physician member on the AAFP Board of Directors, working to create a more sustainable future in medicine.  

• Kim Yu, MD, FAAFP, DABFM - Dr. Kim Yu is a national and international speaker, executive family physician leader, past president of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, and current Speaker of the California Academy of Family Physicians. Based out of California, Dr. Yu lives to #inspirecreatelead and currently works at the American Board of Family Medicine as the PRIME National Strategy Consultant and as Director of Health Care Strategy at KCS Inc., a multisite FQHC in Orange County, CA, serving the Asian community and the underserved in Southern California. Dr. Yu has served as the chair for the AAFP's Global Health Member Interest Group and as convener for WONCA's Special Interest Group in Health Equity. She currently serves on the AAFP delegation to the AMA, Wonca Working Party of Women in Family Medicine - USA country lead,  and has interests in physician wellbeing, population health, practice management, health IT, value based care, global health, health equity, advocacy, disaster relief, and a wide range of primary care topics. 

• Lauren Brown-Berchtold, MD, FAAFP -  Dr. Lauren Brown-Berchtold is the program director for the Valley Consortium for Medical Education (VCME) Family Medicine Residency program in Modesto, California. She previously was a core faculty member and later program director of San Joaquin General Hospital for 8 years in total. She graduated from Keck School of Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, then joined John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, to complete her family medicine residency and Maternal-Child Health fellowship equivalent training. Dr. Brown-Berchtold is a fervent advocate for physician mental health protections and burnout prevention, and spends a lot of extracurricular time working on this topic nationally. When away from the hospital, she loves to read as well as explore life with her husband and very active daughter!

Resources:

• https://www.aafp.org/pubs/fpm/issues/2018/0700/p38.html

• Dr. Kim Yu Finds ‘Reason for Being’ in Family Medicine Advocacy - https://www.theabfm.org/dr-kim-yu-finds-reason-for-being-in-family-medicine-advocacy/

• Ikigai - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai / https://positivepsychology.com/ikigai/ 

• 26 hours of work per day: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-022-07707-x

• Weidner AKH, Phillips RL Jr, Fang B, Peterson LE. Burnout and Scope of Practice in New Family Physicians [published correction appears in Ann Fam Med. 2018 Jul;16(4):289. doi: 10.1370/afm.2281]. Ann Fam Med. 2018;16(3):200-205. doi:10.1370/afm.2221 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5951247/

• Pixar Films mentioned - Inside Out and Inside Out 2

• Learned helplessness - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4920136/ 

• Job crafting - Amy Wrzesniewski - https://hbr.org/2010/06/managing-yourself-turn-the-job-you-have-into-the-job-you-want 

• Baader-Meinhof phenomenon / frequency illusion - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/frequency-illusion 

• Nine recs for physician wellbeing for c-suite article: Shanafelt TD, Noseworthy JH. Executive Leadership and Physician Well-being: Nine Organizational Strategies to Promote Engagement and Reduce Burnout. Mayo Clin Proc. 2017;92(1):129-146. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.10.004.  https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(16)30625-5/pdf 

• AMA Cost Of Burnout:  https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/interactive/16830405 

• Physician coaching: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2740206 

Family Medicine POP: Prism of Practice conference, September 5-7, 2025 (San Diego) - www.familydocs.org/pop

CAFP’s All Member Advocacy Meeting (AMAM), March 14-16, 2026 (Sacramento) - www.familydocs.org/amam 

Information:

The Family Docs Podcast is hosted by Rob Assibey, MD, FAAFP and Cynthia Chen-Joea, DO, FAAFP. 

The Family Docs podcast is developed, produced, and recorded by the California Academy of Family Physicians. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent or the California Academy of Family Physicians. More information at www.familydocs.org/podcast.

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