Describing her own path as a physician leader, Deborah M. Shlian, MD, MBA, also shares her book plan and the resulting project with 30+ contributors to the book published by the American Association for Physician Leadership, Lessons Learned: Stories from Women Physician Leaders. Fascinating stories from women in leadership roles – as models and templates for other physicians.

Further, Shlian discusses with host Mike Sacopulos the main reasons keeping women from leadership roles, the statistics on women in medical school and medical training, and COVID-19 and its impact on women physicians.

Shlian is a board-certified family practitioner with more than three decades of clinical and management experience. She has been able to balance work-life with writing, producing several nonfiction articles, chapters, and books on medical management issues. She also writes fiction. Her works of fiction have won literary awards, including the Florida Book Award’s Gold Medal.

https://www.physicianleaders.org/publications/books/lessons-learned-stories-from-women-physician-leaders

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org.

Brenda Denzler, PhD, is an author and editor. Her career as an editor and writer was cut short after her diagnosis with inflammatory breast cancer in 2009, at which time she was also diagnosed with treatment-related medical PTSD springing from medical encounters she had experienced at the age of five. After a difficult and re-traumatizing (but successful) course of cancer treatment, she began writing short pieces focused on cancer and, increasingly, on mPTSD that were published in local venues, on the Cure Today website, on MedPage Today, and in the British Medical Journal. The Facebook support group that Brenda Denzler moderates for treatment-related medical PTSD now has 1000 members.

In Brenda Denzler’s discussion with Mike Sacopulos, she describes how patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, caused by past medical treatments, choose to call themselves “treatment-traumatized” patients although healthcare professionals may categorize these patients as, “difficult.”

The American Association for Physician Leadership takes the opportunity to share Brenda’s story with the SoundPractice audience of physicians and inter-professional healthcare providers.

A complete list of her health-related work can be found at: https://muckrack.com/brenda-denzler

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org

Healthcare can be tough on patients, clinicians, and administrators who work in the system. Clinicians are burning out at alarming rates; depression and suicide are on the rise. Patients often feel alone in a complex system, and administrators balance competing demands in what feels like a zero-sum game.

Enter COVID. Our healthcare system, and our country, has never seen anything like it. We need empathy and human connection now more than ever.

Jennifer Sweeney is a co-founder of X4 Health and the co-creator of 3rd Conversation, an innovation program that brings together patients, clinicians, and health system leaders to connect deeply, build trust, and develop bi-directional empathy.

A trained leadership coach and patient advocate, Jennifer Sweeney is interviewed by host Mike Sacopulos on strategies for healthcare administrators and physicians to have the best outcomes.

www.X4Health.com

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org

Host Mike Sacopulos interviews Beth (Elizabeth) Garner, MD, MPH, who contributed her life and career story to the AAPL book, published in 2022, Lessons Learned: Stories from Women Physician Leaders.

Garner is currently chief scientific officer of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and president of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). She received joint MD and MPH degrees from the Harvard Medical and Public Health Schools and trained in obstetrics and gynecology at Brigham and Women’s (BWH)/Massachusetts General Hospitals. She was a 2019 awardee of the PharmaVoice 100 Most Inspiring Individuals in the life sciences industry and received the 2022 Women in Science Award from AMWA.

Physicians working to improve our healthcare system give us hope. Prepare to meet one of those extraordinary physician leaders. Dr. Garner’s story and career trajectory should inspire other physicians, other women.

@egarnermd

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org

Host Mike Sacopulos interviews Beth (Elizabeth) Garner, MD, MPH, who contributed her life and career story to the AAPL book, published in 2022, Lessons Learned:  Stories from Women Physician Leaders.

Garner is currently chief scientific officer of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and  president of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). She received joint MD and MPH degrees from the Harvard Medical and Public Health Schools and trained in obstetrics and gynecology at Brigham and Women’s (BWH)/Massachusetts General Hospitals. She was a 2019 awardee of the PharmaVoice 100 Most Inspiring Individuals in the life sciences industry and received the 2022 Women in Science Award from AMWA.

Physicians working to improve our healthcare system give us hope. Prepare to meet one of those extraordinary physician leaders. Dr. Garner’s story and career trajectory should inspire other physicians, other women.

@egarnermd

https://www.physicianleaders.org/publications/books/lessons-learned-stories-from-women-physician-leaders

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org

Physician autonomy, patient autonomy, state authority. When it comes to end-of-life issues, these spheres do not interact smoothly. Legal and medical ethical questions abound. Physicians wrestle with this important topic. This episode takes a deep dive into topics surrounding right-to-die with one of our nation’s leading medical ethicists.

Ira Bedzow, PhD, is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University, and head of the Unit of the International Chair in Bioethics at Emory University. His interests relate to understanding the ethical implications of biotechnology and healthcare policy as well as how organizations can create an ethical culture through values-driven leadership. Bedzow is also a senior scholar at the Aspen Center for Social Values, co-director of the Maimonides Institute for Medicine, Ethics, and the Holocaust (MIMEH), and a regular contributor in Forbes for their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion section. He is also an Orthodox rabbi (yoreh yoreh, yadin yadin).

Prepare for a thoughtful exploration of an important and complex topic including topics such as these:

• MAID (medical assistance in dying): Is avoiding suffering enough of a reason legally, or even morally, to take one's own life? And how does a society decide when the suffering is great enough to legally approve that choice?

• How can the U.S. create laws that would manage the nuanced individual cases that would arise in an area as sensitive as this?

Obviously, any laws on voluntary end-of-life must consider the rights of the individual to make decisions for himself or herself. But should these laws also consider the effects of an individual decision on other people, especially those who might be involved in fulfilling the person's wishes?

https://www.cuanschutz.edu/centers/bioethicshumanities/education/aspen-ethical-leadership-program-2023

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org.

Jeffrey T. Gorke is the author of The Employed Physician: Your Essential Guide to the Business of Medicine. His experience ranges from Medicare administration to running both large and small, single-specialty, privately held medical group practices to medical society management on a national level. Gorke specializes in turning around employed health systems and revenue cycle process improvement and delivering quantifiable returns on investment (ROI) for practices and health systems.

As more and more physicians opt for employed positions, either when starting their careers or transitioning from independent practice to “employee” status, or when a practice is sold or merged, this podcast interview sets the stage for giving physicians the history and elements of business know-how to succeed as an employed physician. This episode offers an important briefing on trends in employment for physicians by an accomplished official.

Jeff Gorke (678) 333-3419

Jeffrey T. Gorke is the author of The Employed Physician: Your Essential Guide to the Business of Medicine. His experience ranges from Medicare administration to running both large and small, single-specialty, privately held medical group practices to medical society management on a national level.  Gorke specializes in turning around employed health systems and revenue cycle process improvement and delivering quantifiable returns on investment (ROI) for practices and health systems.  

As more and more physicians opt for employed positions, either when starting their careers or transitioning from independent practice to “employee” status, or when a practice is sold or merged, this podcast interview sets the stage for giving physicians the history and elements of business know-how to succeed as an employed physician. This episode offers an important briefing on trends in employment for physicians by an accomplished official.

Jeff Gorke  (678) 333-3419

https://www.physicianleaders.org/publications/books/the-employed-physician-your-essential-guide-to-the-business-of-medicine

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org

As we consume news and information in different ways than in past generations, it is both an opportunity and a challenge for physicians to make use of social media platforms to inform and connect with each other … and their patients.

Mike Sacopulos interviews Umbereen Nehal, MD, MPH, FAAP, a digital health physician leader. She is an MIT Sloan Fellow MBA candidate, a former Medicaid medical director, and a former CMO.

Nehal has been named a “Top Voice” four times by LinkedIn. She is now developing a FemTech venture at MIT, combining her experiences as a patient, caregiver, payer, public servant, certified coach, physician, and advocate.

Crafting an influential presence on social media platforms, Nehal shares:

• Strategies that have had an impact on the way she practices medicine.

• How to be a patient advocate via access to patients’ perspectives and patient stories.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/usnehal

https://www.nehalgroup.com/

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org

Aimee Greeter, MPH, FACHE, is a principle at SullivanCotter in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the author of Effective Crisis Leadership in Healthcare: Lessons Learned from a Pandemic. A popular speaker across the nation, and an author of articles on topics such as hospital-physician alignment, clinical engagement, practice mergers, professional service agreements, and executive leadership, Greeter is also a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and holds a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt.

In this timely podcast, host Mike Sacopulos and Aimee Greeter discuss the elements of planning for and managing a crisis for any healthcare organization through the lens of the recent pandemic.

In addition to her work in crisis management, Greeter also specializes in helping organizations assess, develop, and implement pay and career equity initiatives and consults with employers on ways to improve fairness, transparency, and advancement for all people regardless of their gender identity, race, and ethnic background. She also collaborates closely with clients to optimize physician and advanced practice provider alignment and affiliation activities to support quality care outcomes, cost efficiencies, integrated care team delivery, and patient-centered operations.