Welcome back to On/Offcall!

This week marked National Women Physicians Day, and we were excited to celebrate just a few of the many remarkable women physicians who appeared on Offcall this past year, as well as those who regularly show up for their patients and advocate for progress across the profession. At Offcall, we’re working toward a future where every physician, regardless of gender, has access to transparency, leverage, and support, and we’ll continue to do our part to amplify the work of the incredible women who are carrying that legacy forward. 💪

See the 21 incredible women physicians featured this week! 

Also read this amazing post about the 7 Women Physicians You Should Know (h/t Halle Tecco), featuring Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Dr. Toyin Ajayi, Dr. Esther Choo, Dr. Megan Ranney, and more!

Know someone who would benefit from joining us? Help us grow our tent by forwarding this newsletter to your physician colleagues and subscribing here.

Fixing Primary Care, with Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum

🎙️This week on How I Doctor: We were very excited to welcome Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum, one of the most respected physician-writers in medicine who’s on a mission to fix primary care by restoring respect, trust, and professional values to the specialty. Lisa is a practicing cardiologist, thought leader at NEJM, and someone who’s spent her entire career interrogating what medicine truly values. In this deeply honest conversation with Dr. Graham Walker, she unpacks:

🧭 Why primary care is the moral and structural center of medicine
🤝 How losing clear ownership of the patient fragments care and undermines trust
📊 Why metrics, throughput, and “efficiency” often punish the very doctors doing the right thing
💡 Why fixing primary care isn’t about more technology, but restoring professional values, trust, and cultural respect
🩺 What concierge and independent models reveal about autonomy, accountability, and better care

This is a conversation every physician should hear, because how we treat primary care cuts to the heart of what we value when it comes to care, expertise, and responsibility in all of medicine.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here

Most Talked About On Offcall

Physician Spotlight: Dr. Pamela Buchanan!

5 questions with Emergency Medicine physician, TEDx speaker, and mental health advocate Dr. Pamela Buchanan

1. Pamela, what do you think the public most misunderstands about being a physician in 2026? People think doctors still control the system. We don’t. Most of us are practicing inside corporate, insurance-driven structures that limit time, autonomy, and clinical judgment. The public sees the white coat — not the prior authorizations, productivity quotas, moral injury, or emotional weight of holding life-and-death responsibility with shrinking resources. We are also not rich. We give up so much to be doctors.

2. What would you tell a first-year resident that no one told you — but should have? Medicine will take everything you don’t protect. Your time, your health, your identity, your relationships. Being a good doctor does not require self-destruction. Learn boundaries early, ask for help without shame, and remember: your worth is not measured in RVUs or how much you suffer.

3. What’s one boundary you wish you had set earlier in your career? I wish I had learned to say no to work that came at the expense of my health and family. Saying yes too often didn’t make me noble — it made me depleted. Boundaries aren’t selfish; they’re protective equipment.

4. What’s a health hack or routine you do that could benefit other doctors or patients? I prioritize nervous system regulation — sleep, movement, sunlight, and stress management — before medications when appropriate. Chronic stress drives disease. Treating it early prevents a lot of what ends up in the ER. Like when a crazy code or injury comes in …. I always take a deep breath. Then I work.

5. Do you think ChatGPT Health is good or bad for doctors? Both. AI can reduce cognitive load, improve access, and support decision-making —but only if doctors stay at the center. If it’s used to replace clinical judgment or push unsafe automation, it becomes dangerous. The real risk isn’t AI — it’s excluding physicians from how it’s implemented.

Have a response for Dr. Buchanan? Reply to this email directly, she’ll personally read every message. Also let us know who we should feature next by replying directly!

Best Things to Read This Week

What Happened to the Prestige of Being a Doctor (Medscape)
A thoughtful exploration of the sifting nature of the medical profession, featuring physician voices including Dr. Lucy Rice, Dr. Michael Barnett, Dr. Jenna Lester, Joshua Gottlieb, and more.

NHS Doctor Criticized for Revealing How Much He Earns (MSN)
A huge part of the problem that Offcall is working to combat!

The Hypertension Control Paradox: Why Is Activity Stuck? (NEJM)
From Bob Kocher and Dr. Sunny Kishore: Controlling blood pressure is one of the highest impact things we can do to reduce deaths in the U.S., so why have we been making no progress over the last decade?

Concierge Doctors Increasing At a Much Faster Rate Than Predicted (New England Public Media)
Harvard researchers say the number of doctors leaving traditional primary care to join a private membership model has almost doubled in five years, featuring Dr. Zirui Song.

Highlights From Our Community

Each week, we celebrate career milestones, launches, & other goings-on in the physician community. Have something to promote? Reply and we’ll feature you.

🫡 YES, Mark Cuban!
Mark Cuban posted his 9 suggestions for how to fix healthcare, and included one that is near and dear to Offcall: Letting doctors own hospitals! Read the entire post and weigh in here.

📚 Go and buy the book, Cassie Ferguson
Dr. Cassie Ferguson’s new book "The Only Life You Could Save" is about why physician well-being isn’t a “soft” issue, and why in a culture that increasingly devalues science and caring for our fellow human beings, we need to protect the people training to care for the rest of us. Go and check it out here! (h/t Dr. Rana Awdish)

✅ Thank you for sharing, Tiffany Moon
Anesthesiologist (and former How I Doctor guest!) Dr. Tiffany Moon created a video sharing her life advice she’s learned after 17 years as a doctor. Watch it and leave her a comment with which one resonated here!

🎥 Great video, Jimmy Turner
Money Meets Medicine Founder and CEO Dr. Jimmy Turner posted an insightful personal finance video about two different doctors, both who worked the same in residency, but who lived a different lifestyle, and where they ended up with their personal wealth later on in life. Watch it here!

‼️ Important work, Purva Rawal and Liz Fowler
Purva Rawal and Liz Fowler published a paper in Health Affairs Forefront outlining comprehensive reforms to Medicare's ACO programs to make accountable, coordinated care the baseline in Medicare – and to drive greater competition with Medicare Advantage. Read more here (h/t Dr. Soujanya (Chinni) Pulluru)

🤔 Makes you think, Amanda Xi
Dr. Amanda Xi posted a video diving head first into the controversial topic of physician training vs. other medical professionals and why it can cause mistrust in the medical system to call oneself a “doctor” when not a physician. Thoughts? Watch and add them here.

👏 Thanks for your video, Caleb Masterson
Private practice physician leader Dr. Caleb Masterson posted a fantastic explanation of physician payment reform and a call to action to email your representative. Watch it here.

🤣 We’re crying, Nimesh Patel
Indian American stand up comedian and television writer Nimesh Patel posted a video about dropping out of a pre-med program at NYU and how his parents reacted to him not becoming a doctor. 🤣 Watch it here.

🙏 Thanks for explaining, John Tran
Dr. John Tran posted an excellent breakdown of the RVU system in employed Family Medicine and why the speciality isn’t necessarily underpaid, but instead under-explained. Watch it here.

Be Sure to Sign Up for Offcall!

At Offcall, we believe physicians deserve to be heard, valued, and treated fairly. Everything we do is driven by our commitment to empowering doctors with accurate, reliable, and trustworthy data — to advocate confidently for themselves and ensure their compensation truly reflects their worth.

Learn more and sign up here

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