I don’t know about you, but this month has been…a lot. Between the L.A. fires, the confusing health-related executive orders, RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearings, and now this tragic D.C. plane crash, it’s hard not to feel consumed by recent headlines.

Everywhere we turn, physicians, and all healthcare professionals, are being put to the test: Will NIH funding freezes compromise the future of clinical research? Could drug development slow due to looming budget cuts? Will we be prepared for the next public health crisis after pulling out of the W.H.O.? Will infectious disease rates (and ER visits!) skyrocket if anti-vaccine skepticism takes root? Will rural AI health robots replace us?

With so many unknowns, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed or even defeated. I personally felt weighed down by these heavy questions several times this week. But then I remembered a different truth: That particularly in moments like these, there’s nothing more cathartic than having a community to lean on. As I’ve lamented before, we as physicians lack authentic digital spaces for connection (long gone are the days of the physicians’ lounge) — which is why I couldn’t be prouder of the community we’re building together at Offcall. I want this to be a space where we lift each other up. A space where we can collaborate, commiserate, and cheer one another on.

Navigating life, and our careers, is more fulfilling as a team. So thank you for being here. Whatever you’re feeling right now is normal. In fact, I’d bet someone else feels the same way.

Graham Walker, MD, Emergency Physician

Co-founder, Offcall

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White Coat Investor Founder Jim Dahle Won’t Quit Until Doctors Stop Getting Scammed

This week on How I Doctor, Graham spoke with Jim Dahle, an emergency medicine physician who’s best known as the founder of the White Coat Investor. Jim started blogging about personal finance for physicians almost 15 years ago. And he’s as determined as ever to help physicians with every aspect of money management — whether protecting them from predatory financial advisors, recommending investing strategies, or debunking misconceptions about loan repayment. Jim shares practical tips on saving, spending and building wealth over time, as well as the lessons he’s learned from his own career in medicine.

Listen to the episode →

Most Talked About On Offcall

3 Things to Read This Week

KFF Poll on Health Information and Trust: January 2025 → (KFF)
Public trust in government health agencies has fallen, most adults are uncertain if MMR vaccines can cause autism, and more depressing findings.

National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills → (STAT News)
The federal funding freeze was supposed to be lifted for post-doc researchers relying on NSF grants, but the NSF’s online payment system stayed down.

Use and Evaluation Of AI And Predictive Models In Hospitals → (Health Affairs)
Many hospitals don’t test AI tools for bias or to see if the tools actually work with their own data, according to a new study.

Chime in — we’re physician-sourcing

We’re trying something new: Let’s crowd-source answers to a key question and publish the responses to help fellow physicians at work and in their lives.

Last week, we asked: What’s one tool (AI or otherwise), app, or work hack that you’ve used to make your life or job easier? Explain how it’s helped.

Here are a few of our favorite answers:

• @Dr. Paulius Mui: “Powerful Medical by Martin Herman holds promise to make EKG interpretation easier. Dereck Paul is pushing the boundaries of clinical decision support with Glass Health -- I usually pair it with OpenEvidence led by Daniel Nadler and Pathway by Jon Hershon. Awell by Thomas Vande Casteele seems pretty indispensable for building custom care flows if orgs want to move fast and may not have access to an in-house dev team.”

• @Dr. Christian Pean: “I think I have to highlight old fashioned GPT 4o with custom GPT functionality. I have my own prompt builder assistant, letter-writer draft-maker, research brainstorm buddy and copywriting agent rolled up in one — and chatting with GPT in real time to quickly expand on ideas and clinical innovation while on walks has been incredible. But a close second is Claude! Claude has helped me create compelling visuals for scientific research and communicate my text ideas to diagrams through their integrated react artifact builder and Mermaid Chart tool. So good for creating flow diagrams where I map out a care team workflow, a first draft of a research diagram and more.”

• @Dr. Eve Cunningham: “Gamma is PowerPoint on steroids! Just discovered this one for creating, drafting and modifying presentations. OpenEvidence is also a new bestie.”

This week, we’re asking: What’s one important thing happening in your speciality right now that you feel deserves more attention? 

Reply directly to this email, or add a comment, and we’ll publish the responses next week. Have a question you think we should ask next week? Also let us know!

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.

✍️ Congrats, Ed Yap
Dr. Yap published research in BMC Anesthesiology about a new prediction model for older patients facing emergency surgery. Read it.

✍️Well done, Mohammad Rashidian
Mohammad co-authored a paper published in Nature about a non-invasive tool for imaging inflammation. Read it.

🎙️Way to go, Arti Thangudu
Dr. Thangudu’s new podcast, Endocrine Matters, launches on February 5. Mark your calendars and subscribe.

🎈Back in the news, Brad Goldberg 
Two weeks in a row. Dr. Goldberg was interviewed by ABC7 Los Angeles and Healthcare Brew for his work in response to the L.A. wildfires.

🎤Great job, Priya Jaisinghani
Dr. Jaisinghani spoke about medication and surgical therapy during a panel hosted by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

🎊Cheers, Damon Ramsey
Dr. Ramsey is joining Quadrivia AI as CTO.

📢Funding opportunity alert!
$12 million in grant money for AI approaches to heart, vascular and brain health. Learn more. (h/t Dr. Michael McConnell.)

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