Meet our Leadership Team

We are a new organization of doctors whose mission is to stand up for what is sacred in medicine — our relationship with our patients

 
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Esther Choo, MD MPH is an emergency physician and researcher who studies health disparities, substance use disorders, and gender bias. She obtained her MD from Yale University, did her clinical training at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Boston Medical Center, and completed a health services research fellowship at Oregon Health & Sciences University. She has published over 65 research manuscripts on substance use disorders, health disparities, gender bias, and emergency care.

 
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Gabe Charbonneau, MD is a rural family physician and high-tech entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Fluent Systems, an EHR automation software company. He serves as EHR faculty at Practicing Excellence, and has been a physician advisor to the AI scribe companies, Tenor and Saykara. He is also the passionate creator of the #FightBurnout movement on social media, and FightBurnout.org. Gabe lives and practices in Stevensville, Montana.

 
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Tatiana M. Prowell, MD is an Associate Professor of Oncology in the Breast Cancer Program at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Breast Cancer Scientific Liaison at the US FDA. She is a frequent public speaker and a passionate medical educator and mentor. She was a member of the Biden Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel Cancer Immunology Working Group and is the Immediate Past Chair of the ASCO Annual Meeting Education Committee. She has received FDA’s Excellence in Communication Award, the ASCO/AACR Merrill Egorin Mentorship Award, the John and Samuel Bard Medal in Science or Medicine, and a Webby Special Achievement Award for use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Prowell received her BA degree from Bard College in Languages and Literature and completed medical school, internal medicine residency, and medical oncology fellowship training at Johns Hopkins. She lives with her husband and three children in Maryland.

 
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Louise Aronson, MD MFA is a leading geriatrician, writer, educator, and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The author of the New York Times bestseller Elderhood, she is a regular contributor to the New York Times and the New England Journal of Medicine among other publications. Recognition of Louise’s work includes a MacDowell fellowship, four Pushcart nominations, the American Geriatrics Society Clinician-Teacher of the Year award, and a Gold Professorship for Humanism in Medicine. She lives in San Francisco.

 
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Sanjay Desai, MD is the Director of the Osler Medical Residency and Vice-Chair for Education in the Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. He holds appointments in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, General Internal Medicine and the Carey School of Business. He chairs the Executive Committee of the iCOMPARE study group whose outcomes on-duty hours in graduate medical education were recently published in a series of articles in the New England Journal of Medicine. He is also PI for an AMA Reimagining Residency grant establishing a multi-institutional laboratory measuring how to optimize clinical skill and well-being in graduate medical education.

 
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Brian J. Dixon, MD is a psychiatrist, social justice advocate, and mental health entrepreneur. After finishing medical school at Texas A&M HSC COM and Triple Board Residency at the University of Kentucky, he founded multiple companies and movements to address the health, wealth, and cultural disparities affecting all Americans, especially those of color. He lives with his partner in Fort Worth, TX.

 
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Jenny Mladenovic, MD MBA MACP has served in several leadership roles over her 36 years in academic medicine. She currently serves as President, Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research. She is passionately committed to advancing opportunities for women to flourish in academic medicine, and thus founded the Center for Women in Academic Medicine and Research. Prior to her current position, Dr. Mladenovic was Executive Vice-President and Provost at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). Nationally, she held leadership roles in the APM, ABIM, ABMS, ASH, ACGME, and SUSME.

 
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Emily Silverman, MD is an internist at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and creator/host of The Nocturnists, a nationally-recognized medical storytelling live show and podcast that features physicians' stories of joy, sorrow, and self-discovery. She earned a writing fellowship from The MacDowell Colony, and has published writing in The New York Times and The Examined Life Journal. In 2020, she will be the Hellman Artist-in-Residence at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.

 
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Eric Topol, MD is the Founder and Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, Professor, Molecular Medicine, and Executive Vice-President of Scripps Research. He has published 3 bestseller books on the future of medicine: The Creative Destruction of Medicine and The Patient Will See You Now and latest Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again in 2019. Topol was commissioned by the UK in 2018-2019 to lead planning for the National Health Service’s integration of AI and new technologies.

 

The Problem

% of doctors responding with each concern

Survey of 15k doctors, Medscape 2019

  • Burnout 44% of all physicians - 50% women, 39% men

  • Suicide - 14% have thought of it, 1% (10k) have attempted it

  • Too many bureaucratic tasks - 59%

  • Too many hours at work - 34%

  • Increasing the computerization of practice (EHRs) - 32%

  • Emphasis on profits over patients - 17%

The Opportunity

Physicians do not have an organized professional society that represents the diverse people who comprise the profession. The largest organized group of physicians is the AMA (70% male, 62% white, 20% Under-Represented in Medicine, average age 49 years), but only 17% of the USA's doctors are members (2015 data), compared to 75% of doctors in the 1950’s.

The Solution

A new, grassroots non-profit organization of physicians whose actions are guided by uncompromising human principles. We advocate for changes in medicine that will impact healthcare today, and for generations to come.

Our Principles

  • We advocate for authentic patient-doctor relationships with sufficient time and presence with every patient, cultivating optimal communication, empathy and care

  • We stand up to restore the time doctors need to think, to listen, to establish trust, and to build bonds

  • We bring physicians together to elevate and spread our shared voice

  • We place the highest value on diversity and inclusivity

  • We speak up on societal and global issues that impact health

  • We actively confront the transformational challenges that lie ahead for the medical profession

  • We put humanistic patient care before the business of medicine

Traction

  • We have already attracted some of the top leaders with diverse backgrounds in medicine today

  • We are poised to reach a broad network of influencers

Structure

  • Non-profit - 501(c)(3)

  • $5/y membership

Use of Funds

  • Grow and support our community

  • Operating expenses:  website, social network, content creation, events, travel, salaries, fundraising

Questions, comments, and feedback are always welcome

We are committed to doing our very best to develop this organization to serve our mission of restoring & protecting the doctor-patient relationship