Physician Advocacy in Action: How Doctors Can Drive Change

00:01 So what does physician advocacy look like? I will share a couple of examples here.

00:06 Again, thinking of advocacy on a spectrum.

00:10 One example is medical society affiliation.

00:14 I think it can be very overwhelming to think of yourself as an individual trying to change a law or a policy, or advocating on behalf of your patient to a an elected official.

00:28 Our medical organizations have created spaces in which we can join physician communities to advocate as a group in structured fashion to to our legislators.

00:42 I've been a part of some organizations where I've been able to influence the agenda of the organization through preparation meetings, learn legislative advocacy skills from my physician peers, and I've joined on physician advocacy days to go to the state Capitol or to the the US Capitol, to Washington, DC to advocate for such things as loopholes in colon cancer screening payments, Wi-Fi access for my rural patients, or medical student loan forgiveness program funding. In all of these cases, I'm able to bring personal stories from my experiences as a physician or translate the stories of my patients to be able to give the legislators a sense of how the policy looks in real life, and why I'm advocating for a change.

01:34 There's research and quality improvement advocacy.

01:38 The work that you're doing, whether it's in an academic medical center to get grants and collect data that you can share with the wider public, or on a health systems level, if you're a leader in your hospital to think of quality improvement initiatives.

01:52 Um, for example, we in my hospital created a multidisciplinary team ranging from physicians to nurses to physical therapists, social workers, and executive leadership of the hospital to really think about the cases of our complex patients who had increasing needs in the community and were not receiving the the care that they needed to achieve their health care goals.

02:17 And we collected quality improvement data on the existence of our committee.

02:22 And we're able to demonstrate the patient outcomes and the financial impact for hospitals and published our work for the larger health care community.

02:32 Advocacy can also be done through traditional media, like opinion articles in the newspaper or perspective pieces in medical journals.

02:43 People want to hear doctors' voices and opinions, and it's a skill to be able to translate medical jargon into compelling stories.

02:53 And, um, there's some advantages to thinking about writing for the lay press.

03:00 Often these pieces are short, based on your own experiences, and widely distributable through both local and national press.

03:09 A caveat here is that when you are publicly advocating, and especially when you're writing for advocacy, that you must be careful about how you represent yourself.

03:20 Are you an independent voice as a physician, or are you representing your institution? And you may often have to go through the public relations offices at your institution to be able to move forward some of your advocacy efforts.

03:34 Social media has also become a powerful tool for advocacy, and physicians especially have been very effective in sharing health opinions and refuting incorrect health information online.

03:50 Here in the United States, there was a large movement where doctors banded together to advocate for gun control amid the gun violence and firearm injuries that we have been experiencing in the United States.

04:06 I've given some bigger picture or more public-facing examples of advocacy, but really, you can advocate in your own practice for changes to better serve your patients, because this is the environment and the clinical space that you're seeing on a daily basis. You can change your practice to structure your care, to serve more underserved patients, or to reallocate resources, such as social workers or support programs to better serve your patients.

04:42 So some final thoughts on physician advocacy.

04:45 It is a part of the skill set of the 21st century physician.

04:49 And physicians are uniquely positioned in society to be advocates for both patients and the healthcare system.

04:56 And advocacy occurs across a spectrum of domains and formats, and you can pick what feels right for you.

05:04 Thank you for joining me today.