Professional autonomy and work-life integration remain top of mind for Texas physicians amid an evolving health care consumer market and technological landscape.
Panelists addressed those and other topics during the closing session of the Texas Medical Association’s Business of Medicine Conference in San Antonio Oct. 12. Hosted by the TMA Women Physicians Section with support from TMA Insurance Trust, the discussion, “Is There a New Business of Medicine?” encouraged resilience and camaraderie.
For many physicians, the entire medical environment is unrecognizable from their starting days, says panelist Sara Austin, MD, the chair of TEXPAC, TMA’s bipartisan political arm. When the Austin neurologist reached her residency, the only jobs she applied for were either academic or in private practice.
“That was pretty much your only choice,” Dr. Austin said. “That’s the biggest change I’ve noticed in health care and the business of medicine, is that so many doctors are employed now.”
That shift comes with both windfalls and hurdles for physicians. On the one hand, Zishan Hirani, MD, chair of TMA’s Young Physicians Section, says his employment with Kelsey-Seybold Clinic relieves professional and economic pressure.
“No one wants to be working every night, all the time,” he told conference attendees.
But for Anna Buteau, MD, who had children before attending medical school, achieving that balance required taking a different tack.
“Having autonomy over my schedule is really important,” said Dr. Buteau, panelist and member of TMA’s Council on Health Care Quality and a past TMA Leadership College scholar. “I chose private practice for that reason. I knew I would have autonomy over my day, the types of patients I would see, [and] decision making.”
To achieve such successful outcomes for physicians in any setting, moderator and Women Physicians Section Chair Maria Monge, MD, says collaboration is key.
“If you’re trying to meet the needs of everybody in your organization, everybody in your organization has to be at the table,” the Austin pediatric adolescent medicine physician said. “You can have those conversations and really have institutional knowledge with new knowledge coming in at the same time.”
Those conversations happen within practices, but also can happen between clinicians across the state, Cynthia Peacock, MD, chair of TMA’s Committee on Medicaid, CHIP, and the Uninsured, told the audience.
“What helped me is having a medical home,” the Sugar Land pediatrician said. “TMA is a medical home for a lot of doctors.”
TMA involvement is a long-term investment in physician success, Dr. Austin agreed.
“If you really want to be involved in shaping how medicine looks in Texas in the next 50 years, you’d better get involved,” she said.
Setting up the next generation of physicians for success also resonated with the panel. Dr. Monge emphasized “bringing physicians up so that they see the joy in medicine” and not just its sometimes-onerous business side.
Despite the heavy burdens weighing down physicians, panelists concurred that the hard work of medicine is well worth the trouble, and encouraged medical students, residents, and young physicians to stay engaged with medicine to find support. Also, Dr. Peacock implored experienced physicians to take up the mantle for younger peers.
“If you’re not doing it now, I really encourage it: Mentor young people who are in medicine,” she said.
Even while leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to reduce her daily mental load and anticipating the rollout of additional tools, Dr. Buteau noted the fixed nature of one fundamental component of patient care.
“That’s never going to erase the human relationship [patients] want,” the Austin internal medicine physician said. “You have telemedicine and all those things. But I think it needs to be rooted in a human relationship … I don’t envision that changing.”
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