The relationship between physicians and the larger healthcare system is incredibly complex, raising difficult questions about patient care, advocacy, and the role of doctors in shaping public policy. In this episode, we explore these critical issues and the realities faced by healthcare providers today.

Our guest is Bruce Scott, MD, an otolaryngologist and 2024 – 2025 President of the American Medical Association (AMA). Motivated by a serious childhood injury and the life changing care he received, Dr. Scott subsequently pursued a career dedicated to surgery and health care advocacy. In this conversation, he shares his experiences as a surgeon, dealing with intricate procedures and urgent decisions, and discusses the importance of physician involvement in healthcare policy amid today's deeply polarized environment.

Dr. Scott reflects on his own path to leadership within the AMA and underscores the impact that organized medicine can have on public health, health care access, and physician well-being. He provides insights into how the AMA navigates complex political challenges, addresses physician burnout, and promotes practical solutions to administrative burdens. We also discuss emerging issues such as the responsible integration of artificial intelligence in clinical settings, rebuilding patient trust in medical expertise, and the broader implications of physician burnout and mental health.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

2:48 - The life-changing injury that led Dr. Scott to a career as an a surgeon

14:34 - How Dr. Scott became involved with advocacy at the American Medical Association

21:27 - How the AMA’s work has been altered by the high levels of politicization around medicine

28:27 - The challenges that physicians struggle with today

32:47 - How the AMA works to maintain the public’s trust in doctors and the medical establishment

37:33 - The AMA’s plan for navigating AI integration in a way that benefits doctors, not healthcare and insurance companies

42:33 - How the AMA approaches the epidemic of physician burnout

49:14 - Dr. Scott‘s recommendations for how to get involved in policy and advocacy.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2025

George Mark Children's House is a pediatric palliative care center in California that provides respite and hospice for children with serious illnesses and their families. In March 2025, we heard the personal story of the House’s director. In this episode, we have been invited on site to speak with someone whose life has been touched by the House.

Our guests are Kaitlyn, a young woman living with epilepsy, her mother Liz, and Kyle, a child life specialist. Kaitlyn has lived with seizures since she was two years old. Over the years, the condition has shaped nearly every aspect of her life, from her time in and out of hospitals to the way she relates to friends, school, and her own identity. In this conversation, she talks about what it feels like to have a seizure, what she's learned from years of living with uncertainty, and how art, humor, and relationships have helped her make sense of it all. Liz, her mother, shares what it was like to first notice something was wrong, how hard it was to find her footing in a world of medical jargon and evolving diagnoses, and what long term caregiving has taught her about patience, advocacy, and perspective.

This is not a story about overcoming illness or finding easy silver linings. It's a story about making room for a full life with joy, difficulty, grief, and connection, often all at once. And it's about the role of a place like George Mark, which offers families something rare — not just health care, but space to feel human in the midst of it all.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

3:20 - Kaitlyn’s epilepsy experience, through both her and her mother’s eyes

14:00 - How Kaitlyn developed a positive outlook on epilepsy

16:30 - How Kaitlyn’s family found George Mark Children’s House

23:30 - The role of a child life specialist

28:15 - Supporting a child through the physical, emotional and spiritual challenges of their illness

29:56 - How epilepsy has shaped Kaitlyn’s views on life’s priorities and challenges, and how it has shaped her mother’s view of parenting

40:00 - Kyle’s perspectives on helping children and families through some of life’s toughest experiences

43:08 - The qualities that Kaitlyn feels a doctor should have to best connect with their patients

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2025

If you were asked to build a medical school from scratch, how would you do it? It's not a chance most of us get — but that was exactly the task given to our guest on this episode, Sharmila Makhija, MD, MBA. Dr. Makhija is a gynecologic oncologist by training, a clinician who has spent her career working with patients through some of life's most vulnerable and uncertain moments. She has also served as chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Montefiore Health System in New York, and before that, at Emory University.

Most recently, and most notably, she is Founding Dean of the new Alice Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville, Arkansas. Here, she has taken on the ambitious and deeply human task of creating a medical school that doesn't just teach medicine, but reimagines its purpose. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Makhija shares how her parents were instrumental to helping her find meaning in medicine, how she accompanies patients through serious illnesses, and the quiet but transformative power of presence. We then hear how she got the opportunity to create a new medical school — so new, in fact, that they are matriculating their first class in July 2025 — and her vision for preparing future doctors to face the technological, societal and professional uncertainties of medicine in the coming decades.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

2:45 - What drew Dr. Makhija to a career in medicine, and specifically to her clinical focus in gynecological oncology

11:10 - How Dr. Makhija learned how to support patients through some of the hardest moments of their lives, and her advice on guiding patients through a poor prognosis

25:22 - Dr. Makhija’s to becoming Founding Dean of the Alice Walton School of Medicine

32:00 - The school’s approach to creating a new medical curriculum

45:51 - Experiences that have surprised Dr. Makhija on her leadership journey

48:38 - How Dr. Makhija plans to equip her students to face the rapid changes that are transforming the medical field

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2025