Doctors share their top career concerns on KevinMD. This is what they're thinking about

The situation in medicine these days is only getting worse. Doctors are leaving the profession in droves and hospitals have struggled to replace them. Budget constraints and reimbursement cuts are not helping. Staying in clinical care, therefore, often means practicing in an environment without enough support and resources.??

Being a doctor used to be one of those careers that defined you, that was core to your identity.

But these days, an increasing number of physicians want to reclaim other parts of their lives, or are looking to use their degrees – even part-time – beyond practicing medicine.

You probably know Kevin Pho, M.D. as KevinMD. I’ve been following his site for years now. And I’m not alone. The site gets 3 million page views each month and has become the authoritative place where doctors can discuss issues that are top of mind to them, and receive support and advocacy.

Pho was one of the first physicians to blog about medicine back in 2004. At first, it was a way to help educate patients. But over the next decade, his content began to go viral and Pho increasingly saw the site as a way for physicians (and other healthcare professionals) to tell their own stories.

“I think it's important for doctors to not only see what other doctors are going through – and realize that we're not alone – but also for patients and other people, not in the medical profession, to know what goes on behind the scenes,” Pho said.

In our wide-ranging interview, we talk about what he’s looking to feature on his site, the top career concerns doctors have, why it’s important for physicians to be online and what they can do if they’re struggling with burnout.

And tell me: What are your top career concerns as a clinician??What else could you do with a clinical degree?

The transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.

LinkedIn News: Tell me about why you started KevinMD and how you grew it to where it is today.

Pho: I started KevinMD.com in 2004, and I wish I could tell you I had some grand business plan. I really didn't, because back when I started, there were very few physicians who were blogging and had an online presence. But I think that that light bulb moment came when there was a drug recall, and I wrote about it on my site. And then the next day in the exam room, I was talking to a patient, and she said, “I read your blog post this morning, and I was comfortable with what you had to say,” and I realized then that online platforms can also be a way for physicians to reach patients.?

That utility only snowballed through the years, because it's so important for physicians to connect with patients on all these social platforms. That's because patients get a lot of their health information online. So what I try to do on my side is to clear up misinformation, to share stories about the profession, and have that physician-run platform where we can get those voices out to educate patients and advocate for the profession.

LinkedIn News: What kinds of articles are you looking to feature these days?

Pho: Part of it is the education piece, especially with covid, where there’s so much misinformation and so many studies. The science is evolving so quickly.

The second part is the profession itself: what are some of the challenges facing the medical profession? You hear about the Great Resignation and healthcare is no exception to that. There are a lot of obstacles that prevent physicians from practicing the best medicine. A lot of them are resigning and leaving the profession. We want to normalize the conversation when it comes to physician burnout, when it comes to physician suicide. My site is one of the only opportunities that physicians have to get their story out. It's a safe space for physicians.

LinkedIn News: You literally wrote the book on managing your online reputation. Why is it important for doctors to be active online?

Pho: Whether doctors know it or not, they already have an online reputation. If you Google any doctor's name, you’ll find a third-party site. They already have a profile on you.

I always recommend a LinkedIn profile, because that's something that is ranked pretty high on search engines and LinkedIn, of course, is connected with a professional profile. Then if physicians want to expand that footprint, I always encourage them to create their own content. If physicians don't take that proactive approach to create content that surrounds their own name, someone else is going to do it for them. It could be a negative patient review. It may be something that that physician might not want associated with their name. One of the things that I always try to impress on physicians who are a little bit skeptical about going online is that you already have an online reputation, and it's up to you to control that narrative that surrounds your name.

LinkedIn News: Other than not having a presence at all, what sorts of mistakes should doctors watch out for??

Pho: When talking about patients, you always have to be worried about privacy. There are countless stories about doctors or nurses who post pictures of patients online, or they tell stories about patients, or they put in a lot of identifying information. That's really the biggest red flag that I see. Even though they think it's something innocuous, or something funny, or something that will go viral on TikTok, just know that, eventually, people will find out.?

LinkedIn News: The American Board of Internal Medicine sparked controversy recently when they said they’d start de-credentialing doctors who post misinformation. Where do you fall on that debate?

Pho: It's very difficult when it comes to policing content online, because what is misinformation? Science is always changing. What is considered true now may be misinformation a few months later.?

I think that it goes to who can you trust? Before, I would have said you have these academic medical centers, or the government, but if I say trust the government, you know that's going to alienate a substantial portion of the population. So it goes back to humility. Is that person willing to say, “Hey, I got it wrong because the science is changing?” And is that person willing to say, “Hey, that person from the other side of the political aisle, they may have a point?”

LinkedIn News: You also provide career counseling to doctors. What are the top career concerns for physicians these days?

Pho: Doctors are realizing that we are more than our degrees. In the past, you had physicians who would see 30 patients in the clinic before coming home, and their identity would be tied to being a physician. I think that's evolved over the years, because they’re disillusioned about the profession. They're looking for a way to cut back. They're looking for a way to see their families again, to see their kids again, to have a little bit more of that work-life balance. So you're seeing a lot of physicians do other things with their degrees. This could be consulting; this could be going into real estate; this could be coaching other physicians – there are so many other career choices. And ironically, I think that doctors who find that passion outside of clinical medicine, and perhaps cut back and go part time, can actually stay in medicine longer versus those doctors who stay full time and burn out early.?

LinkedIn News: That sounds like a great shift for doctors, but maybe not for hospitals. Is there a way for them to get ahead of the trend?

Pho: A lot of hospitals are doing this already. They have to. I talk to a lot of hospital recruiters. I always say that the first thing that you need to emphasize is the balance that physicians are going to have at your job. Obviously there are going to be some physicians who are 100% invested in medicine and more power to them. But I do think that there's a growing number who do see themselves to be something else other than the clinical position.?

LinkedIn News: What is your advice to physicians who are struggling right now with burnout?

Pho: My advice is to: ask yourself, what do you want to be remembered as? I know it's a bit morbid, but when you die, what did you do??

To put it bluntly, all doctors are replaceable, so no matter how hard you work, no matter how much call you take in, no matter how long you work at that hospital, they can replace you in a second.?

I think that should evoke a lot of soul-searching in terms of what's important in their lives.?