How I Doctor with Dr. Graham Walker

Dr. Shikha Jain, a board-certified hematologist-oncologist and founder of Women in Medicine, dives into the systemic issues plaguing female physicians in a male-dominated healthcare environment. She highlights how the current system undervalues essential invisible labor and pushes women into uncompensated roles. Shikha argues that physician burnout stems from systemic failures rather than individual shortcomings. The discussion includes actionable insights for establishing boundaries, recognizing the value of caregiving, and advocating for gender equity to enhance patient outcomes.

Dr. Tim Peck, a Harvard-trained emergency physician and healthcare entrepreneur, shares his unique insights into the U.S. healthcare system. He discusses the critical need for early intervention in emergency medicine and how telemedicine can change outcomes. Tim explores the challenges of rural healthcare deserts, including hospital closures and ambulance shortages. He emphasizes the importance of innovative payment models to prioritize patient care and shares his experiences embedding in nursing homes to uncover care gaps. His passion for reform is evident as he engages local communities and lawmakers.

Eve Cunningham has spent her career navigating the hard edges of modern medicine from delivering babies and performing gynecologic surgery to leading large health system initiatives and now serving as Chief Medical Officer at Cadence. Along the way, she’s seen firsthand why chronic disease care continues to fail patients despite more data, more technology, and more dashboards than ever before.In this episode of How I Doctor, Graham Walker sits down with Eve to unpack why clinic-based, episodic care is fundamentally mismatched to conditions like heart failure, diabetes, and hypertension. She explains why early efforts at remote patient monitoring fell flat, how change management and not technology has always been the real barrier, and why most health systems struggle to turn insight into action.The conversation moves from the realities of governance-heavy decision-making and physician burnout to what it actually takes to manage patients upstream before they land back in the ICU. Eve also shares the deeply personal connection that drives her work, including how her father’s experience with chronic illness shaped her view of what patients truly need.This is not a tech demo or a sales pitch. It’s a candid discussion about redesigning chronic disease care in a way that works for patients, clinicians, and the realities of modern medicine.What You’ll LearnWhy episodic, visit-based medicine is structurally incapable of managing chronic diseaseWhat early remote patient monitoring efforts got wrong and what has finally made them workHow change management and incentives matter more than technology aloneWhy health systems struggle to act on data, even when the answers are obviousWhat proactive, upstream care looks like when someone is actually accountable🩺 Offcall is more than a platform — it’s a community. Join today!📝 For a full transcript of this episode click HERE🎧 Subscribe to receive new How I Doctor episodes directly in your feed here: https://episodes.fm/1767429315👨‍⚕️Follow Dr. Graham Walker onLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-walker-md/IG https://www.instagram.com/ubergraham/Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/drgrahamwalker.com✉️ Join our newsletter On/Offcall here https://offcall.beehiiv.com/subscribe🟧 Follow Offcall onLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/joinoffcall/IG https://www.instagram.com/offcalldotcom/TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@offcalldotcom

David Rhew, an infectious disease physician and Global Chief Medical Officer at Microsoft, explores the future of AI in healthcare. He discusses the frustration clinicians feel with poorly designed AI systems and emphasizes the potential of agentic AI in improving diagnostic processes. David highlights successful applications in population screening and the importance of automated data capture. He advocates for AI that supplements human decision-making, enabling clinicians to focus on patient care while minimizing administrative burdens.

Mark Cuban, the entrepreneurial powerhouse and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, dives into the complexities of healthcare reform. He argues for simplicity in a system bogged down by bad actors and discusses innovative ideas like expanding medical schools and eliminating pre-authorization hurdles. Cuban critiques insurance practices that harm both patients and providers while championing transparency through his co-founded Cost Plus Drugs. He envisions a future with direct contracting and virtual hospitals, ultimately urging doctors to embrace AI to enhance care.

Dr. Eric Topol is one of the most influential voices in modern medicine. Founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and author of Deep Medicine and Super Agers, Eric has spent decades interrogating medical dogma, calling out hype, and pushing the profession toward evidence, prevention, and humanity.Dr. Graham Walker sits down with Eric for a candid conversation about why physicians shouldn’t fear AI and why when used correctly, it may be one of the most powerful tools we’ve ever had to reduce errors, restore trust, and shift medicine from late-stage treatment to true prevention. From diagnostic error and physician burnout to immune aging, GLP-1s, personalized risk prediction, and the limits of randomized trials, this episode is both a reality check and a roadmap. Eric makes the case that AI’s greatest promise isn’t automation, but rather it’s the ability to see what humans never could, identify risk earlier, and finally decouple aging from chronic disease.This isn’t a hype cycle conversation. It’s a grounded, evidence-based look at how AI could help fix what’s broken in medicine if physicians lead the way.Explore the Data📊 Want to see how your peers are actually using AI today? Download Offcall’s 2025 Physicians AI Report, featuring insights from over 1,000 physicians on daily AI use, adoption gaps, and what doctors really want from these tools:👉 https://2025-physicians-ai-report.offcall.com/What You’ll LearnWhy Eric Topol believes doctors shouldn’t fear AI and why holding it to an impossible standard may be harming patientsHow AI could dramatically reduce diagnostic error and support better clinical judgmentWhy prevention has failed historically and how AI finally makes it possible at scaleThe difference between AI hype and evidence-backed breakthroughs physicians should actually care aboutHow personalized, data-rich medicine may reshape trials, training, and the future role of the physician🩺 Offcall is more than a platform — it’s a community. Join today!📝 For a full transcript of this episode click HERE🎧 Subscribe to receive new How I Doctor episodes directly in your feed here: https://episodes.fm/1767429315👨‍⚕️Follow Dr. Graham Walker onLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-walker-md/ IG https://www.instagram.com/ubergraham/ Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/drgrahamwalker.com ✉️ Join our newsletter On/Offcall here https://offcall.beehiiv.com/subscribe 🟧 Follow Offcall on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/joinoffcall/ IG https://www.instagram.com/offcalldotcom/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@offcalldotcom Mentioned in this episode:This Episode is Sponsored by AbridgeAbridge is the leading AI platform that drafts structured, clinically useful notes at the point of conversationAbridge Sponsor

This discussion dives deep into how AI is influencing the medical field, revealing that two-thirds of physicians use it daily. While many see AI as a tool to ease administrative tasks, concerns about organizational control and decision support linger. Dr. Graham highlights surprising adoption rates and emphasizes the need for physician input in AI strategies. He also pitches innovative 'dream tools' and stresses the importance of user-centered design to avoid past EHR rollout mistakes. Overall, it's a conversation balancing optimism with critical caution.

Independent primary care isn’t a relic of the past — it’s becoming the future of American medicine. In this episode of How I Doctor, Dr. Graham Walker talks with two leaders helping drive that shift: Dr. Umar Bowers, an internist who left a major health system to build the practice he always envisioned, and Dan Bowles, General Manager of Practice Health at Aledade , the physician-led company enabling thousands of doctors to stay independent, financially stable, and clinically autonomous.Umar shares his personal journey from rising frustration inside a large employed medical group to opening Dawson Medical Group with the support of Aledade. He explains what independence really means, why he had zero fear stepping out of the system, and how value-based care became the engine that allowed his practice to thrive. You can read more of his story in Aledade’s physician success profile or connect with him directly on LinkedIn.Dan offers a rare inside look at why so many doctors feel trapped in employment, what’s driving the national shift back toward physician-led care, and how Aledade’s data, contracting expertise, and ready-made community of independent clinicians help doctors cross the bridge to autonomy instead of trying to swim it alone.This isn’t another story about burnout or bureaucracy, it’s a roadmap for physicians who want their careers, their schedules, and their practices back. Whether you’re considering independent practice or simply want to understand the movement reshaping primary care, this episode shows how doctors are taking back control of the profession, one practice at a time.What You’ll LearnWhy independent primary care is resurging and how value-based care is creating new financial stability for small practices.How Dr. Umar Bowers built his own practice from scratch and why he had zero fear leaving a major health system.What Aledade’s turnkey model actually provides, from startup capital and contracting support to data, workflows, and a nationwide physician community.How doctors can reclaim autonomy, flexibility, and clinical decision-making power without sacrificing income, infrastructure, or patient care.🩺 Offcall is more than a platform — it’s a community. Join today!📝 For a full transcript of this episode click HERE🎧 Subscribe to receive new How I Doctor episodes directly in your feed here: https://episodes.fm/1767429315👨‍⚕️Follow Dr. Graham Walker onLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-walker-md/ IG https://www.instagram.com/ubergraham/ Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/drgrahamwalker.com ✉️ Join our newsletter On/Offcall here https://offcall.beehiiv.com/subscribe 🟧 Follow Offcall on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/joinoffcall/ IG https://www.instagram.com/offcalldotcom/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@offcalldotcom Mentioned in this episode:This Episode is Sponsored by AbridgeAbridge is the leading AI platform that drafts structured, clinically useful notes at the point of conversationAbridge Sponsor

This Thanksgiving, we’re pressing pause on the chaos of clinical life to honor the physicians, nurses, and healthcare workers who keep showing up tired, hopeful, frustrated,and inspired. In this special “Best Of” episode, Dr. Graham Walker revisits five conversations that have sparked the most messages, DMs, forwarded links, and late-night reflection from our listeners. These clips come from leaders who’ve helped all of us re-examine the work, the system, and ourselves:Featured Episodes & LinksDr. Shiv Rao is a cardiologist, entrepreneur, and the CEO and co-founder of Abridge, the physician-founded AI company transforming how clinical conversations become care.Listen to The Physician AI Conversation: How Doctors Can Drive the AI Era in Medicine Forward with Abridge CEO Dr. Shiv RaoDr. Danielle Ofri is an internist at Bellevue Hospital, clinical professor at NYU, and one of the most widely read physician-writers of our time. Listen to Medicine’s Broken Promises: Dr. Danielle Ofri on Greed, Trust, and Why the System Survives on Exploiting CliniciansMark Cuban is a business mogul, the “Shark” every entrepreneur wants to make a deal with, the former owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and, most recently, an online pharmacy CEO.Listen to Mark Cuban: How I’d Reform Healthcare If I Were in ChargeDr. Vineet Arora is the Dean for Medical Education at the University of Chicago and one of the nation’s leading voices on equity, leadership, and physician well-being.Listen to Why Women Physicians Still Earn Less — and What We Can Do About It With Dr. Vineet AroraDr. Ali Chaudhary is an emergency physician, entrepreneur, and one of the leading voices helping doctors reclaim control over their careers.Listen to Breaking Free from W-2 Medicine: The Physician’s Guide to Locum Tenens with Dr. Ali ChaudharyWhat You’ll LearnDr. Shiv RaoWhy AI adoption is accelerating inside health systems faster than anyone expected and how clinicians can shape the guardrails, not get steamrolled by them.Dr. Danielle OfriThe “unbroken chain” of clinicians and why modern healthcare quietly relies on exploiting professionalism to keep the system from collapsing.Mark CubanHow insurance design, pre-auth delays, and underpayment schemes shift financial risk onto physicians while confusing patients — and why it’s not your fault.Dr. Vineet AroraHow women residents fall three months behind in milestone advancement by graduation — and the narrative biases in feedback that fuel the promotion gap.Dr. Ali ChaudharyWhy the traditional W-2 model is structurally unstable — and how locums work can restore autonomy, income stability, and control over your life.🩺 Offcall is more than a platform — it’s a community. Join today!🎧 Subscribe to receive new How I Doctor episodes directly in your feed here: https://episodes.fm/1767429315👨‍⚕️Follow Dr. Graham Walker onLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-walker-md/ IG https://www.instagram.com/ubergraham/ Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/drgrahamwalker.com ✉️ Join our newsletter On/Offcall here https://offcall.beehiiv.com/subscribe 🟧 Follow Offcall on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/joinoffcall/ IG https://www.instagram.com/offcalldotcom/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@offcalldotcom

Dr. Kalie Dove-Maguire is an emergency physician, health-tech leader, and the President and Chief Product Officer at Evidently — a physician-founded company building clinical decision support tools designed to earn trust, not replace judgment. After years on the frontlines, Kalie saw firsthand how critical information gets lost in the noise, how clinicians compensate for broken workflows, and how better tools could prevent avoidable harm. That realization ultimately pushed her from the ER to the product world, where she now designs AI systems that surface the right data, cite their sources, and respect the mental work only clinicians can do.In this episode of How I Doctor host Dr. Graham Walker sits down with Kalie to talk about about why AI must be transparent, why judgment can’t be automated, and what it really takes to create decision support clinicians actually want in their workflow. From the emotional weight of missed findings in residency to shipping software with guardrails, Kalie explains how Evidently approaches trust, verification, and workflow design in a way that empowers physicians.This isn’t just a conversation about AI. It’s a look at how doctors can shape the tools that guide their practice, protect clinical judgment, and help build the next generation of decision support that clinicians rely on.What You’ll LearnWhy clinical decision support fails when it ignores physician judgment — and how Evidently builds tools that do the opposite.How Kalie’s ER experience shaped her approach to product design, safety, and transparency.The difference between predictive models, LLMs, and workflow-level AI — and why lumping them together creates misconceptions.How Evidently “shows its work” by surfacing evidence, matching data to action, and earning clinician trust over time.Practical lessons for physicians considering a transition into tech, entrepreneurship, or product roles.Why the future of AI in medicine is augmentation, not automation — and why the “AI resident” metaphor matters.🩺 Offcall is more than a platform — it’s a community. Join today!📝 For a full transcript of this episode click HERE🎧 Subscribe to receive new How I Doctor episodes directly in your feed here: https://episodes.fm/1767429315👨‍⚕️Follow Dr. Graham Walker onLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-walker-md/ IG https://www.instagram.com/ubergraham/ Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/drgrahamwalker.com ✉️ Join our newsletter On/Offcall here https://offcall.beehiiv.com/subscribe 🟧 Follow Offcall on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/joinoffcall/ IG https://www.instagram.com/offcalldotcom/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@offcalldotcom Mentioned in this episode:This Episode is Sponsored by AbridgeAbridge is the leading AI platform that drafts structured, clinically useful notes at the point of conversationAbridge Sponsor