Three important considerations before becoming an advocate
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Physicians who want to advocate for specific causes need to look before they leap into these roles, speakers at the virtual Women in Medicine Summit said.
One important consideration is finding the proper balance between clinical and advocacy work, according to Alice Chen, MD, a senior adviser to the COVID-19 vaccine awareness group known as Made to Save and an adjunct clinical professor at UCLA Health.
“It is very hard to figure out what is the right balance,” she said. “You have to give yourself a lot of grace and recognize that there is only so much that you can do. There also has to be a balancing voice [that asks] is [the cause] worth it?”
A second consideration is ascertaining your employer’s policies on advocacy, added Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP, a professor of medicine and the assistant dean for scholarship and discovery at UChicago Medicine.
“In terms of permission from your employer, I think it really depends on the type of place you work at,” Arora said. “I work for a private institution, where it’s very clear that I can advocate personally, but not use the platform professionally. And so, if I were signing [a petition], I often say this is my personal opinion, not the opinion of my employer.”
“Corporate medicine would probably be very different,” she continued, adding that physicians in those employment situations should review their contracts to determine the employer’s policies. Some larger health systems and institutions may have staff members who focus on health policy that can help streamline your argument, Arora added.
Another consideration should be of patient backlash, according to Chen. She provided an example of a physician who attended an event at the White House about the Affordable Care Act. Upon the physician’s return to his practice, he learned that several of his patients had left his practice.
“There are always going to be people, especially in this environment, who disagree,” Chen said. “Again, you must weigh how important is the [cause]?”
According to Arora and Chen, physicians who wish to advocate can also consider voicing their opinions by signing petitions, writing or co-signing letters to editors of publications or lawmakers, co-authoring a study that examines a particular cause or joining a professional society.
“Breaking through to the public is not easy,” Arora said. “If you can gather 50 or 60 organizations to speak out ... that’s a big thing and will generate more news.”