Physicians don't network.
In a world where business executives, healthcare administrators, and tech leaders instinctively understand the value of networking, the voices of those at the bedside have been sidelined. Networking wasn't part of our training, it's not emphasized in our careers, and this gap has left us ill-equipped to make meaningful change in healthcare at a systems level. We need to embrace networking for three critical reasons: to have our voices heard in the rooms where decisions are made, to reduce burnout through genuine connection, and to preserve our humanity as AI transforms medicine.
To Have Our Voices Heard
Throughout my education, the message was clear: grades and accolades were everything. Extracurriculars, volunteering, and leadership were simply resume necessities. The formula was simple: get a 5.0 GPA and high MCAT score, get into a great med school. Then get high honors, AOA, high Step scores, publish research, match into a great residency. All to reach the coveted attending level where you'd finally have autonomy to care for patients and, depending on your specialty, maybe make the big bucks, buy the dream house, splurge on that Italian villa vacation. Focus on the doctoring and academics, and you'll make it where you need to go. It was a very individualistic development process.
Except the reality on the other end doesn't work that way.
Healthcare is a business, and generations before us said, Leave that to the business folk.
Those business folk are now the ones attending galas, hosting events, having secret meetings in Jackson Hole—the ones moving the needle on healthcare policy and operations, often in ways that make our jobs harder. During medical school, I remember barely having events to connect with other healthcare disciplines. We barely even had structured opportunities to get to know students in different classes. In residency, the focus was consistently to go to work, get your job done, and go home. In the extra year I took during medical school to obtain an MBA in health management and policy, I had about one networking event available per week. There were structured monthly gatherings, and students and faculty constantly shared opportunities outside our institution.
That's where I learned the truth: these human interactions are where things actually happen and get done. The combination of leaving business to the business people
and our lack of networking opportunities has left physicians at a profound disadvantage. We're not in the rooms where decisions get made. We're not at the table where policies are shaped. And we struggle to coalition-build to get our opinions heard.
To Reduce Burnout Through Connection
In a 2018 Athenahealth survey of almost 1,400 practicing physicians, 25% reported feeling isolated at least once a week. Those reporting higher frequencies of isolation were also more likely to show signs of burnout. We're awful at asking for help. What's worse is not having people to turn to when we finally do. That help might be as simple as talking through a career decision or finding a new job opportunity, or it might be as critical as having a trusted colleague to call during a mental health crisis.
Organizations like the Healthcare Reinvention Collaborative, Medicine Forward, the Kern National Network, Physician Moms Group, the Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, and smaller groups led by physicians-turned-coaches exist to help us build community and find connections. Seeing this need, I'm building Grapevyne to help physicians and medical students find networking opportunities based on mutual interests and goals—without membership fees, without specialty silos, without geographic barriers. My goal is to facilitate warm introductions and provide resources around all facets of healthcare that impact patient care and population health, not just clinical medicine.
The benefits of networking also go beyond emotional and personal support. As I mentioned earlier, when we network, we build collective power. These connections give us a stronger, unified voice to advocate for changes in how we work—whether that's influencing EMR workflows, pushing back against administrative burdens, or shaping policies that actually support patient care. This collective voice restores the autonomy and control over our work that we've been steadily losing. And when we have more say in how we practice medicine, when we're not constantly fighting systems designed without our input, burnout and moral injury decrease. The connections we make don't just give us someone to talk to; they give us the power to change what we're talking about.
Isolation isn't just uncomfortable; it's dangerous.
To Stay Human in the Age of AI
How does networking factor into AI? It’s widely accepted, thankfully, that physicians’ input, and the input of other patient-facing clinicians, is vital to the safe and effective adoption of AI technologies in medicine. But beyond that, as AI becomes embedded in every aspect of our work, we need to sharpen the human skills that distinguish us from algorithms.
This is gonna sound a little fru-fru, but stay with me: the hand on a patient's shoulder, the ability to look someone in the eyes with both cognitive and emotional empathy, and then act on empathic concern, that's irreplaceable (at least for now?). The more we form social connections, engage in small talk and deep conversations, the better we become at the human elements that no AI can replicate. Yes, AI avatars can deliver empathic statements and apologize with programmed emotion. But they can't build trust through years of presence. They can't read the room. They can't pivot based on what isn't being said. At least not yet?
So in the bigger picture of this AI-powered transformation, the importance of human connection and network goes far beyond personal career advancement. It’s also about practicing the very skills that will keep us essential.
Say Hello
Over the years, physicians have lost tremendous autonomy. In the years ahead, systems will continue adopting technology that's cheaper, more efficient, and maybe even deliver care the way consumers want it, not necessarily how we know it should be delivered. If we're not networking, we're not influencing these decisions. If we're not connecting, we're burning out in isolation. If we're not practicing our humanity, we're becoming obsolete.
Start small. Schedule a 20-minute call with someone who shares an interest of yours, grab a coffee with that specialist who isn’t in your department. Offer to connect them with someone in your network as you learn about their interests. Join a community like Grapevyne to meet physicians interested in everything from medical journalism to launching a medical device startup to simply finding sustainable joy in full-time clinical practice.
Now go out and say hi to someone. Your voice in healthcare, your well-being, and your irreplaceable role in medicine depend on it.
