Dr. Tina Shah Is Running for Congress. Every Doctor Should Pay Attention!

Dr. Tina Shah has spent her career at the intersection of medicine, policy, and innovation. She’s fought burnout from inside the federal government, reformed prior authorization laws at the state level, and brought AI to the bedside as a health tech executive. Now, she’s taking her fight to Congress.

This week, Dr. Shah announced her candidacy for New Jersey’s 7th congressional district and joined Offcall co-founder Dr. Graham Walker for a special Offcall conversation to share why.

“I’m fed up with what it’s like practicing on the front lines,” she said. “I took an oath to care for patients, but the way our system is designed, I literally can’t follow through. So I’m stepping up to go upstream and do something about it.”

Physicians across the country should be paying attention. Here’s why.

She’s Been on the Frontlines and in the Back Rooms Where Policy Gets Made

Dr. Shah isn’t just a practicing physician. She served as the VA’s first National Director of Clinician Wellbeing, where her EHR reforms helped 18,000 more veterans get primary care each week without burning out their doctors.

She also helped write the U.S. Surgeon General’s national strategy on clinician burnout. She’s led health AI innovation for the startup Abridge. And she helped drive bipartisan prior authorization reform that passed in New Jersey - a fight she broke down in an Offcall podcast episode earlier this year: How Physicians Led the Fight for Prior Authorization Reform in New Jersey.

Now she’s asking the obvious question: If we can pass common-sense reform at the state level, why not at the federal level?

Her Platform Puts Patients and Physicians First

From eliminating meaningless prior auth hurdles to restoring medical research funding, Dr. Shah’s campaign is laser-focused on the day-to-day issues that impact care delivery and drive clinicians out of the profession.

“This is about saving medicine,” she said. “And to be honest, it’s about bringing sanity back to the Hill.”

In their previous podcast conversation entitled 5 Effective Strategies for the Healthcare System to Support Physicians and Reduce Burnout, Dr. Shah made the case for upstream change: reduce administrative waste, embrace smart tech, and empower physicians to do the work they trained for. Her campaign platform builds directly on those goals, with a plan to leverage innovation and policy to help both patients and clinicians thrive.

She’s Part of a Growing Movement of Doctors Stepping Into the Political Arena

Dr. Shah isn’t the only one sounding the alarm. In a recent Offcall interview, Republican Congressman Dr. Greg Murphy urged physicians to get more political by voting, organizing, and donating to physician-led campaigns.

Dr. Shah is standing up and asking fellow doctors to do the same.

“I need help,” she told Offcall. “From policy ideas to fundraising to just knocking doors. If you’re a medical person listening, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

Medicine Can’t Afford to Sit This One Out

Healthcare is once again on the chopping block in Washington, D.C. Shah says her opponent, Rep. Tom Kean Jr., recently cast a deciding vote to gut Medicaid and defund vaccine programs despite representing a district filled with clinicians, hospitals, and vulnerable patients.

If physicians want a healthcare system built by people who understand it, this race matters.

“If you can, I’d love for you to contribute," Shah said. "This is a multimillion-dollar race, and we’ve got a real shot at flipping the narrative.”

As Graham put it in the interview: “We need more people of our generation, more physicians, who understand the problems in the system so the ideas don’t just come from lobbyists.”

📢 Physicians, want to support a doctor fighting for healthcare reform?

Donate: You can donate to Dr. Shah's campaign here.
Learn More: You can learn more and donate to the campaign here.
Help Spread the Word: Watch the full interview with Dr. Shah and be sure to share this article with your network!