On/Offcall: How Doctors Really Feel About Using AI (SURVEY)

Welcome back to On/Offcall!

Exciting news: We announced this week that Offcall is releasing the definitive physician AI whitepaper, and we’re asking for your help to make it amazing.

Time and time again, one of the biggest frustrations we hear from physicians is that we rarely get consulted or heard regarding the AI tools we’re permitted to use by our employers. So we decided to stand up a confidential survey to understand how physicians really feel about AI tools, with the aim of driving change inside the workplace. The whitepaper will cover hot topics like:

-> The AI tools we most want access to
-> How AI could actually improve our job satisfaction
-> Which AI saves us time vs. just adds more admin noise
-> How our employers could actually get us excited to adopt new AI tools
And much more!

📣 We want every single physician who reads this newsletter to participate, so here’s how you can help:

👇 Please answer the short questions below (takes 2 mins!). We’ll release the anonymized findings in a few weeks and also share a special “thank you” prize with everyone who fills out and shares the survey in your network.

Here’s the survey link

♻️Thank you in advance and please repost to spread the word! Tag anyone in the comments who you think would be interested.

Know someone who would benefit from joining us? Help us grow our tent by forwarding this newsletter to your physician colleagues and subscribing here.

Announcing: The 2025 Physician Fairness Report

But wait, there’s more: We’re also gearing up for the release of our 2025 Offcall Physician Fairness Report, one of our most important initiatives yet.

Far too often, physicians walk into our jobs with no real salary benchmarks, no leverage, and no idea what our peers are making. Meanwhile, hospitals and staffing companies know exactly what we’re worth — and they use it to our disadvantage.

We think it’s time to change this. So we’ll be presenting the clearest picture yet of how physicians are valued — and who’s getting left behind. The report will cover:

→ What fair work hours and patient load actually looks like
→ Where the most satisfied physicians are working
→ Who’s getting underpaid – and where

➡️ We’d love to include you in the report! So if you haven’t already, go to offcall.com and sign up now. With every single physician who signs up (anonymously) for Offcall, we’ll bring that much more transparency and accuracy this report and make it something truly useful. Thanks for helping us build this together!

Sign up here

Breaking Free from W-2 Medicine with Dr. Ali Chaudhary

This week on How I Doctor, Offcall’s co-founder Dr. Graham Walker sat down with Dr. Ali Chaudhary, an emergency physician who was facing burnout in his job so decided to take a bold leap: to break free from W-2 medicine. Ever since Dr. Chaudhary opted for locum tenens work, he’s built a thriving, flexible, and financially rewarding career and now he’s made it his mission to help other physicians do the same.

In the episode, Dr. Chaudhary breaks down the advantages he’s experienced personally with locums work and shares practical strategies for physicians who are ready to pursue this path, such as:

👉 Essential success tips for locums: knowing your worth, negotiating smart, and running your practice like a pro
👉 Why 1099 income and higher hourly rates can boost earnings if you treat yourself like a business
👉 How locums can be a way to restore autonomy and prevent burnout

🎧 Listen to the full episode here

Physician Builder Spotlight: Ali Rahimi

We’re shining light on MD-entrepreneurs! Each week, we feature an entrepreneurial doctor who’s building a cool product, company, or working on a big idea you definitely want to know about. This week, meet Ali Rahimi, Founder and CEO of ALYKA Health (more on the company’s mission below!). You can connect further with Ali on LinkedIn.

1. Ali, what inspired you to become a physician entrepreneur? I was inspired to become an entrepreneur to be able to innovate faster in healthcare and to scale the prevention and management of cardiovascular care.

2. Tell us what your company does and what problem you're trying to solve. ALYKA is a virtual heart health advisor integrating multi-layer health data to elevate the patient experience with empowerment, engagement and education. We aim to close cardiovascular care gaps upstream of their clinic visits (in-person or virtual), to improve outcomes and lower costs.

3. What's your advice to anyone who's thinking about entrepreneurship or a nontraditional career in medicine? 100% you need to understand your why. Then, you should speak with entrepreneurs at different stages to gain their perspective on the startup journey, lessons learned, and wins and losses.

4. How can a physician overcome their biggest fear to start a company? Be mission and purpose driven. That is the best energy for take-off and surrounding yourself with fellow team members and investors.

5. What's the #1 lesson you've learned since building your company that wasn't obvious to you before? It’s a very long and arduous journey, so always be learning. You will get bruised and pushed down, so surround yourself with a great team and advisors.

6. Name the top resources you found most helpful to get going as an entrepreneur that others would benefit from? (1) Find a successful entrepreneur(s) as mentors (2) Speak with your family and let them know about this undertaking and how you will need their undying support (3) Keep learning from any and all websites, including Y Combinator, local venture newsletters, IT newsletters, and blogs.

7. How can other physicians support you? I would be glad to share learnings and provide insights as an MD entrepreneur. I’m also open to connecting with those who are interested in helping with our mission to reach 10 million hearts in 10 years ❤️

Read the full article here. Know someone else who should be featured? Reply or tag them and their company in the comments!

3 Things to Read This Week

Investing in Primary Care: The Nurse Practitioner Will See You Now (Milbank Memorial Fund)
NPs are now the fastest growing health profession in the U.S. and comprise 47% of all primary care clinicians.

'Guilty until proven innocent': Inside the fight between doctors and insurance companies over 'downcoding' (NBC News)
Doctors say insurers are automatically downgrading their claims and paying less.

A plea from doctors: Cool it on the supplements (NYTimes)
As Americans take more gummies, pills and powders than ever, physicians are trying to convince patients to be more careful.

Hey! Who’s Attending HLTH This Week?!

For anyone attending HLTH in Las Vegas this week, we’re excited to see you there! Graham is speaking on a panel, Offcall is hosting an event with Scrub Capital, and we’re eager to connect with fellow physicians and health tech innovators all week. ICYMI, Dr. John Dayton put together a guide called, "The Physicians' Guide to HLTH25” with an updated list of parties, networking events, panels, and meetups.

See the guide here and DM us or drop us a note in the comments if you’ll be there so we can meet up! See you soon.

Highlights From Our Community

Each week, we celebrate career milestones, launches, & other goings-on in the physician community. Have something to promote? Reply and we’ll feature you.

📢 Hackathon alert, MD+
Offcall is proud to sponsor the 2025 MD+ Datathon, a month-long competition that empowers med students and residents to analyze real healthcare datasets, develop their AI skills, and contribute to publishable research. Registration ends this Monday, so learn more and sign up here!

🚨 Learn AI from the best of them, Stanford
Offcall is also proud to support the Stanford AI in Healthcare Leadership and Strategy, a new program from Dr. Jonathan Chen and Dr. Ethan Goh in the summer of 2026 that mixes a clinical and nonclinical cohort of healthcare professionals who are ready to engage with AI applied to real-world challenges. The organizers are holding an info session next Friday, Oct 24th from 12-12:45pm PT. Get registered here and get in touch with Julia Lin with questions.

🎧 Give it a podcast listen, Saba Fatima
Dr. Saba Fatima sat down with Graham for a podcast interview about what AI really means for medicine — for how we learn, make decisions, and connect with patients. Listen here!

🎧🎧 Also give it a listen, Glenn Loomis
Dr. Glenn Loomis spoke with Ben Iiames about his journey of creating healthcare AI company Query Health. Learn more and listen here.

👉 Important read, Adnan Khan
Dr. Adnan Khan published an op-ed called “The Case for Transparency in Physician Employment” on the importance of entering jobs with full clarity on what we’re signing (Offcall co-sign!). Read it here.

💯 Well explained, Robert Pearl
Dr. Robert Pearl’s latest must-read essay explains patients’ declining trust in doctors. Check it out here.

👌 Thanks for writing, Olivia Morris
Olivia Morris opened up about why physicians need to save ourselves by building our own practices and finding advisory roles and business ventures that give us our autonomy back. Read it here.

🎉 Congratulations, Tina Agbaosi
Dr. Tina Agbaosi was appointed as Medical Director of AIDS Healthcare Foundation ’s Memphis center - the first AHF location in Tennessee. Congratulate her here!

✅ Keep leading on AI, Rashmee Shah
Dr. Rashmee Shah published a JAMA Summit Report entitled “AI, Health, and Health Care Today and Tomorrow” along with Dr. Derek Angus, Rohan Khera and others. Read it here.

🙏 And finally, celebrate the Docfluencers!
Docfluencer, a new movement of doctor-influencers who are disrupting the healthcare system using social media, announced their advisory board with superstars like founder Dr. Olivia Richman, co-lead Dr. Elizabeth Kazarian, Dr. Harpreet Tsui, Dr. Owais Durrani, Dr. Blair Peters, Dr. Zayed Almadidy, Dr. Franziska Haydanke, Dr. Alok Patel and Dr. Betsy Grunch. Learn more and cheer them on here!

Be Sure to Sign Up for Offcall!

At Offcall, we believe physicians deserve to be heard, valued, and treated fairly. Everything we do is driven by our commitment to empowering doctors with accurate, reliable, and trustworthy data — to advocate confidently for themselves and ensure their compensation truly reflects their worth.

Learn more and sign up here

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