On/Offcall: Thanks to Every Clinician Working This Holiday Season

Welcome back to On/Offcall!

This week, we open with a special Thanksgiving note of gratitude from Offcall Co-founder Dr. Graham Walker

“This is my first Thanksgiving off in 12 years. I usually work Thanksgiving but this year I’m working Christmas. So first, just thank you to the people who are on call, those who are working in the clinic, ER, the hospital, the ICU, and the OR. Whether you are a physician, a social worker, a nurse, a pharmacist, or a medical assistant, thank you for working while other people are away celebrating and showing thanks with their families.

Also, thank you to anyone who has clicked a like, read an article, or made an account on Offcall. I didn’t know what was going to happen: We launched it about a year ago. And the response has been tremendous, from the podcast to the salary and workload information we’re collecting, it’s been really incredible. Just looking back at the guests we’ve had on the podcast and the response from the physician community, it’s really outstanding. There’s so much more to come that we’re building in 2026.

Thank you!

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

Don’t Miss Out on a Chance to Tell Us How You Really Feel About AI

In just a few weeks, we’re releasing our physician AI whitepaper covering hot topics like how physicians really feel about AI tools and their impact, which AI tools save us time vs. just add more admin burden, and how employers could get us excited to adopt new AI tools. Be sure to answer the short questions below (takes 2 mins!) so we can include your perspective! Thanks to everyone who has participated.

How do you really feel about AI?

Most Talked About On Offcall

The founder will see you now! How Dr. Uché Blackstock is changing medicine

How this author and entrepreneur is combatting inequities in healthcare: This is my Side Gig Story.

I Was Making $10,000 Less Than My White Physician Colleague and Negotiated a Raise on the Spot!

“She asked me how much I make. I was shocked. I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about that.” From Dr. Pamela Buchanan

A Few of the Best Mic Drop Moments from How I Doctor

A Thanksgiving special: See a few of our favorite clips from the How I Doctor podcast this year, featuring Dr. Shiv Rao, Dr. Danielle Ofri, Mark Cuban, Dr. Vineet Arora, and Dr. Ali Chaudhary.

Physician Builder Spotlight: Andrea Braden

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 that you definitely want to know about. This week, meet Andrea Braden, Founder and CEO of Lybbie, which is building tools to support breastfeeding through science, technology and empathy. You can connect further with Andrea on LinkedIn.

1. Andrea, what inspired you to become a physician entrepreneur? It all started when I tried to leave medicine after having my first baby. That was the first time I woke up and realized that I needed something different. At that moment, it was either I leave medicine altogether and do the things I needed to do to be happy as a person or find a way to integrate fully. That ultimately became an entrepreneurial journey for me. I started not accepting the status quo and that really led me to creating methods and frameworks that work better for my life.

2. Tell us what your company does and what problem you're trying to solve. At Lybbie, we’ve created the first continuously wearable sensor that can tell you about your in vivo milk productivity. Breastfeeding moms wear it continuously on the breast, and just like a WHOOP or Oura ring, it provides minute by minute data about their milk supply and how it is ebbing and flowing. This gives moms confidence about their choices and how they feed their babies, because now they know what things are affecting their milk supply, and whether or not their milk supply is actually problematic. This is a huge part of the problem, the range anxiety which is almost like having a car with no gas tank and you don't know how far you can go.

We offer peace of mind with our app, and put it together with behavioral habits, check-ins, and physical and mental health, to help individuals come up with a picture about their own milk productivity and learn what things actually affect it as well as where they can catch problems before they start becoming bigger problems. The world of breastfeeding has been in the world of paper maps for a long time, and I've created the first GPS to help people have more guidance along the way rather than having to wait for appointments and go through all the barriers they need to go through to try to get professional help.

3. What’s your advice to anyone thinking about entrepreneurship or a non-traditional career in medicine? You’ve got nothing to lose. I think so many doctors feel trapped in many ways by our training. We've spent all these years getting to this point and we don't consider that we are well-trained for other things. What I've learned over time is that I don't need an MBA. What we as physicians have is passion and, you know, drive that is unmatchable. I think reaching out and getting out of your bubble is seeing that there's so much more out there with a medical degree that can be done. It just takes taking that first step and gathering that data. If you're not sure if this is an option for you, find somebody who's done it and shadow them, just like you would in medicine.

4. How can a physician get over the start problem? I think it's networking. I think it's finding communities. For me, getting into Facebook groups for non-traditional physicians and non-clinical careers, seeing what other people do, going to conferences, and putting yourself in these spaces. Take the day off. Invest in it like you would your medical career. Invest in learning more. You can do a lot of this on your own.

5. What's the number one lesson you've learned since building your company that wasn't obvious to you before? If I had to pick one, it would be that I don't need permission. I feel like going through training was very structured; there was a path, and all the milestones, board certifications, and all the things you need to do to be a doctor are defined. Physician entrepreneurship is very vague and there are so many different ways to define it. There is no rulebook, but that's also liberating. Maybe that's scary for physicians, but you don't have to ask for permission. You can just do it.

6. What are the resources you have found to be most helpful? Non-clinical career Facebook groups. LinkedIn, where I have found some great consulting gigs and using it to build my network in circles outside of medicine. As far as other resources, there are a lot of universities that have technology programs through their tech transfer offices. I got that through Emory University. I did the SkyDeck accelerator program, and they have a lot of resources. Y Combinator has a ton of free online content to learn about cap tables, and all of these things that are really nitty-gritty with starting a business that people look for when you're fundraising. There’s even a program in Philadelphia called the Capital Readiness Program with the University Science Center. As a women's health provider, the Women's Health Innovation Summit is also great. HLTH is a huge opportunity to go and meet people to see what else is out there and even South by Southwest is a great conference that brings people together.

7. How can other physicians support you? I'm on LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, Substack, and my website is DoctorBraden.com. Having more conversations would be great and I do have an open angel round, so I do think there are a lot of physicians who have a high net worth and would like to invest but don't know how to get started. I’d love to speak with physicians who understand the problem like I do and want to get involved that way.

Are there any breastfeeding physicians who read this newsletter? I am always testing so I would love to connect with anyone who is in that specific scenario.

Bonus! Here Are the AI and Productivity Tools Andrea Uses

Just for Offcall members: We're making available Andrea’s list of top AI and productivity tools to help her in her work and life. Read Andrea’s answers and sign up for Offcall here. Know someone else who should be featured? Reply or tag them and their company in the comments!

3 Things to Read This Week

From Academic Pilots to Real-World Adoption: A Conversation with Dr. John Dayton (The Digital Stethoscope)
Dr. Aditi Joshi interviewed Dr. John Dayton about his startup incubation work at Stanford, why he’s raising a healthcare innovation venture fund, and why we desperately need more investors who actually understand healthcare implementation.

2025 Physician Sentiment Survey (CHG Healthcare)
Surveying 920 currently practicing U.S. physicians to uncover the root causes of workforce disengagement and actionable strategies healthcare leaders can deploy to strengthen engagement and retention.

Physician Flash Report: Q3 2025 Metrics (KaufmanHall)
See the latest industry data and trends from physician groups regarding their finances and operations.

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.

🗣️ Thanks for using your voice, Preston Alexander
Preston Alexander shared his response to the Trump administration’s decision to declassify nursing as a professional degree. Read it here.

🗣️ And you too, Betsy Grunch
Dr. Betsy Grunch also weighed in on the topic, sharing why this decision is likely to impact nursing shortages and women in particular. Watch it here.

💯 And thank you for sharing, JD Sidana
Dr. JD Sidana shared a heartfelt post about why he will no longer use the word “provider” because it cuts to the heart of professional powerlessness for physicians. Read it here.

💯 Great points, Michael Johnson!
Physician employment attorney Michael Johnson reflected on the one thing that could most improve physician compensation transparency: Requiring every hospital to publish the data and benchmarks they use to set physician contracts (At Offcall, we obviously agree 😀). Read it here.

🎉 Congratulations to the MD+ winners!
MD+ hosted its 4th Annual Datathon Pitch Competition in which six finalist teams showcased innovative ideas on the theme “Empowering Patients with AI.” Offcall was a proud sponsor of this great event. Read the recap and celebrate the winners here. Led by the great MD+ team: Emily Leventhal, Sahil Suresh, Bhavana Kunisetty, Steve J. Stephen, Arvind Rajan, MPH, Jennifer Ipe, Adam ElSayed, Kaden Bunch, Veer Shah, and Eshita G.

🎧 Go and listen to the podcast, Cheryl Martin and Graham
Dr. Cheryl Martin interviewed Graham about his lessons learned around communication, especially inside of large complex healthcare organizations. Watch the teaser clip here.

🎧 And don’t forget this podcast, Matt Sakumoto
Dr. Matthew Sakumoto appeared on the Bright Spots in Healthcare podcast with Eric Glazer to discuss how virtual care is improving care transitions. Watch the clip here.

✅ Keep up the excellent work, David Schecter
Dr. David Schecter was featured alongside his Montefiore colleagues Dr. Daniel DaCosta, Dr. Hyun Kim, and Dr. Ali Sadoughi, MD for their team’s work to detect and treat lung cancer early, putting them among the top in the nation. Learn more here.

🥳 Awesome career news, Tariq Nakhooda
Dr. Tariq Nakhooda is now the Director of the Office of Healthcare Analytics and Informatics at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Congratulate him here!

💪 And finally, strong work Graham!
Graham published a piece in BMJ Digital Health and AI about why clinicians are the only people qualified to define what good care looks like, and why in the AI era, we need to write that down as a blueprint (or spec) to define what should happen. Read it 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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