On/Offcall: The Key AI Takeaways for Every Physician

Welcome back to On/Offcall!

Wow! A big part of Offcall’s mission is to use this newsletter, our How I Doctor podcast, and our social media megaphone to uplift other doctors – in particular, those who are taking bold risks and have chosen to practice medicine differently.

Over the past several months, we’ve profiled 15 of these “rare breed” doctors who are now leading digital health and technology companies (make it 16, newest feature below!), but we knew there are so many more of these stories out there, so we decided to try something new: In order to compile a *definitive list* of all physician founders, we put out a call on social media inviting anyone to tag an entrepreneurial physician and their company in the comments, and the response has been absolutely amazing!

If you want to be inspired, or just to see the clearest example yet that physicians can absolutely come together across specialties to support one another, take one look at the comments section on the post. A huge thanks to everyone who’s weighed in so far, and also to all the physicians who got in early with Offcall and have shared their work with us to date (explore their profiles here).

Tell us: If you’re a physician who’s building a cool company, or you know a physician founder who is, be sure to add your own comment with: Your (or the physician’s) name & the company’s name, and what the company does in a few words. We’re really excited to get to know these doctors and introduce them to you in this newsletter in the coming weeks!

Read the list and add your comment here

Here Are the Key AI Takeaways That Every Physician Needs to Know

This week, we released a very special episode of our How I Doctor podcast featuring the best moments from our recent AI Secrets webinar hosted by Offcall co-founder Dr. Graham Walker, MD and Validara Health founder Dr. Sarah Gebauer, MD.

The webinar was packed with helpful takeaways about AI and also featured 200+ questions, including from physicians like Dr. Sara Pastoor, MD, MHA, FAAFP, head of primary care advancement at Elation Health. Sara asked a thoughtful question about how AI literacy could reshape the healthcare workforce, and here was Graham’s answer: “AI literacy is going to be a dividing line...it’s not adapt or perish — it’s lead or follow.“

Over the course of the episode, Graham and Sarah addressed some of doctors’ biggest fears about AI, shared advice about how to avoid getting duped by totally bogus information that looks scientifically legit, and also presented real-world examples of the two different types of AI already being widely used in medicine.

We really want physicians to lead from the front and to shape the future of AI instead of playing catch up. So we also released a FREE resource guide for all clinicians to get started with AI, which covers many of the basics and some helpful prompts, resources, and tips and tricks to get started. Be sure to listen to the full podcast episode and download the resource guide! Links here:

Listen to the episode

Read the resource guide here
(If you don’t have an NPI, you can also download it here)

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Most Talked About On Offcall

The Doctor's Dilemma: When Smart Money Leaves Medicine
A new must-read op-ed from Dr. Taif Mukhdomi: The market is speaking. And it's saying choose anything but medicine.

How Doctors Really Feel About Managing NPs and PAs
ICYMI, see the surprising results from our first ever large-scale doctor satisfaction survey.

How Medicine Is Failing Women Doctors, And What We Can Do About It

Dr. Tiffany Moon’s podcast interview with Graham about the challenges of practicing medicine as a woman and how becoming a mother changed how she works.

Physician Builder Spotlight: Tod Sillson

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 Tod Stillson, a rural family physician and founder of ChatRx (more on the company’s mission below!). You can connect further with Tod on LinkedIn.

1. Tod, what inspired you to become a physician entrepreneur? The seed was planted over a decade ago during a rural flu outbreak in Indiana. My clinic was overwhelmed, patients were sick, phone lines were jammed, and I had no access for the people who needed it most. Yet most didn’t need to be seen in person. They just needed a trusted answer: Do I need to be seen? Can I get treated safely from home? So I created a structured, nurse-led triage protocol, rooted in history-taking and standing orders, that safely delivered care over the phone. That experience changed everything. It was efficient, compassionate, and empowering. But it was local. And temporary. But it was a seed that lay dormant until the right time came for it to grow.

As I approached retirement after 30 years in my rural clinic, I was energized by the rise of telemedicine, direct-to-consumer care, and AI and began thinking about how to scale my initial idea through the creation of a medical device. I saw a way to solve the same problem, not for a single town, but for the millions of Americans who delay care for common infections due to time, cost, or access. So I created a patented, FDA-approved Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), which has become the clinical engine that powers ChatRx, my asynchronous telemedicine platform. The soul of ChatRx lies in a moral desire to make care more accessible, personal, and just. This isn’t a departure from my identity as a physician. It’s a fulfillment of it. 

2. Tell us what your company does and what problem you're trying to solve. ChatRx is a chat-based telemedicine platform designed to solve one simple but stubborn problem: getting fast, affordable, and safe treatment for common infections to everyone everywhere. We treat 37 well-defined acute infections using a free AI-powered symptom checker that anyone in the world can access for free. If the case qualifies and no red flags are triggered, the patient can initiate treatment for just $20, no appointments, no waiting rooms, no insurance needed. All treatment decisions are asynchronously reviewed and signed by a licensed physician (me). We built ChatRx to scale the kind of care a trusted doctor would offer a friend or neighbor, but through ethical, structured technology. We call this “compassion at scale” and it’s already changing lives.

3. What’s your advice to anyone who’s thinking about entrepreneurship or pursuing a nontraditional career in medicine? Medicine trains us to follow guidelines; entrepreneurship asks us to question them. Over 10 years ago, I transitioned to independence in the marketplace. This resulted in the renewal of my professional autonomy and inspiration to create multiple businesses. In turn, this led me to share my experiences and launch the Physician Entrepreneur Academy (PEA-SimpliMD) because I saw far too many physicians stuck in burnout, bureaucracy, and careers that no longer reflected their original calling. I wanted to create a space and community where doctors could learn how to turn their expertise into micro-businesses and reclaim their autonomy. If you're a physician considering stepping outside the traditional W-2 employment model, here’s my advice:

**Say yes to self-employment.** You don’t need an MBA, you need the courage to trust your instincts and the humility to keep learning.

**Start small.** The micro-business model I teach at PEA-SimpliMD empowers physicians to build their professional lives on their own terms, whether through job stacking, a cash-pay niche clinic, a digital product, or a diversified 1099 career.

**Build with purpose.** Don’t chase disruption for its own sake. Solve a real problem you’ve lived and understand intimately.

**Above all build your work around your values, not just your income.** That’s what makes entrepreneurship sustainable and joyful.

4. What’s one lesson you’ve learned since building your company that wasn’t obvious to you before? In a crowded healthtech landscape, clarity of focus beats complexity of features. The lesson? Know your edge and go deep, not wide. ChatRx doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. We’ve built a narrow, physician-validated system that treats 37 common infections with unrivaled speed, safety, and affordability. That specificity is our competitive advantage. And we double down on it by following a Go-Giver philosophy, delivering more value than we take in payment. We’re not just scaling a product, we’re scaling trust. That’s our differentiator in a world of impersonal AI and transactional care.

This excerpt has been shortened for the newsletter, but be sure to 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

A Patient in the Loop Approach to AI in Medicine (JAMA Network)
Don’t miss Dr. Maxime Griot and Graham’s analysis of how to drive more patient acceptance of AI in healthcare.

Healthcare Workforce Warnings Are Flashing Red (Mercer)
The alarms in the healthcare workforce are ringing, and here are 5 possible steps to help turn the tide.

Physician Private Practice Benchmarking Survey (AMA)
New survey results show just how many physicians remain in private practice 😭.

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.

😮 Incredible findings, Ishani Ganguli
Dr. Ishani Ganguli, Dr. Benjamin Kornitzer, and many other collaborators published a new study showing the gender pay gap reversed under Medicare Advantage value-based payment models. Wow! Check it out here.

✅ Well done, Marc Ayoub
Dr. Marc Ayoub published a powerful essay about why it’s time to fix the broken physician credentialing system. We agree! Read it here.

📚 Happy book launch, Kim Downey!
Kim Downey’s book "White Coats, Courageous Hearts: True Stories of Doctors Reclaiming Their Humanity in a System That Challenges It" has been released! Read it and learn more here.

💯 Excellent post, John Asghar
Dr. John Asghar shared his reflections on why the single most expensive, least addressed force in U.S. healthcare is overhead. Read it here.

👍 Go Rick Pescatore, Go
Dr. Rick Pescatore’s reflections about why he left clinical medicine and his hard lessons learned are worth the read. Check them out here.

✅ Great work, Wanda Cartagena
Dr. Wanda Cartagena was featured as a panelist at a CMS listening session focused on the ONC Health Technology Ecosystem RFI drawing from her experience at CareConnectMD. Learn more here.

⚠️ Hot conference registration alert, American College of Artificial Intelligence and Medicine
The American College of Artificial Intelligence and Medicine is hosting a landmark conference on evidence-based AI in medicine, featuring keynote speakers like Dr. Nina Kottler and Dennis Chornenky. Learn more here.

👏 Well stated, Mark Richman
Dr. Mark Richman reflected on what he learned seeing France’s healthcare documentation system vs. what we do in the U.S. Powerful stuff here.

😊 Keep leading the AI way, Graham
Graham’s demo using Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 to build a custom EHR frontend is worth your time! Watch it here.

Last Call for Nominations: Our How I Doctor Physician Award!

We’re awarding the inaugural How I Doctor Physician of the Year Award to a physician who’s charting a new career path and using their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit to inspire others. We’ve extended the deadline through the end of the day, Sunday June 15 and will announce the winner in this newsletter and on the How I Doctor podcast next week. We’ll also award the winning physician $1,000 to recognize their contributions. Who’s a physician role model you’d like to see recognized?

Learn more about the criteria and nominate an all-star physician here!

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