Now Is Not the Time for Silence. Dr. John Whyte on the AMA, AI, and the Stakes for Physicians Right Now
Key Podcast Moments
- What it means to lead the oldest physician organization in the country at the most consequential moment in modern medicine
- The number that should stop every physician cold: 40% burnout across the profession, and above 50% in emergency medicine and OB-GYN
- How AI adoption among physicians jumped from 38% to 81% in three years and why that speed hasn't translated into more time with patients
- Why the real argument for physician payment is not about compensation but about patient safety and access
- Why John believes physicians who plan to wait out the next two or three years are making a mistake they cannot afford
Why Physician Burnout Is Still a Crisis, and What the AMA Is Doing About It
What I wanted to focus on for the AMA is to kind of regain some of that relevance and impact. And we have this great initiative called Joy in Medicine. And that's why people go into medicine. We have some recent data that shows burnout has decreased, and now it's 40% of physicians. Well, what field should have 40% of people saying that they're burned out? And there's still a couple fields, like emergency medicine and OB-GYN, that still have more than 50% burnout. So as a profession, as an association, we have to do things to reduce burnout and it has to be by improvements in the systems. It can't just be these one-offs. And that's why the AMA is working with systems to reduce administrative burden, to improve the Joy in Medicine.
Welcome to How I Doctor, where we're bringing joy back to medicine. Today I'm joined by Dr. John Whyte, board certified internist, who spent his career in the places where medicine meets policy, media, and technology. 10 months ago, he became the CEO and Executive Vice President of the American Medical Association. Our profession is under real pressure from many sides. Physicians are employed at higher rates than ever before, and we are burned out at rates that would've been unthinkable a generation ago. And now we've also got to figure out what AI means for the work we've trained our whole lives to do. And the AMA has a mandate to fight for physicians on all of that despite only about a quarter of physicians is AMA members. So that's what we're going to cover today, what's broken, who's responsible, what the AMA is doing about it, and why, despite everything, there is reason to believe in our profession that we come out in a moment stronger than when we went in. I'll be back with John after a word from our sponsor. Dr. John Whyte, welcome to How I Doctor.
Thank you for having me. It is a real pleasure to be with you.
You've now been CEO for 10 months, which is like a day in the life of an organization that's been around since 1847. I imagine that you have had enough time hearing from lots of physicians who, of course, have lots of opinions. What have you come to believe is the single most urgent problem that physicians need to solve to get back control of our profession?
And Graham, thanks for having me. As you pointed out before we came on show, you and I chatted just a couple months in when I started. Like you, I'm actually optimistic about the future. And maybe I'm just a glass half full rather than a glass half empty. But the challenges we face are tremendous, as you pointed out. And what I'm focused on for our members and for all for physicians is the practice of medicine. We talk about the AMA being dedicated to the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health, and that's my focus. So it's everything that you rattled off. It's the issues of prior auth that are impacting us. It's the element of AI and how do we actually use these potentially powerful tools for good, and to actually make us better doctors and to protect patient safety. Those are the things that are keeping me up at night and that I'm focused on.
Take us back 12, 18 months before you even joined the AMA. I'm curious, from the outside looking in maybe at the FDA or WebMD, through knowing and talking to physicians for decades, did you have a sense for what you wanted to bring to the AMA and why you decided to join as its new CEO?
What I wanted to focus on for the AMA is to kind of regain some of that relevance and impact. And I was honest, I felt it lost some of that over the years. It needs to be a powerful force for physicians and patients in Washington. And that means getting things in the final bill. That means getting things over the finish line in roles that we're talking about in terms of Medicare or Medicaid. And I loved your point about the beginning, about burnout, and we have this great initiative called Joy in Medicine. And that's why people go into medicine. We have some recent data that shows burnout has decreased, and now it's 40% of physicians. Well, what field should have 40% of people saying that they're burned out? And there's still a couple fields, like emergency medicine and OB-GYN, that still have more than 50% burnout. So as a profession, as an association, we have to do things to reduce burnout and it has to be by improvements in the systems. It can't just be these one-offs. And that's why the AMA is working with systems to reduce administrative burden, to improve the Joy in Medicine. ---
Why Physician Specialty Tribalism Is Weakening the Profession's Voice in Washington
I talked with Dr. Greg Murphy, who's a practicing urologist.
I love Representative Murphy. Sure.
Yes. So the congressman, actually his feedback to me, and then I'll also say to you, is he felt like the other stakeholders in medicine are much more coordinated at picking one lobbying goal for whatever, the quarter, the year, whatever. And it is the nature of medicine that we have individual specialties, and we tend to be tribal within our specialties. He thought that actually was one of the fundamental things that physicians should do differently. I don't know if he was speaking specifically to the AMA, maybe he was, but the idea that if we, as physicians, were to stop squabbling over who gets to do the spine surgeries, is it ortho or neurosurgery, that we actually could lobby better if we had a united front almost.
I'm glad to hear he's consistent, Graham. Because I had a meeting with Dr. Murphy a few months ago, very cordial. He's been a big champion on the issues that the AMA is advocating for. But you're right, sometimes I feel like this job is about hurting cats. Something that might help with primary care physicians might hurt in terms of payment issues in budget neutrality in terms of specialty physicians. There's everyone's focused, as you said, who gets to do what type of procedure. And it's a challenge at times. He said the same thing to me. He's like, "John, the organization's trying to do too many things, and you have to focus." And what I've been trying to do, Graham, is to say, where are there areas of common interest? And let's focus on those first, and recognizing it's a long-term strategy and a short-term strategy. So if there's some short-term wins for some of our colleagues in different areas of medicine, we should support that so then we can help support others later. And sometimes I tell people, success is living to fight another day. That you might not get everything all at once. But I will tell you, it's been wonderful working with the state medical societies, working with the specialty groups, especially on prior auth and scope creep. So those are two areas where we all are very much aligned. And that's where we've had success in some areas, particularly on scope creep helping the state. So I agree, we have to be more laser-focused on these issues, and that's partly working together more and really collaborating and convening. ---
Physicians Are 8% of Healthcare Spending. Why Do They Get All the Blame?
John, I get the sense that the public likes to think of physicians as just this really expensive, and maybe the reason healthcare is so expensive, but there's a good economics paper out of Stanford that was like, "Hey, if you look at just physicians, we are like 8% of the total spending of the United States."
It's exactly right.
I'm just curious, from your perspective, why do you think physicians have this wrap as we're both to blame for the system not working and that we're also overly expensive when it, to me, maybe to you it feels like it's like 8%, there's 92 other percent that should get some attention as well.
I think that's a great point. And we certainly try to educate people on that in terms of, as you know, it's hospital services that are extremely expensive in a big percentage of healthcare costs. Prescription drug costs used to be at 8% years ago, and now they really have ballooned. They might even be now around 20%. But people see that bill from the doctor, and it's sticker shock often before insurance kicks in. And often we'll talk about payment to physicians, and that matters. But Graham, what I've been talking about to people that the real issue is patient safety. Guess what? If you don't pay physicians, they're not going to practice in rural areas. People have a lot of debt coming out of medical school and have to recoup that. If you don't want to be an employed physician, it costs a lot to set up a private practice. These are about access issues, these are about patient safety issues, and we need to be talking more about that. At the same time though, Graham, I would argue, I don't find most patients that up until seven months ago, I saw patients that say doctors are too expensive. They're talking about the bill, which encompasses a lot of things. And as you know, if you're an employed physician, I'm not controlling how much they're being charged. And in private practice, people appreciate the opportunity to have that doctor, to have choice, to have that access. So there is a lot of work we need to do on messaging as well.
It's almost like people like their own doctor often. But then when they talk about doctors in general, that's when they maybe are more critical or something.
No, you're right, Graham. And I'll even say part of the issue is on the hill, people will be like, "Should we be paying doctors more? Is that what we should be doing?" But that's the wrong message. It's about access. It's about quality. You want to talk about rural health? Well, let's make sure that people get paid for what they're doing, and create an environment where people can create independent practice, actually create jobs. Those are the conversations we should be having. ---
What the AMA Stands For in 2026 and Why AI Is Its Top Priority
John, I want to get your take on maybe some of the history behind the AMA. I think the AMA has traditionally maybe represented, at least in my view, has represented a little bit more resisting change as opposed to progress. I mean, the AMA has been against socialized medicine, whatever that means in its past. I wonder what you think the role of the AMA should be today in 2026 around supporting, just like you said, supporting access to care, helping patients be able to afford the care. Because if they can't afford the care, they're going to be sicker when they see us or they're not going to be able to see us at all. And how do you view the 2026 AMA right now?
Well, obviously I view it very positively or I wouldn't be here. And Graham, here I thought we were going to have a good conversation and you want to bring up the past. And I'm going to push back a little bit on that.
Sure. Please, please.
So I'm going to say, "You know what? Who helped to transform medical education when there was medical quackery?" And one of the great things I love here at AMA, we have this archives exhibit. And it talks about in the 1900s where we were talking about all these supplements and potions and lotions that were going to cure disease. It's deja vu. Now we're doing the same thing.
They're back. Yeah, they're back.
Yeah. So we were working against that. We were working against practitioners that really had no licensure issue on access. You can say, "You know what? The AMA resisted socialized medicine or social medicine because they felt that wasn't the best process here in the United States. That it might actually decrease quality of care, actually reduce issues of access." So it's always been about patient safety, patient quality and patient access. So I push back a little on the history. There's certainly things in the history of the AMA that could have been done better, and we should acknowledge those areas as well. But I also think there's lots of things where the AMA has led for 180 years, and I'm incredibly proud of that. In 2026, it goes to your point. I want to stay focused on the art and science of medicine. And what I would say one of the biggest issues where I put a lot of resources and investment is in digital health and AI. It is already here. You want to talk about a legacy, that's a legacy in terms of we need to lead. And here's the really nice thing, and I'll acknowledge this, it's hard to make people happy no matter what we do. There's always some people that-
That's right.
... I should have done something differently. But when we announced a new Center for Digital Health and AI, 90% positive sentiment. They want the doctors to lead in this space. We don't want tech controlling everything. We have to lead here. So that's one of the areas where we really have to stay focused on, and that's everything that AMA does. It's medical education. It's patient safety. It's ethics. We started the code of medical ethics that we're very proud of. It's issues of payment and coding. It's everything that we do. So that is a top priority. And then it is about how do we fix the payment system? How do we address issues of access? How do we push back when there's rhetoric about it's all fraud and abuse? Okay, there's some fraud and abuse, but let's not pretend-
Yeah, sure.
... that it's this huge amount that somehow we're going to have all these savings and be able to cover everything, because that's simply not the case. There are some bad apples, and we should speak up against those bad apples, but that's not the overwhelming majority of physicians. So those are the things that we need to stay focused on. And I've argued a time sometimes we should do fewer things better. ---
Why AI Adoption Among Physicians Jumped From 38% to 81% in Three Years
Well, John, I love the Center for Digital Health and AI. Even from your own data, I think physicians have grown, just over the past three years, from 38% to 81% using AI.
I know.
It is really hard to get physicians to use any new technology, or click a new button, or use a new app. What do you think it is that is driving this level of adoption that we never would predict any other technology would have that level of uptake by physicians?
It's EHR. So if you remember when the EHR come out, it was going to solve all our problems. So make our lives easier.
Magical. Yeah.
So when we say AI, it's going to solve all your problems. It's going to make your life easier. Okay, people have been burned. EHR hasn't done exactly what it said it would do. So that's one problem. I think the other problem, Graham, is there's this concept of clinical inertia. We're trained to do things a certain way. We like doing things a certain way we feel confident. So should I do this? Should I use this ambient listening? Or should I just rely upon my own note? How do I know that'll work? And I think there there's been good examples. Most places had kind of a pilot with some key physicians slowly started to have adoption, making improvements, and then a lot of physicians learned to adopt it. The challenge is most of us thought that we would have more time for each patient or have more time at the end of the day. Recent data has shown it saves you about eight minutes during the day, because if you're an employed physician, they give you other things to do during that time. So I think that's part of the reason why we're seeing still a little bit of this resistance in some areas. But Graham, this is where we have to lead. And this is where we have to say, this is where it fits into clinical integration and workflow. And I think that's a tremendous opportunity to say, "Hey, maybe everyone with a cancer diagnosis should have a second opinion driven by the power of AI, supporting a physician, because we know cancer care is not routinized. It varies whether you go to a rural hospital, or an academic facility, or a cancer center. And we really should be able to personalize treatment for you. But we have to have validation of these tools. We have to have assessment. We have to have physician oversight." Those are the great discussions that we can be involved in and should be involved in right now. That's what I think is really exciting. ---
The Patient-Physician Relationship in the Age of AI: Where the AMA Draws the Line
Yeah. I think, John, you and I have a similar view on that, that the patient-physician relationship really should be the center of all of this. And then if AI wants to be right next to us, helping us and supporting us, giving us trusted, validated information, then that's great. I just saw a study, I think this week or last week, that even if a patient got an AI, a recommendation from AI, they would still want to double-check it with a physician. And to me, that goes to the level of trust that they have in another human being. They want to make sure that their own physician would understand it, and they also have a realization that AI is not perfect either.
And we have to ensure that. We recently issued an infographic about how patients should utilize generative AI tools, and it is about don't use them to replace a physician. Still go to physician to talk about it because these tools do make mistakes.
Back to your concern that the time savings of AI has not been evenly distributed by employers and physicians. Do you think there's anything that the AMA can do about that even if it's setting policy or setting expectations?
But this is part of the problem, Graham, where so many physicians are employed. So you don't really get to determine your schedule. Someone else is filling up your schedule. So if you save time, they're having you see more patients. And that's how some of these tools have been advertised to healthcare systems, right? I can save 12 minutes. So if I can have every physician in your group see one more patient a day, that actually translates to better profits later on. And most physicians don't want to see more patients. They want to spend more time with each patient. We're very much focused on that, as well as thinking, okay, well, if we have to interpret these tools or utilize these tools, is there a payment amount for that as well? Recognizing that that takes time too with some of these tools in terms of the output. So we're just getting started on this. And understanding how it's iterating and evolving and how we think about these tools today may be different six months, a year from now. ---
Will AI Replace Physicians? What the AMA's CEO Actually Thinks
I mean, you've been in your role 10 months. In AI time, that's like five years. Just the speed of pace of change is really incredible. John, what do you think it looks like in five to 10 years what the future holds? Are physicians using AI every day? Are patients using it so that some of the history is taken ahead of time? What do you think from your position-
Yeah. And I think this could even be in three or four years. It's not five or 10. And I don't think AI is going to replace physicians. That's just not going to happen. But are there ways that they can help us improve decision making? Like I said, in terms of tools that help me get to a cancer diagnosis sooner, and that one is truly more personalized, I think that's exciting. And Graham, I've been talking about this just a friend. So it's kind of the first time I'm saying it in a broader reach, and I'd love your thoughts about this.
Sure.
I think AI is going to allow us to rethink the whole concept of risk and population health. Right now, I tell you your risk for heart disease or kidney disease, based on your age, perhaps your race, although that's controversial now in some areas, what we've seen in terms of kidney disease, and then I tell you your risk based on populations. But recognizing the power of AI and the ability to determine patterns and other elements of data that we're doing, even in terms of PET scans instead of calcium scores, I'll be able to tell you your personalized risk for certain conditions. That is extremely powerful. But what does that do to population health? That's a great discussion to be having. And I'm not even sure how to think through all that, but I do think it'll be some tasks that we do now that I really don't need to be spending as much time on the emails to patients, the interpretation of labs. AI can help. It doesn't mean that it replaces. I think AI can help nurses tremendously in terms of all the documentation that they need to be doing. It can help pharmacists. And here's the point, Graham, people are using AI now. And the challenge is sometimes you don't even know how these tools are being utilized. And the other point is, let's acknowledge patients are using generative AI tools. They're using apps. That doesn't mean we stop them from using them. No. What we do is we help them understand when and how you use them. I'm not a big fan of the recent FDA guidance on wellness apps. I don't know if you've been following it. I feel like it's along the line of the supplement industry. "Oh, as long as it's not clinically great, it's okay." Okay, I don't know what that means, or as long as I don't diagnose a disease. Yet, you get these dashboards. And they're interpreting my sleep and my mood and all of that, but they're not giving me a medical diagnosis. But if I have these sophisticated dashboards and trends, people are interpreting that as medical information. I don't think we should have an environment where your blood pressure tool is okay. I think it should be pretty good, and that's what we should be basing decisions on. But that's what we can do, Graham. We can set these standards or benchmarks. We can help patients understand when and how you use them. And we really think as AMA is doing, how do we educate physicians in this new environment in terms of how to practice? How you and others and I've learned was how you memorized how good you were at that. Now it's really how you access information, how you utilize information, and that's exciting. I've done a couple commencement speeches lately where I got to meet new medical students. Newly minted physicians, I should say.
That's right. That's right.
And it's really exciting. But their experience has been incredibly different than mine and their experience as a physician will be different than mine. It's not better, it's not worse, it's different. But we have to prepare them well of how to function in this new environment. ---
Now Is Not the Time for Silence: Why Every Physician Needs to Get Engaged
I love that, John. John, as we close, maybe make the case for optimism, maybe share what you shared with those newly minted physicians. Why will the profession be in a better place in 10 years than it is now, and what role does the AMA help us get there?
What I've been talking about is that the future of medicine, it'll be powered by AI and these tools, but it'll still be defined by humanity. And that means what the patient still cares about, it's not just the naming of a disease, it's about being for a patient throughout their journey. And sometimes that journey means when medical care doesn't mean extending life, it also means being there at the closure of life. And that's the great joy of being a physician, that most professions don't allow you to have this impact on someone's life of curing a disease, or stitching someone up after a bad fall or accident, or opening up a blood vessel, or having just the discussion about what are your fertility options. There are a lot of professions like that. AI is not going to change that in terms of fundamentally what it means to be a physician. And I think it's such a great time to be involved in medicine. I'm incredibly honored to lead this organization at this time when there, as you said at the beginning, so many critical issues facing us. And if you don't lead, then other people are going to make the decisions for you. And that's why it's so important for people to use their voice right now. A big part of our role is advocacy. Use your voice. Now's not the time for silence. So get involved. I utilize all these tools because I want to see how patients are using them, how my clinical friends are using them. I want to hear what patients are saying and what they're doing. And I want to talk to my colleagues in a respectful, collegial way, saying that everyone can't always win all the time, but how collectively as a profession do we move forward? And these aren't easy things to do, otherwise people would've done them already. But I'm also very appreciative of conversations like this, and your focus on what's really going on in healthcare and how can we improve it.
Well, there's never been a better time if you want to change and improve healthcare and medicine. There's never been a better time to have an opportunity to have an impact and have your voice heard.
Yeah. No, I just reiterate, now is the time. And some of my colleagues are like, "You know what? I'm going to retire two, three years. I'm going to wait it out." See? Well, two, three years in this environment is like 20 years.
It's a lifetime. Yeah. Yeah.
So you got to get engaged now because there's a lot of opportunity, but there's also risk.
Yeah. Well, Dr. John Whyte, CEO of the American Medical Association, thank you so much for your time and joining us today.
It's been such a pleasure. Thank you.
Thanks for joining me today. For interviews with physicians creating meaningful change, check out offcall.com/podcast. You can find How I Doctor on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We'll have new episodes weekly. This has been and continues to be Dr. Graham Walker. Stay well, stay inspired, and practice with purpose.
Dr. John Whyte has spent his career at the place where medicine meets policy, media, and technology. He worked at the FDA. He built a reputation as one of medicine's most trusted public communicators. And 10 months ago, he became CEO and Executive Vice President of the American Medical Association, the oldest and largest physician organization in the United States. He arrived with a candid assessment of what the job required and a clear sense of what was at stake if the AMA failed to rise to this particular moment.
In this episode of How I Doctor, Dr. Graham Walker sits down with John to talk about what the AMA is focused on right now, what physicians are getting wrong about AI, and why the profession's collective silence may be its most dangerous habit.
The conversation opens on burnout, and the numbers John shares are worth sitting with. Physician burnout has declined in recent years, but it remains at 40% across the profession. In emergency medicine and OB-GYN, it is still above 50%. John's argument is that those numbers are not a personal failure of individual physicians. They are a systems problem, and the AMA's Joy in Medicine initiative reflects the belief that they have to be solved at the systems level, not with one-off wellness programs layered on top of a structure that has not changed. The same logic applies to the payment conversation, where John reframes the debate entirely: the argument for paying physicians fairly is not about compensation. It is about patient safety. Physicians who are not paid adequately do not practice in rural areas. Patients in those communities lose access. That is the case the AMA is making in Washington, and John believes the profession has not made it loudly or clearly enough.
The conversation then turns to AI, and what John and Graham surface together is a tension that every employed physician has already started to feel. Physician AI adoption jumped from 38% to 81% in three years, a pace of uptake unlike almost any other technology in medicine. But the efficiency gains from those tools have not been flowing back to physicians or patients. Ambient documentation saves roughly eight minutes a day, and in many employed settings, that time gets filled with more patients rather than returned to the physician relationship. John is direct about this: most physicians do not want to see more patients. They want to spend more time with each one. The AMA's position is that AI requires physician oversight, validation, and genuine integration into workflow, not deployment as a throughput tool that serves health system margins. And patients are already using generative AI whether physicians are ready or not, which means the profession's job is to help patients use these tools well, not to resist them.
The episode closes on advocacy. Physician disunity has long been the profession's most exploitable weakness, with specialties focused on procedural turf while other healthcare stakeholders coordinate around single goals. John has been trying to change that by focusing the AMA's energy on areas of genuine common ground, particularly prior authorization and scope creep, where the profession is broadly aligned and where real progress is possible. But the larger argument he makes is simpler: the physicians who shape what medicine becomes are the ones who are in the room. The ones who wait are not making a neutral choice. They are ceding ground to people who are very happy to make those decisions for them.
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Top 4 Takeaways
The ideas in this conversation are not abstract. They are about the decisions physicians are making right now, in every practice setting, about whether to engage with the forces reshaping their profession or let those forces move without them. These are the four arguments from this episode that deserve the most attention.
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