Bertina Marie Hooks is an internal medicine physician.

3 traits the physician leadership model is missing

Physician
June 12, 2026

There is a growing conversation in medicine about leadership. We talk about the need for more physician leaders, more voices at the table, more representation in decision-making spaces. And while these conversations are important, they often overlook a more fundamental issue. The problem is not a lack of physician leadership. It is the model of leadership we continue to promote.

From early training, physicians are conditioned to equate leadership with endurance: …

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3 traits the physician leadership model is missing

The quiet shift that changes physician decision making

Physician
May 27, 2026

There is a subtle but profound shift that happens when your identity changes.

Not the kind of shift that comes with a new title or role, but the kind that is forced. The kind that emerges when something foundational is altered, and the assumptions you once relied on no longer hold in the same way.

For physicians, identity is often tightly interwoven with decision-making. We are trained to trust our judgment, to …

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The quiet shift that changes physician decision making

Redefining physician leadership and adversity after a life-changing illness

Physician
April 9, 2026

There are moments in life when the identity you have carefully built over decades is interrupted so abruptly that you are forced to ask who you are when the familiar parts no longer function the way they once did.

For physicians, identity often begins early. We learn to attach meaning to competence, endurance, reliability, and service. We become the person others call when decisions must be made, when systems feel uncertain, …

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Redefining physician leadership and adversity after a life-changing illness