Life After Clinical Practice: Finding Impact Beyond the Exam Room

On The Pediatric Lounge, Herb and George welcome returning guest Jeanne Marconi to discuss “Life After Clinical Practice: What’s Next?” Jeanne describes stepping away from patient care during COVID, wanting to scale what she built in practice (integrated urgent care, behavioral health, lactation, nutrition/obesity care), and helping develop a behavioral health arm at PM Pediatrics leveraging telehealth. The group debates who represents pediatrics, arguing that the AAP prioritizes child advocacy over pediatrician advocacy, while clinical practice faces declining visit volume, rising costs, a worsening payer mix and skewed RVU incentives, growing chronic and mental health complexity, and low adoption of recommendations, which can overwhelm clinicians and erode family trust. Jeanne outlines paths for “burnt on” physicians: redesign services within practice, pursue governance/boards, advocacy, or nonclinical roles, and accept starting as a beginner. They discuss private equity tradeoffs, instability, and the need for strong change management centered on explaining “why,” addressing resistance, and building community forums for pediatricians. Jeanne highlights nonprofit work supporting youth aging out of foster care and her board role at Elizabeth Seton Children’s Center, urging colleagues to support one another’s mental health and view transitions as applying medical skills in new ways.

00:00 Podcast Welcome
00:37 Meet Dr Marconi
02:12 Leaving Clinical Practice
03:36 Building Behavioral Health
04:33 Who Speaks Pediatrics
06:42 Practice Pressures Today
08:05 Payment Model Problems
14:08 Guidelines And Evidence
17:29 Burnt On And Pivoting
20:35 Paths Beyond Medicine
21:43 Private Equity Reality
28:27 Costs And Practice Change
32:18 Finding Your Impact
33:44 Drop the Doctor Ego
33:58 Reframing Leaving Medicine
35:22 Becoming a Change Agent
38:18 Change Management That Works
40:03 Generational Shifts in Practice
43:06 AI Tools for Better Leadership
46:26 When to Move On
51:10 Passion Versus Paycheck
51:50 Mental Health and Toxicity
53:14 Building Community Meetups
57:23 Advocacy That Feeds the Soul
59:03 Final Takeaways and Wrap

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The Pediatric Lounge - A Podcast taking you behind the door of the Physician's Lounge to get a deeper insight into what docs are talking about today, from the clinically profound to the wonderfully routine...and everything in between.

The conversations are not intended as medical advice, and the opinions expressed are solely those of the host and guest.