When I was 8 years old, I decided I was going to be a doctor. My fascination with our family’s medical encyclopedia combined with my love of science and math seemed like the perfect ingredients for a successful career in medicine. Babysitting and summer camp counselor jobs during my adolescence helped to narrow my focus — I would be a pediatrician!

Within the first few years of working as a primary care pediatrician, it became clear that my style of practicing medicine did not align with 15-minute visits. The time I spent cultivating meaningful relationships with patients and families was disruptive to the schedule and to the system.

I transitioned to hospital medicine, where I cared for sick children on their worst days. In this setting, I could visit my patients multiple times throughout the day and spend as much time as was necessary educating and reassuring their parents. I was promoted to Medical Director. I also had the privilege and honor of teaching future physicians. It was my dream job; perhaps even my forever job.

But in 2010, everything shifted. My father’s health began to rapidly decline, and my two older sisters and I became his caregivers. For almost 3 years, I was a “secret shopper”, experiencing the healthcare system from the other side of the stethoscope. In doctors’ offices, Emergency Departments, hospital rooms, and skilled nursing facilities, there was one recurring theme— INVISIBILITY. In the busyness of it all, the healthcare team didn’t see my dad as a human with thoughts, wishes, and lost dreams. They saw him only as a patient with problems that needed to be solved in 15-minute appointments.

During my caregiving journey, I experienced firsthand the gaps that exist in healthcare—gaps in communication, coordination, and empathy. I searched for ways to fill those gaps.
I asked questions. I clarified plans. I spoke up when things didn’t feel right.

What I came to understand was this–I wasn’t just showing up as his daughter who happened to be a physician. I was showing up as his advocate. And because of that advocacy, his care improved. That realization changed everything.

I launched Your GPS Doc in 2017, 4 years after my father’s passing, to honor a commitment to advocate for others the way I advocated for him. Since then, I’ve been peeling back the layers of the healthcare system and recognizing that at the center of the dysfunction and brokenness is disconnection. The 8-year-old girl in me will never stop working to expose, examine, and repair the system breaches that harm patients, families, and healthcare providers alike.

Advocacy connects the pieces of the puzzle. Empathy is the glue. When we return to what is most important—our charge to heal (ourselves and others), transformation will occur.