Welcome to the American Family Physician Podcast, bonus episode 14, the advocacy episode.

I'm Steve from the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix Family Medicine

Residency, and today we're going to welcome a number of experts to help us understand how family physicians,

students, and residents can make a difference for our specialty, our patients, and our communities beyond the exam room.

The opinions expressed in this podcast are our own and do not represent the opinions of the American Academy Family Physicians,

the editor of American Family Physician, or Banner Health. I believe everything is at a policy

level. If we are looking at health, health begins where we live, learn, work, and play. Those have

the largest impact on the outcome of our patients' health. How do we lead

ourselves to create the necessary transformation in the U.S. healthcare system to get us to that

point where we can make health primary? There's a lot of opportunity and challenge ahead of us

as a community to really bring primary care to every

single American. It's not just about the work that you do in your office or your clinic,

but that the policymakers do have a huge influence in terms of how we're able to practice medicine

and how we're able to deliver the kind of care that we signed up to deliver.

Healthcare is a right, not a privilege, whereas wearing your white coat is a privilege, not a right.

It's important to be aware of this and to use your white coat to advocate for and to give a voice

to those without me. Those comments are from Dr. Renee Critchlow from our bonus episode 13,

Dr. Jay Lee from episode four in 2015,

and Henry Sanchez Ortegosa, a fourth year medical student

at Rutgers, New Jersey Medical School.

Before we meet our experts, I'd like to give you a brief overview of advocacy in medicine.

Physician advocacy is a core part of medical professionalism.

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