040 - Stanford Physician Writes the Book on Wellbeing

Author and certified lifestyle medicine physician, Iris Schrijver, MD, describes a fulfilling and fast-paced academic career at Stanford as a full professor of pathology and director of a molecular genetics research lab. A few years ago, in an unlikely turn of events, an opportunity to design a leadership project ignited her long simmering interest in wellbeing.<br /><br />That project culminated in a 2016 research article An Exploration of Key Issues and Potential Solutions that Impact Physician Wellbeing and Professional Fulfilment at an Academic Center. I give you the details here because this is the article that led me to reach out to Dr. Schrijver. I had read everything and everyone with a scholarly approach to physician burnout in preparation for several podcasts. Dr. Schrijver’s article was one of the most outstanding and useful of the scores of articles I read. In our conversation, she describes how important it was for her to have the credibility of being a physician as she interviewed her colleagues about the underpinnings of burnout. She also describes how extrinsic factors, such as restricted autonomy, dominated the findings which contributed to physician burnout.<br /><br />She and her husband, an astrophysicist, decided there was more they wanted to accomplish and experience beyond their fulfilling but all-consuming careers. The magnificent Oregon landscape was pulling them away.<br /><br />Dr. Schrijver describes how she consciously made changes to create the life she wanted. She decided to pursue a certificate in lifestyle medicine, write a book on wellbeing, and contribute to medicine and patients in a different way. They moved to Clackamas County, Oregon, and she began volunteer work at the Clackamas Volunteers in Medicine Clinic—including a stint as medical director and a board member. Now she is developing a lifestyle medicine service for the Clinic. She finds the work remarkably rewarding. As she says, “Poverty is not a crime, and it is a privilege to provide good medical care for this popul