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Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare

Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare

Written by: Andrea Austin MD
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Welcome to "Heartline," a podcast dedicated to exploring the inspiring journeys and impactful work of healthcare changemakers leading the charge in transforming healthcare. Despite the United States spending more on healthcare than any other developed nation, key quality outcomes like life expectancy and maternal mortality lag behind. With over half of American physicians experiencing burnout, the challenges within the system are clear. Join us as we delve into the stories of patients, medical professionals, and other experts who defy the status quo. We’ll uncover the unique characteristics and experiences that propel them to be effective changemakers and the organizational factors that support change. Dr. Austin, host of the podcast, is an emergency physician with real-world experience with the dysfunction in the system. Along with working in the emergency department, she is a medical educator focusing on healthcare worker well-being and how innovative approaches like simulation can improve healthcare. In addition, she researches how we can accelerate changemakers in healthcare. Dr. Austin also uses coaching-informed thinking to unlock the potential of healthcare changemakers, and she will guide you through these narratives with insightful commentary and expert analyses. Through in-depth interviews and real-world examples, this podcast aims to inspire and equip the next generation to drive meaningful change in healthcare. Whether you're a physician, a medical student, or simply passionate about the future of healthcare, "Heartline" will offer valuable perspectives and actionable ideas to help you thrive in a challenging environment and contribute to improving our healthcare system. Seasons 1-4 focused on gender bias in the medical system and shared the uplifting stories of women and allies who stay true to their values, boundaries, and priorities, improving their career fulfillment and increasing their impact on healthcare. Season 5 will expand the guests beyond physicians and tackle issues beyond gender bias that impact healthcare. Tune in to the "Hearline" for a deep dive into healthcare transformation and be inspired by the changemakers making a real difference.© 2024 Heartline Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease Self-Help Social Sciences Success
Episodes
  • From Burnout to PACE: Redefining Success Without Losing Yourself

    From Burnout to PACE: Redefining Success Without Losing Yourself
    Sep 15 2026
    What if achieving your highest level didn’t require sacrificing your health, values, or sense of self? Dr. Judy Wright shares how her experiences across clinical medicine, academia, managed care, and coaching reshaped her understanding of sustainable success and the importance of pausing long enough to recognize what is truly working.Judy also explores how clinicians can become stronger change-makers by listening across disciplines, bringing the right people to the table, and addressing problems upstream. Her PACE framework (Pause, Audit, Calibrate, and Elevate) offers a practical approach to examining boundaries, redefining success, and building a career that supports both ambition and personal wellbeing.Episode Highlights:From One Doctor to a Difference-Maker: Discover how Judy’s patients literally followed her across New York, revealing the profound impact one physician can have.Breaking the “Dark Side” Myth: Why clinicians need a voice inside managed care and payer organizations to influence healthcare decisions.Everyone Belongs at the Table: How bringing physicians, nurses, social workers, nutritionists, and other professionals together can create lasting community change.Burnout Can Follow You: Why changing jobs alone may not solve burnout, and what looking inward can reveal.The PACE Method: Learn how to Pause, Audit, Calibrate, and Elevate your approach to success, boundaries, priorities, and capacity.Turn Awareness Into Action: How simple audits, wearable data, calendars, and daily reflection can uncover patterns and guide meaningful changes.Hope for Healthcare’s Future: Why the next generation of medical and nursing professionals gives Judy reason to remain optimistic about healthcare transformation.About the Guest:Dr. Judy Wright is a board-certified family medicine physician and sustainable success strategist who helps high-achieving professional women pursue ambitious goals without sacrificing themselves. A physician, coach, speaker, and healthcare leader, she has worked across clinical medicine, academia, corrections, and managed care and has been recognized nationally for her leadership and influence.Connect With JudyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judywrightmd Instagram: @judywrightmd.Resources MentionedPACE Method: Dr. Judy Wright’s framework: Pause, Audit, Calibrate, Elevate.Oura Ring: discussed as a tool for monitoring stress patterns and increasing self-awareness.Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff; and It’s All Small Stuff : recommended by Dr. Judy Wright for maintaining perspective and protecting your energy.Top 3 Key Takeaways:Pause Before You Push Forward: Sustainable success begins with creating space to interrupt autopilot. Pausing allows you to notice what you are feeling, examine what is happening, reconnect with your values, and determine whether your current definition of success still reflects what you genuinely want.Audit What Is Really Working: Awareness makes change possible. Look for patterns in your stress, relationships, schedule, energy, and boundaries. Whether using a wearable or a simple calendar rating system, examining your experiences can help identify what needs to change and where your energy is going.Build Success Around Your Capacity: Success should evolve as your circumstances and capacity change. Calibrating may mean changing priorities, delegating, adjusting your calendar, or setting stronger boundaries. By honoring where you are while intentionally building forward, you can pursue greater achievement without losing yourself in the process.🩺 About the Host: Dr. Andrea Austin is a board-certified emergency physician, educator, and passionate advocate for system-level change in healthcare. As the creator and host of Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare, Dr. Austin brings curiosity, compassion, and bold honesty to conversations with leaders who are challenging the norms and reshaping medicine from the inside out.With decades of experience in high-pressure clinical environments, Andrea has seen firsthand the cracks in the system—and the people working to repair them. Whether she’s mentoring residents, speaking on national stages, or recording with a fellow disruptor, she centers one theme: change doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens heart to heart.💫 About the Show:Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare isn’t just a podcast—it’s a pulse check on what’s possible.Hosted by emergency physician and educator Dr. Andrea Austin, Heartline features conversations with healthcare leaders, innovators, and quiet disruptors who are challenging the way things have always been done.Each episode explores real stories of change—from redefining leadership and communication, to reimagining systems built on burnout and hierarchy. This is a space for truth-telling, for asking better questions, and for reconnecting with the reason we all got into medicine in the first place: to make it better.This isn’t about perfection. It’s about ...
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    33 mins
  • Peak Performance in Medicine: Wearables, Recovery, Sleep & the Future of Healthcare

    Peak Performance in Medicine: Wearables, Recovery, Sleep & the Future of Healthcare
    Sep 8 2026
    What if the same performance science used to support elite athletes, military teams, and other high-stakes professionals could help healthcare clinicians thrive?Dr. Andrea Austin welcomes Joshua Blair, Head of Insights at Arena Labs, for a conversation about the intersection of performance science, neuroscience, wearable technology, and healthcare. Joshua explains how Arena Labs adapts tools from other high-stakes industries to help physicians, nurses, APPs, and other clinicians build greater physical, mental, and emotional capacity. They explore how wearables can provide useful insight into sleep, stress, recovery, and heart rate variability while emphasizing that data is most valuable when paired with context and coaching.The conversation also moves beyond individual wellbeing to examine how aggregated insights can help healthcare organizations understand team stressors, leadership challenges, scheduling issues, and other systemic factors. Andrea and Joshua discuss why supporting individuals and changing broken systems are not competing ideas, but interconnected parts of creating healthier healthcare environments. You’ll hear how they:Understand what wearables can reveal about stress, recovery, sleep, and physiologyUse heart rate variability as a personalized window into nervous-system patternsTurn wearable data into meaningful behavioral insights rather than simply reacting to scoresUse coaching to connect performance science and data to the realities of clinical lifeThink about individual wellbeing and organizational change as interconnectedUse aggregated data to help leaders identify team-level stressors and opportunitiesEmbrace individualized approaches to scheduling, workload, recovery, and performanceBuild recovery practices into life outside of workPrioritize breathing, active recovery, and sleep as foundations of wellbeingCreate healthcare environments that help clinicians flourish rather than treating them like interchangeable widgetsAbout the Guest:Joshua Blair is the Head of Insights at Arena Labs and a Johns Hopkins alum with a master's degree in science and bioengineering. He has pioneered predictive performance insights for hospital leaders and brings expertise to the intersection of performance and neuroscience. His background also includes inventing a non-invasive brain-computer device designed to monitor and augment deep sleep.At Arena Labs, Joshua focuses on translating performance science, data, coaching, and insights from other high-stakes industries into practical approaches for healthcare professionals and organizations.📍 Connect with Joshua:Email: joshua@arenalabs.coArena Labs: arenalabs.coLinkedIn: Joshua Blair 📚 Resources + Mentionsarenalabs.coWearable technology and heart rate variabilityStanford Healthcare Professional Fulfillment ModelWHOOPBioStrapJAMA research involving Arena Labs and cliniciansJust One Heart by Jonathan Fisher🔑 Top 3 Key TakeawaysData is most powerful when paired with context: Wearables can provide insight into sleep, stress, recovery, and heart rate variability, but a number alone does not tell the whole story. Clinicians need to understand what may be influencing their data and use those insights to identify patterns and make meaningful changes rather than simply reacting to a score. Individual wellbeing and system change are connected: Supporting individual clinicians does not mean ignoring organizational problems. Healthcare systems are made up of individuals and teams, and better support can give people more capacity to participate in meaningful change. At the same time, aggregated insights can help leaders identify systemic stressors and make better decisions.Recovery is part of peak performance: Joshua highlights three practical foundations for clinician wellbeing: breathing, active recovery, and sleep. Recovery does not simply mean doing nothing; it can involve meaningful activities outside work that reconnect people with who they are beyond their professional environment. 🩺 About the Host: Dr. Andrea Austin is a board-certified emergency physician, educator, and passionate advocate for system-level change in healthcare. As the creator and host of Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare, Dr. Austin brings curiosity, compassion, and bold honesty to conversations with leaders who are challenging the norms and reshaping medicine from the inside out. With decades of experience in high-pressure clinical environments, Andrea has seen firsthand the cracks in the system—and the people working to repair them. Whether she’s mentoring residents, speaking on national stages, or recording with a fellow disruptor, she centers one theme: change doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens heart to heart. 💫 About the Show:Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare isn’t just a podcast—it’s a pulse check on what’s possible.Hosted by emergency physician and educator Dr. Andrea Austin, Heartline features conversations with healthcare ...
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    47 mins
  • Call In, Don’t Call Out: The Human Side of Sustainable Change

    Call In, Don’t Call Out: The Human Side of Sustainable Change
    Sep 1 2026
    What does it really take to create change that lasts? Dr. Andrea Austin welcomes Jennifer Brown for a powerful conversation about the human dimensions of change. Drawing from more than two decades of experience advising organizations on culture, talent, leadership, and transformation, Jennifer shares why successful change requires more than information, urgency, or advocacy. It requires curiosity, emotional support, trust, and the willingness to meet people where they are. The conversation explores the challenges healthcare leaders face as they introduce new technologies such as AI-assisted documentation. Jennifer shares her personal changemaker story, from her early career as a performer and advocate to becoming an organizational change consultant. She reflects on her experience of being closeted as a performer, losing her singing voice, and ultimately discovering how her personal experiences with authenticity, safety, and transformation shaped the work she does today. The conversation also examines the evolution and disruption of DEI, the difference between “calling out” and “calling in,” and how leaders can create psychological safety by making room for difficult conversations. Finally, Jennifer introduces the BANI framework (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible) and shares the powerful chrysalis metaphor from her book, The Shape of Change. Just as a caterpillar must surrender to transformation before becoming something new, leaders and organizations may need to let go of familiar identities, structures, and definitions of success in order to create what comes next. You’ll hear how they: Meet people where they are instead of force-feeding changeIdentify the fears and concerns driving resistance to new technologyBalance inquiry and advocacy when leading transformationRecognize the importance of emotional support alongside informationUse “calling in” as an alternative to public shaming and criticismCreate psychological safety that allows difficult conversations to strengthen relationshipsUnderstand the human lessons behind the disruption of DEINavigate a BANI world that is brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensibleEmbrace surrender, uncertainty, and transformation through the chrysalis metaphor About the Guest: “Maybe the art of falling apart isn’t about failing or breaking down. Perhaps it’s about having the courage to let go of who we’ve been so we can become what’s needed next.” – Jennifer Brown Jennifer Brown is a bestselling author, speaker, entrepreneur, and leadership thinker whose work explores how people, organizations, and institutions adapt in times of profound change. For more than two decades, she has advised leaders at some of the world’s most influential organizations on culture, talent, and transformation. She is the author of five books, including her latest, The Shape of Change, and her work focuses on leadership, organizational resilience, workforce transformation, and the human dimensions of change in an era of accelerating disruption. Jennifer is also the host of The Will to Change podcast, and serves as the founding luminary for Cocelle’s Luminary Exchange, a global community exploring the future of work, leadership, technology, and society. 📍 Connect with Jennifer Website: jenniferbrownspeaks.com Instagram: @jenniferbrownspeaks LinkedIn: Jennifer Brown Podcast: The Will to Change : Where Leadership Meets the Courage to Evolve 📚 Resources + Mentions · The Shape of Change by Jennifer Brown · How to Be an Inclusive Leader by Jennifer Brown 🔑 Top 3 Key Takeaways Sustainable change starts with meeting people where they are: Change leaders need to balance inquiry and advocacy, understand what people care about, and identify the fears or concerns that may prevent them from embracing something new.Calling in can create more powerful change than calling out: Constructive feedback, delivered with grace and respect, can preserve relationships, reduce shame, and give people an opportunity to understand their impact and grow.Transformation requires surrender: Jennifer’s chrysalis metaphor reminds us that periods of uncertainty, grief, and apparent stillness can contain important unseen work. Letting go of what once was can create the space for something new to emerge. 🩺 About the Host: Dr. Andrea Austin is a board-certified emergency physician, educator, and passionate advocate for system-level change in healthcare. As the creator and host of Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare, Dr. Austin brings curiosity, compassion, and bold honesty to conversations with leaders who are challenging the norms and reshaping medicine from the inside out. With decades of experience in high-pressure clinical environments, Andrea has seen firsthand the cracks in the system—and the people working to repair them. Whether she’s mentoring residents, speaking on national stages, or recording with a fellow disruptor, she centers one theme: ...
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    50 mins
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