TAFP’s newly installed president, Lindsay Botsford, MD, MBA, FAAFP, landed in family medicine after realizing the specialty would allow her to follow her passions – all of them. During her early career, working as residency faculty taught her how much she enjoyed leadership and system roles, in addition to the clinical side of being a family physician. She is now a practicing family doc in Houston and will serve this year as TAFP president. Read her inaugural address here.
Tell us about your career path.
I started as residency faculty in 2010 and really enjoyed teaching medical students and residents during the first part of my career. It allowed me to flex the breadth of skills I had learned in training and to do OB, hospital medicine, post-acute care, and nursing home care. It also let me learn from various leadership roles within the residencies and hospital systems I worked in, which reinforced that the leadership part of my role was the part that brought the most joy for me. I realized that as much as I enjoyed seeing individual patients, I really loved participating in systems change.
I am currently a PCP with One Medical, a national primary care group, at our BLVD Place location in Houston. I care for a panel of continuity patients but also support our practices across the Midwest/Texas as a Regional Medical Director and chair the Iora Health Network ACO Reach Governing Body. I feel really lucky – I get to combine patient care with coaching leaders, building teams, and strategic planning. I like to think I am trying to make primary care a better place to be a physician, although this is an everyday battle! Outside of work, I serve as an appointee to the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee.
Who or what inspired you to become a family physician?
I’ve had so many supportive family docs along the way. I entered my undergrad certain I would go into orthopedic surgery, having loved leadership and sports growing up. I thought leading a sports medicine team would be a fun career, although I learned along the way it was more common to be a team doc as a family physician! I was also fortunate to get into a combined undergrad/medical school program through Rice-Baylor, and I really think that the freedom to explore things outside of science and math exposed me to medical sociology, ethics, health policy, and public health. I found that what really drove me was leadership and health care transformation.
I also realized I liked constantly learning, doing a lot of different things, and problem solving. When I got to medical school, it became clear that by choosing family medicine I could do all the things that brought me joy. I attended a Harris County chapter meeting and got to see the diversity of practice of a family doc. I also realized I didn’t love the OR, and the idea of focusing on a single organ system seemed monotonous. I had a fantastic longitudinal preceptor in primary care sports that connected me to a TAFP member, Mark Chassay, MD, who reinforced the opportunities that exist within the field of family medicine.
What unique challenges are represented in your patient community?
This is tough because the barriers to care are real and yet different even between patients within my own practice. Some patients face health literacy or language barriers, while others face transportation or cost barriers. I think common among many patients is frustration with the value of health care. For those without insurance, they face the fear of accessing care due to not being able to predict costs. For those with insurance, the information asymmetry about insurance creates hassles and drives frustration. Across my patients, they value access to a PCP when they are sick or scared, and human centeredness. I enjoy working for an organization that believes in access and empathy, and I hope that those things help to reduce the friction my patients experience trying to access primary care.
What made you want to get started on the TAFP officer track?
Having attended and participated in TAFP meetings since medical school, I learned so much from the leaders that devoted their time to this organization. I have had the chance to practice in a variety of settings and see both the bright spots and the challenges of being a family doc. As I got further into practice and my skillset grew as a leader and family doc, I felt a sense of obligation to give back as a servant leader. I’m excited about the chance to weave together my connections across family medicine with my experience across the health care system to represent family physicians across Texas. With so much change in health care, I do think having organizations like TAFP that support primary care docs is critical to the health of our specialty.
Why do you choose to be a TAFP member?
The choice to renew year after year almost doesn’t feel like a choice at all. I can’t imagine not being a member! The TAFP has been my professional family across the span of my career. While my employer and practice setting has changed, TAFP has been a constant. The connections I have made through TAFP have introduced me to new opportunities when I was at points of transition. Each time I attend a meeting, I feel I recharge and “fill my bucket” up a bit more to build my own resilience against the challenges of being a PCP from day to day. I feel I am a better family doc due to the things I have learned and connections I have made through TAFP.
What do you enjoy doing outside of medicine?
I have two school-age boys and my husband and I enjoy traveling and spending time with them and our 11-year old cockapoo. I love Broadway musicals, reading, puzzles, and playing sports of any kind. I continue to play soccer and golf when time permits and won’t turn down a chance to use my label maker, create to-do lists and spreadsheets, or organize things. Although I love Orange Theory classes, I consider it a win if I get 8,000 steps a day and 8 hours of sleep.
TAFP’s Member of the Month program highlights Texas family physicians in TAFP News Now and on the TAFP website. We feature a biography and a Q&A with a different TAFP member each month and his or her unique approach to family medicine. If you know an outstanding family physician colleague who you think should be featured as a Member of the Month or if you’d like to tell your own story, nominate yourself or your colleague by contacting TAFP by email at tafp@tafp.org or by phone at (512) 329-8666.