Leadership, Agency, and the Future of Emergency Medicine with Dr. Harry Severance
Episode Description
What happens when big business runs healthcare and clinicians are pushed out of decision-making? In this powerful conversation, Dr. Harry Severance shares decades of clinical and educational experience to diagnose the root causes of our workforce crisis: moral injury, profit-over-patient priorities, and the exodus of burned-out physicians and nurses.
Dr. Severance and Dr. Austin explore multi-tiered healthcare solutions, the unsustainability of the current U.S. system, barriers like the Stark Law, the growing unionization movement, and practical paths for clinicians to reclaim agency, both top-down (seats at the C-suite table) and bottom-up (advocacy and collective action).
You’ll hear how they:
- Examine the shift from patient-centered care to corporate metrics and its devastating impact on clinician wellbeing and patient outcomes
- Discuss alarming statistics: more physicians leaving than entering the U.S., projected shortages, and unpayable medical bills driving bankruptcies
- Challenge the status quo on single-payer vs. hybrid systems and the need for baseline healthcare access for all citizens
- Address apathy vs. agency and the power of persistence, political involvement, and community action
- Emphasize the timeless wisdom of “never give up” even when the system feels overwhelmingly broken
If you’re feeling the weight of a corporate-dominated healthcare system or searching for ways to drive meaningful change, this episode delivers both hard truths and hopeful calls to action.
About the Guest:
“You can’t always get what you want. But if you try, sometimes you just might find you get what you need.” - Dr. Harry Severance
Dr. Harry Severance is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Duke University with decades of clinical experience in emergency and acute care medicine. A passionate change-maker and workforce advocate, he has counseled countless physicians and clinicians navigating burnout and disillusionment. Dr. Severance writes and speaks on healthcare system reform, clinician wellbeing, and the urgent need to return clinical voices to healthcare leadership.
📍 Connect with Dr. Harry Severance
LinkedIn: Harry Severance
Email: harry.severance@duke.edu or harry.severance@gmail.com
📚 Resources + Mentions
- American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Leadership & Advocacy Conference
- State medical societies and specialty chapters
🔑 Top 3 Key Takeaways
- Workplace wellbeing must come first: Corporate priorities (profit, market share) have displaced patient and clinician outcomes, driving massive burnout and attrition that training pipelines cannot offset.
- Clinicians must reclaim management roles: Whether through gaining C-suite seats, supporting unionization, or political advocacy, physicians and care teams need a voice at the decision-making table.
- Systemic reform is urgent and possible: A multi-tiered system with baseline healthcare access for all citizens is essential to prevent economic collapse, personal bankruptcies, and worsening health disparities. Never give up, persistent individual and collective agency can create the change we need.
🩺 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 progress—with heart.
Follow Your Heartline and transform healthcare today!
🎓 Upcoming Events & Opportunities
- 🔥 Recalibrate: Group Coaching for Physicians
Starting 2026, I’ll be co-leading Recalibrate with psychologist and coach Sharee Johnson. This 6-month group coaching program supports physicians in rediscovering mindfulness, meaning, and wholehearted practice. I'm an alum myself—this program transformed my career. Learn more and enroll here, and please share with colleagues who may benefit.
o Join us for this incredible one of a one-of-a-kind event in the heart of Australia at one of our most spectacular locations—Voyagers Resort in Central Australia in 2026.
o Learn from some of the world's medical leaders in compassionate care, and how heart-centered healthcare can empower and heal healthcare workers and their patients.
o For: Doctors, Nurses, Allied Health Clinicians, Healthcare Leaders,
Coaches and Supervisors of Medics, Patient Advocates and all healthcare workers.
o When: 29-31 July 2026
Where: Voyages Ayers Rock Resort, Central Australia
- Women in Medicine Summit | Chicago, Sept 24-26, 2026
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🎧 Thanks for tuning into Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare!
🌟 Learn more and book a free discovery call today at andreaaustinmd.com/coaching.
Stay connected and keep making a difference:
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📚Discover Dr. Austin’s book Revitalized: A Guidebook to Following Your Healing Heartline.
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