Jason Marker, MD, MPA, FAAFP Associate Director, Memorial Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, South Bend Medical Director, E. Blair Warner Family Medicine Center

By Richard Gunderman, MD, PhD
ISMA President-elect
ISMA Wellness Steering Committee Chair

Jason Marker, MD, MPA, FAAFP, a featured speaker at this year’s ISMA Physician Wellness Symposium, got a wake-up call about the importance of balance when he realized that he kept showing up to family photos wearing scrubs. At that point having practiced family medicine for 15 years and delivered 500 babies, he decided he wanted to explore a different career path.

So, he got involved with wellness and leadership, becoming president of the medical staff at his small hospital, then getting involved with the Indiana Academy of Family Physicians, followed by the American Academy of Family Physicians, and eventually assuming a full-time teaching role in his hospital’s family medicine residency program.

At the invitation of ISMA’s new Executive Vice President, Clif Knight, MD, then Vice President at the AAFP, he worked with others to create a leadership development program for the organization that would enroll over 100 participants annually from around the country, each of whom would develop their own Leading Physician Well-Being project.

Helping to develop and coordinate what now amounts to over 400 projects, Dr. Marker has learned that each physician can do something to foster well-being, but individual-level projects will not solve all the problems. Most challenges to physician well-being, he finds, are centered not at the level of individuals but in systems.

“While each of us should do what we can to keep ourselves whole,” he said. “We also need to be physician leaders who find things we can do to improve the system. Even small actions can make a difference, and the key thing is to find ways to break big problems down into smaller ones and then set to work on them.”

He shares the example of a physician who sensed a problematic lack of cohesion among her ethnically diverse office staff. So, she brought a picnic table to her office and had a potluck lunch. Staff members got together and soon found themselves sharing recipes and family stories. She reports that the office enjoyed a new camaraderie after that.

At the Physician Wellness Symposium, Dr. Marker will address the changes that are taking place in our brains in the digital age, especially the accelerating pace of all facets of our lives, driven in part by social media. All such changes are not beneficial, and we need a better understanding of our own neurophysiology.

If we can slow down, Dr. Marker says we can change this physiology in beneficial ways, in both the short term and long term.

“And when we do so, we free ourselves up to be more creative and compassionate human beings, which in turn enables us to become better physicians who are better able to handle the stresses of practice,” he said.

He likens it to the old parable about the tortoise and the hare. The hare can try to force his way through everything in a big hurry, but at the end, he fails to complete the race. The tortoise, by contrast, takes things at a slower pace and can get much farther down the road. Physicians can do the same with busy workdays.

Dr. Marker will share several ways that we can re-program our brains to be more fully present in our work and for our patients. One is to find a pace of life that is better for physicians who want to be at their best for their patients.

“From simple breathing exercises that hijack an overstimulated amygdala to the neurophysiologic benefits of savoring the awe and wonder of the natural world – there’s something we can all learn about how to keep our brains healthy,” Dr. Marker said. “We should explore the idea that a slower pace of work (and maybe our personal lives, too) creates an environment where we can truly thrive and become the best physicians we can be, which has the added benefit of helping us reduce inefficiencies and enhance the quality of patient care. When physicians thrive, everyone wins.”

Dr. Marker believes that well-being should be a lens through which we look at all the parts of healthcare that affect a physician’s day.

“Health systems seem to think that the only goal should be to make our hamster wheels turn ever faster,” he said. “When our brains are allowed the benefits of slowing down, it results in a healthier and more valuable physician.  In the long run, the dollars will catch up.”
 
Dr. Marker’s talk at the Physician Wellness Symposium will address why our brains want us to slow down, as well as how, in doing so, we can build a better future for the practice of medicine.  To interact with Dr. Marker and learn how slowing down is the key to advancing, register for the 2026 Physician Wellness Symposium, which will take place at Embassy Suites in Noblesville on September 25.”