Dear Doctor: Amber Robins
The family medicine specialist and physician journalist on co-founding the Women in White Coats blog and the importance of supporting and empowering future physicians of color.
As the first doctor in her immediate family, Dr. Amber Robins is passionate about providing effective and empowering care to her patients. A board-certified MD, MBA and graduate of the Health and Media fellowship from Georgetown University School of Medicine/PBS NewsHour, Dr. Robins has a unique perspective on the intersection of healthcare and media. In addition to leveraging her experience to provide the best care possible for her patients, she works to inspire fellow female physicians to share their reflections on her Women in White Coats blog. Read on to learn more about her work and why she believes that empowerment is the key to patient success.
“I was inspired to go into medicine after my dad had a serious spinal cord injury when I was around four or five years old. In fact, you could say that it was my first experience witnessing our healthcare system end-to-end. As I watched my dad go in and out of the hospital and work with different doctors and physical therapists to recuperate from his injury, I slowly began fostering the dream of one day being able to provide similar empathic care to patients like him. I dreamed of becoming a doctor ever since that experience, and I’m very thankful that everything has worked out in that favor.”
On getting started in medicine
In regards to family medicine, I decided to practice as a family doctor in order to see a diverse range of patients, from small children to the elderly. I enjoy seeing the different dynamics within a family and being a reliable resource on health and wellness for many of its members. This part of my work is critical, as I believe that medicine works best in a community setting. As practitioners, it’s easy to talk with our patients about lifestyle and health adjustments in the office, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that these will translate into their day-to-day routine. Having multiple touchpoints with members of the same family unit helps me drive successful changes much more effectively.
On co-founding the Women in White Coats blog
My co-founder, emergency medicine doctor Archana Shrestha, and I wanted to create a collection of personal stories from female physicians and dentists featured on our blog about what it’s like to be a woman in medicine. In fact, the blog actually started as a book that I organized. Initially, I compiled stories from twenty female physicians and dentists and published them in The Chronicles of Women in White Coats. I wanted to do this because although a lot of female doctors speak about their experiences on platforms like Facebook or Instagram, those stories aren’t widely published and eventually end up in the ephemeral space of social media. I wanted to expose people to what it’s really like to be a woman in a white coat in a substantive and long-standing format. But after publishing The Chronicles of Women in White Coats, everyone involved in the book saw that there was so much magic and positivity sparked by bringing this community together that we wanted to keep the momentum going, and that’s how the blog was officially formed.
Today, we continue to highlight women in medicine and enable them to share experiences that aren’t generally talked about in the wider community. We also bring women doctors together at our annual conference and wellness retreat each April and honor the women doctors at our Heroes Awards ceremony. It’s been incredibly empowering and therapeutic for all of us to see and experience this powerful commonality and camaraderie.
On encouraging and supporting future doctors that better reflect the diversity of their patients
Exposure is really important when it comes to inspiring and supporting future doctors of color. I had a unique opportunity with my dad’s injury to gain exposure to the medical world from the patient and family member’s perspective, but a lot of young people may not have those types of opportunities to pique their interest in medicine. Also, knowing that women of color do exist in medicine is powerful.
Currently, women of color make up just two percent of practicing physicians in the country, so increasing our exposure is really important for young prospective female physicians. Social and traditional media are fantastic outlets for young people to see who’s in the profession and what strides they’re making in their specialties.
Believing that you can achieve your goals is also important. Many minority families may be unsupportive of their child going into medicine because they think it will present an insurmountable financial burden. I’m the first physician in my immediate family, and when I was starting out the process my family didn’t know what it would entail. But after finding people like me who had gone through the process, asking questions, and finding the right programs out there I was able to make it happen.
The advent of social media has made finding mentors and resources so much more possible, so don’t lose faith! For example, my alma mater, Xavier University of Louisiana, is one of the top undergraduate programs for getting African-American students into medical school. If medicine is your passion, start building a community of mentors and resources that will help you along your journey. I am proof that it’s possible!
On incorporating patient empowerment in her practice
It’s all about giving my patients the power to effect positive changes in their life. Many patients come into the doctor’s office and expect their physicians to blindly tell them what to do and that’ll be that. But my approach is much more contextual. I like to say that I’m more like a coach and the patient is my MVP. My job is to coach and support you in becoming the best version of yourself possible. I understand that life is unpredictable, and so when it comes time to discussing important changes in a patient’s lifestyle or diet, for example, it has to be a conversation. It’s about working with my patients to figure out how we can make this life the best life possible.
I also use a lot of motivational interviewing in my practice to give patients the power to realize their goals. It’s a similar approach to that of lifestyle medicine, an area of our industry that’s growing rapidly. Lifestyle medicine helps to provide a reliable framework of how to incorporate healthy changes into a patient’s daily life in an easy and effectual way. When I work with my patients, we start the conversation with the following: what are you willing to do, what will work best for you, and how can we work together so that we can meet those goals.
On traditional and social media’s role in healthcare
Often, the patients who really need assistance and guidance aren’t necessarily the ones who are coming into the clinic. So when we as physicians become more active on social media, we are acknowledging that we’re trying to meet patients where they are, which will ultimately be much more impactful on the public health scale. Especially as we continue to have a shortage of doctors, we have to be able to reinvent the way we practice medicine, and that’s not just with incorporating social media into our communication but also by reinventing how we see and treat patients in a digital landscape. It’s all about bringing that connectivity back so that we can reach more people and give them the information that they need.
Vital Signs
My favorite meal is… I’m from Louisiana, so my favorite meal is red beans and rice with cabbage.
Go-to karaoke song? Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
Next travel destination? I would love to go back to Morocco or South Africa.
Best hangout in DC? I like the National Harbor in Maryland and The Wharf in DC.
What’s one healthful habit you’d love to see patients adopt? Loving themselves more and not being their worst critic.
You can learn more about Dr. Amber Robins here and check out her Women In White Coats blog here.
Know a great female doctor in NYC? We’d love to meet her, introduce us here!
