adminIf there’s a doctor in your family, you’ve probably asked one or more of these questions: How do we handle our huge medical school debt? How do I explain why Mommy/Daddy can’t make it to school events? How should I handle people who think we’ve “got it made” because I’m married to a doctor? What should we look for in a contract? What happens if he/she gets sued? How do we keep our relationship healthy when we hardly ever see each other? What about financial planning? My physician spouse just retired – now what?
Families of physicians face challenges unique to those who live under the same roof as a doctor, and until now, there has never been a resource specifically designed to help meet those challenges and answer the questions that people who don’t share a roof with a doctor don’t fully comprehend.
With the June 2014 debut of Physician Family Magazine, a quarterly guide to living with a physician will finally be available, according to Physician Family Editor Donna Baver Rovito.
“Physician Family will address the issues facing medical families of all ages and provide the kind of support that those of us who’ve chosen to spend our lives with a doctor need in these complicated times,” says Rovito. “We intend to do that with compassion, humor and a deep understanding of the sacrifices physicians’ families make in order to help the doctors in their lives be the best they can be.”
An external publication of the AMA Alliance, Physician Family was created to help the organization fulfill its mission to support the families of M.D.’s and D.O.’s in all specialties and stages of life. Physician Family will provide resources, strategies and solutions to the spouses, partners, and families of medical students, physicians in residency and fellowship, physicians in active practice, as well as those who’ve retired from medicine, according to Rovito, outlining the four distinct stages of a physician’s education and career.
Physician Family will be published online quarterly, with an affiliated website, weekly blog and active social media presence. “With the advent of social media, we’ve seen physician spouses and family members reach out to each other in new ways, asking questions that most of us who live with a physician have asked at some point,” says Rovito. “Our potential readership is the family of every M.D. and D.O. with access to the Internet. And with 850,000 physicians in the United States alone, that’s a lot of medical families. Finally, with the creation of Physician Family, there’s a publication just for us.”
Each issue will feature at least one article focused on each of the four stages of life with a physician, as well as periodic information about maintaining healthy relationships, health and wellness, work/life balance, financial and legal issues and more, all written from the perspective of the medical family. While the Alliance’s other publications, Alliance in Motion and Alliance LINK, focus on the organization’s activities and members, Physician Family is intended for both members and non-members.
“An especially exciting aspect of the online publishing platform which will be utilized to distribute Physician Family is the ability to include links, audio, and even video within the articles and features, providing us with a multi-media approach to serve physician families of every generation,” says Rovito.
Physician Family editor Donna Rovito is a Penn State trained print and broadcast journalist with decades of writing and editing experience focused primarily on quality health care and advocacy for physicians and patients. Her work has been featured in a wide variety of local, regional, and national publications. She resides in Pennsylvania with surgeon husband Peter F. Rovito, MD.
Members of physician families who are interested in submitting articles, pictures, videos, or providing professional expertise for Physician Family may contact Rovito at DonnaBaverRovito@aol.com.
Businesses interested in advertising in Physician Family may contact Rovito as well.