Pamela Wible
Pamela Wible is an American physician, author and activist who promotes community-designed medical clinics; she also maintains a suicide prevention hotline for medical doctors and medical students.
Biography
Early life
Pamela L. Wible was born in 1967 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[1] to physician parents: her mother is a psychiatrist and her father a pathologist. She spent time growing up both in Philadelphia as well as in rural Texas. She would accompany her father in his work in the morgue, and she spent time visiting state mental hospitals with her mother.[2]
Education
Pamela Wible received her MD degree in the early 1990s from the University of Texas Medical Branch (in Galveston, Texas).[3] In 1996 she completed her training in Family Medicine at the University of Arizona Department of Family and Community Medicine.[4]
Medical Career
Establishment of a community-designed medical clinic
Upon completing her medical training, Dr. Wible worked for several years in a variety of medical settings, including hospital-based clinics and community health centers. After growing increasingly frustrated with short patient-appointments and other restrictions, she stopped her work in the year 2004, and then in 2005 she held a series of "town hall" meetings where she invited community members to write out what they felt would be the features of an "ideal clinic." In the same year Dr. Wible opened up a new clinic in the city of Eugene, Oregon which was based on the recommendations from the community.[5]
Dr. Wible writes that some of the main recommendations included same-day appointments which would be thirty minutes or longer; that patients could have different payment options; that other therapies would be available on site, such as massage; and that the physician should be a role model.[6]
Suicide prevention hotline
Dr. Wible has set up an anonymous suicide prevention hotline to help doctors and medical students who are contemplating committing suicide. She also collects stories of doctor suicides as a way of raising awareness of the problem.[7]
Published works
- Pet Goats & Pap Smears: 101 Medical Adventures to Open Your Heart & Mind (2012).
- Physician Suicide Letters Answered, (2016).
- Human Rights Violations in Medicine: A-to-Z Action Guide, (2019).
See also
References
- ^ Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change. 2010.
- ^ "MEDdebate". Retrieved 1 July 2019.
- ^ "USNews & World Report". Retrieved 1 July 2019.
- ^ "Family & Community Medicine: Arizona". Retrieved 1 July 2019.
- ^ "MD Magazine". Retrieved 1 July 2019.
- ^ "Harvard Business Review". Retrieved 1 July 2019.
- ^ "National Public Radio". Retrieved 1 July 2019.
External links
- [1] video: TEDx talk; Jan. 31, 2014