Edgar “Eddy” Chedrawy, MD, MS, FRCSC, FACS, MHA, CPE, FAAPL, MCPDC, is a physician leader with more than 20 years of experience spanning the operating room and the executive suite. He has held leadership roles in private and public health systems across the United States and Canada and serves as chair of the American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL) Board of Directors.

Dr. Chedrawy traces his path from cardiac surgery training at McGill University and a transplant fellowship at Stanford University to an unexpected introduction to hospital leadership in Chicago. That experience led him to earn a master’s degree, AAPL certification, and the Certified Physician Executive (CPE) credential.

He and host Mike Sacopulos discuss:

• The skills required to lead clinical and non-clinical teams
• Chedrawy’s international consulting and teaching work in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia
• AAPL’s domestic and global initiatives, including micro-credentials, the CMO Academy, enhancements to the CPE program, and an early-career leaders task force
• New international partnerships in Saudi Arabia and with the Consortium of Medical Schools of Africa (COMSA)

Dr. Chedrawy’s journey highlights the value of pairing clinical expertise with purposeful leadership development — and the difference physician leaders can make within their organizations and across the global healthcare community.

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership.

https://doi.org/10.55834/sp.2458767699

Private equity has reshaped much of American healthcare over the past decade, and few observers have seen that shift from as many angles as Greg Schaefer. As CEO of Schaefer Enterprises and a partner with Patriot Growth Insurance Services, Schaefer has insured medical practices through private equity acquisitions, sold his own insurance agency to a PE firm in 2019, and watched his wife sell her dermatology practice to a PE-backed rollup in 2018.

In this episode, host Mike Sacopulos talks with Schaefer about:

• Why healthcare — especially specialties such as dermatology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, dentistry, and behavioral health — has become a prime target for private equity investment.
• What physicians often misunderstand about deal structure, including cash, equity, holdbacks, and earnouts.
• How ownership changes can affect malpractice coverage, consent rights, and physician autonomy after closing.

Schaefer also offers practical guidance for physicians considering a sale, including what to ask, what to protect, and where to seek expert advice before signing. The conversation closes with a look at the Forward Motion Fund, the nonprofit he and his wife founded to support Parkinson’s research.

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership.

https://doi.org/10.55834/sp.6693847187

Student debt, market noise, and the psychology of investing come under the microscope in this episode of SoundPractice. Host Mike Sacopulos welcomes Ed Coburn, leader of Cabot Wealth Network, a financial publisher based in Salem, Massachusetts, that has helped investors build wealth since 1970. Coburn is editor of the Cabot Investing Guide and author of the forthcoming book Investing Without Hype.

In this candid conversation, Coburn explains how physicians can build sound financial habits in an attention-scarce world. He discusses why intelligence can become a liability for investors, why a written plan matters more than a hot stock tip, and how AI and financial influencers have added to the noise investors must learn to filter out.

Key Topics

• Balancing student loan repayment with early retirement savings
• Understanding why smart, high-achieving professionals can become overconfident investors
• Defining “investing without hype” and recognizing how attention-driven media can distort decision-making
• Separating signal from noise by watching for red flags such as absolute predictions and overconfident language
• Avoiding common behavioral mistakes during volatile markets, including loss aversion and emotional attachment to stocks
• Clarifying the difference between disciplined investing and gambling

Resource

• Know Your Investor Profile

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership.

https://doi.org/10.55834/sp.1026723178

In this episode of SoundPractice, host Mike Sacopulos talks with Kardie Tobb, DO, MS, CPE, FASPC, FACC, FACOI, a board-certified cardiologist specializing in cardiometabolic disease prevention. Dr. Tobb is founder and medical director of the Cone Health Heart and Vascular Cardio-Obstetrics and Women’s Heart Health Program in Greensboro, North Carolina, and clinical integration officer for the Cone Health Center for Health Equity — a role she built not through a formal job posting, but by joining committees and stepping forward to address problems no one had officially claimed.

Her message is clear and practical: leadership does not require a title. Early- and mid-career clinicians are well positioned to identify gaps, build coalitions, and advance solutions that support organizational priorities — provided they understand the culture, frame their ideas effectively, and follow through on their commitments. Dr. Tobb speaks from experience: in her first year as an attending, she launched a free women’s heart screening event that now draws more than 300 participants each year.

This conversation is essential listening for any clinician who has noticed a problem, questioned whether it was their place to speak up, and stayed silent.

Dr. Tobb explains what it means to lead without formal authority, how it differs from holding a title, and why early-career clinicians often have a leadership advantage: fresh perspective. She also offers practical ways to begin leading informally, including joining committees with purpose, bringing solutions with problems, and delivering reliably on every commitment.

Informal leadership also requires a mindset grounded in intentionality, ownership, curiosity, data, and storytelling. Dr. Tobb also identifies common pitfalls, including mistaking an isolated observation for a systemwide problem, moving too quickly, leaving out front-line stakeholders, and neglecting personal well-being.

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership.

https://doi.org/10.55834/sp.6954760958

Vidhya Prakash, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FAMWA, Chief Medical Officer and Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs and Population Health at Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine, joins host Mike Sacopulos for a candid conversation about her AAPL-published book, The Leadership Learning Curve: A Woman Physician's Journey as Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Prakash traces her path from an immigrant childhood in Cincinnati through infectious diseases, Air Force service, and hospital executive leadership. She speaks candidly about imposter phenomenon, adaptive versus technical problem-solving, and leadership lessons from military service, while also describing her role in founding the Alliance for Women in Medicine and Science (AWIMS) at SIU, a grassroots initiative that has measurably improved faculty promotion and tenure equity.

Listeners will hear practical guidance on balancing clinical practice with executive responsibility; distinguishing adaptive from technical leadership; treating leadership as both an art and a practice; reframing failure; applying Air Force leadership principles of integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do; and helping more physicians, especially “accidental leaders,” step into leadership roles.

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership.

https://doi.org/10.55834/sp.2882398846

In this episode of SoundPractice, host Mike Sacopulos talks with veteran healthcare journalist Ken Terry about his new book, Beyond Medicare for All: Cracking the Code of the Healthcare Affordability Crisis, published by the American Association for Physician Leadership.

Terry, a former senior editor at Medical Economics has written for publications including Medscape Medical News, WebMD, cio.com, InformationWeek, and Fierce Healthcare. He is the author of two previous books on healthcare reform, Rx for Health Care Reform (Vanderbilt University Press, 2007) and Physician-Led Healthcare Reform: A New Approach to Medicare For All (AAPL, 2020). He also contributed to Stephen K. Klasko's 2023 book, Feelin' Alright: How the Message in The Music Can Make Healthcare Healthier.

In this interview, Terry explains why he abandoned the assumption that Medicare for All will ever become reality — and lays out an alternative model built around empowered, salaried primary care groups, all-payer hospital rates, and a new “consumer council” to help guide difficult coverage decisions.

Topics Discussed:

• Why primary care physicians should lead basic care — and how that could reverse primary care's decline
• The role of physician assistants and nurse practitioners in a primary-care-led system
• How corporate practice of medicine laws could be strengthened, state by state, to give PCPs more independence
• Why insurers and hospitals might support this model rather than fight it
• Maryland's all-payer, global-budget hospital system as a template for reform
• A modified approach for rural healthcare, where physician scarcity changes the equation
• Caring for an aging population and the unresolved challenge of long-term care financing
• The idea of a “consumer council,” inspired by the late David Eddy, to help guide coverage decisions for new technologies
• What's next for Terry, including plans to bring these ideas to Congress and the 2028 presidential campaigns

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership.

https://doi.org/10.55834/sp.9016618520

What if healthcare’s greatest barrier is not funding, technology, or policy, but leaders’ lack of self-awareness?

In this episode of SoundPractice, host Mike Sacopulos talks with Jess Bunin, MD, MHPE, FACP, FCCM, CEC, a psychiatrist, author, and co-founder of All Levels Leadership, a consulting firm designed to revolutionize healthcare leadership training.

Dr. Bunin brings a perspective forged at West Point and through a military career that included deployment to Iraq, leadership as an ICU director and chief of critical care, and service as dean of community at the Uniformed Services University, the nation’s military medical school. She argues that healthcare’s deepest wounds are relational—and that healing them starts with leaders doing the hard work of understanding themselves.

Dr. Bunin discusses:

• Why physicians often overestimate their self-awareness, and what research reveals about the inverse relationship between confidence and competence.
• How struggling as a program director helped her distinguish between mentoring for her own success and mentoring around a resident’s needs.
• How today’s medical students and residents differ from those trained 15 years ago, and why digital communication, COVID, and political polarization have weakened the skills needed for productive disagreement.
• How patients have changed as well, and why declining doctor-patient trust and the rise of Dr. Google make emotional attunement essential.
• The CLEAR framework for civil discourse: Create psychological safety, Listen actively, Establish common ground, Adjust your thinking, and Respond skillfully.

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership.

https://doi.org/10.55834/sp.9800458950

Lyndsay Hoy, MD, was just beginning her first week of anesthesia residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania when she was received a life-altering diagnosis: lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare and progressive lung disease that predominantly affects women of childbearing age. Diagnosed within 36 hours of experiencing symptoms, Hoy embarked on a journey defined by the dual roles of clinician and patient — a dynamic that profoundly influenced every aspect of her life. From her marriage to fellow physician Vincent Nguyen, to her decision to pursue IVF and embryo preservation, to her advocacy for rare disease patients, and her leadership as Chief Mission Officer of The LAM Foundation, her experiences have shaped her path and purpose.

In this episode, Hoy speaks with host Mike Sacopulos about the challenges of managing an invisible illness while navigating a demanding clinical career and the structural inequities that determine who gets diagnosed and treated for rare diseases. She also reflects on a chapter she co-authored with her husband for AAPL's recent book on dual-physician marriage.

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership.

https://doi.org/10.55834/sp.4448307229