This episode we head to North Dakota, a place that is extremely flat, very windy, and filled with some of the kindest humans I’ve ever met, including Dr. Erik Heitkamp, a hospitalist in Fargo, and Courtney Koebele, the Executive Director of the North Dakota Medical Association.

Together, we dig into what physician advocacy actually looks like at the state level, not the cable-news chaos, but the real work: drafting bills, educating legislators, protecting hospital workers, fighting bad vaccine legislation, improving prior authorization laws, and making sure evidence-based medicine still has a seat at the table.

We talk about why doctors often feel hesitant to get involved, why advocacy doesn’t actually require that much time, and how telling one patient’s story can change policy faster than a stack of statistics. We also get into recording patients, AI charting consent, scope-of-practice battles, rural medicine realities, and why state medical associations might be one of the last places healthcare progress is still happening.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the state of healthcare, this episode is your reminder that wins are still happening… just closer to home than you think.

Takeaways:

Advocacy Isn’t Politics: It’s education, storytelling, and showing up when legislation affects patient care.
State-Level Wins Are Real: Prior authorization reform, hospital worker protection, and evidence-based vaccine policy actually passed.
Stories Beat Statistics: One patient story can change a law faster than a spreadsheet.
Modern Threats to Trust: Recording doctors, AI charting, and social media are reshaping clinical encounters.
Getting Involved Is Easier Than You Think: Sometimes it’s just joining your state medical association and speaking up once.

Want more Dr. Erik Heitkamp & Courtney Koebele?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NDMEDASSN

Twitter: https://x.com/NDMedAssn

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/north-dakota-medical-association

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndmedicalassn

https://www.ndmed.org/

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