Backstage People
Remarks on being named South Carolina Family Physician of the Year, June 2024.
I am humbled and incredibly grateful for this honor.
Let me start by thanking the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Academy of Family Physicians and our Executive Vice President, Paquita Turner, for allowing me to serve in this organization for the past three decades. I also want to recognize my wife, Betty, for her support, encouragement, and patience for nearly 42 years.
This honor means the world to me — but, honestly, I can’t get over a nagging feeling. If you have imposter syndrome, you know what I’m talking about. It’s the feeling that maybe you don’t deserve it.
Imposter syndrome is very common in our profession. I saw a recent study that said forty percent of physicians have this affliction. Betty, however, has a different name for this phenomenon. She calls us Backstage People.
For many years, Betty and I volunteered with our local professional ballet company (no we didn’t dance!). For a while, she was president of Ballet Spartanburg. I mostly helped with building and painting sets. During performances, we both worked backstage. Let me tell you, it was an eye-opening experience.
You see, while the audience is focused on the actors and dancers on stage, behind the proscenium arch is an unseen crew performing their tasks with silent efficiency. In the theater arts, the backstage crew makes the magic happen, be it a special effect or a seamless set change. Pulling fly ropes and striking a prop precisely on cue — each task may appear minor, but one small mistake could spoil the entire performance.
When the show is over, the performers take their bows beneath the glare of spotlights. Meanwhile, the backstage crew is still at work, setting the stage for tomorrow’s show. The principal dancers can gauge the audience experience by the length of the standing ovation. If the backstage crew did their job well, no one would ever know they were there.
Family Medicine is the backstage crew of the medical world.
We work quietly and diligently to prevent emergencies, manage chronic conditions, and keep families healthy. Don't get me wrong, we will always need the prima donna specialists and their heroic interventions, but it’s primary care that enables their magic to happen.
Our accomplishments may not be center stage, but they are demonstrable. Here's the truth: Family medicine tackles levels of complexity far greater than any other specialty. We serve as the first point of contact for the widest range of health concerns. Studies have shown that having more primary care physicians means fewer deaths, fewer hospitalizations, and measurable increases in life expectancy. These are profound impacts that ripple through communities. Every nation that outperforms ours has achieved this goal by ensuring everyone has a family doctor.
Our state and nation continue to struggle to improve the deficiencies in our healthcare system. Unfortunately, the commonly offered solutions completely miss the mark. We don't need more competition from purveyors of pseudoscience, and we can’t fix healthcare by transforming paraprofessionals into ersatz physicians. Policymakers should open their eyes and look behind the curtain. They would soon realize that the health of our communities rests on the shoulders of family physicians.
We are the backstage crew of medicine, but we don’t crave accolades. All we need is the occasional acknowledgment that the show can’t go on without us.
So, thank you again for this incredible honor. I accept this award — and I accept it proudly — on behalf of my fellow Backstage People.