From Patient to Advocate: Kim Downey’s Mission to Stand Up for Doctors

Healthcare’s broken system hurts patients and physicians, but collective action can heal it. In this episode of Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare, I sit down with Kim Downey, a physical therapist, three-time cancer survivor, and Community Ambassador for Medicine Forward and the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation. Kim shares her transformative journey—facing thyroid and breast cancer, multiple surgeries, and the loss of her radiation oncologist to suicide—which sparked her mission to found Stand Up for Doctors. She discusses how gratitude, like thank-you notes, fosters connection, and how patients can advocate for physicians to improve care. Kim highlights the need for a culture shift in medicine, starting in med school, and emphasizes leadership and self-leadership to navigate toxic environments. Her upcoming 2026 retreat in New York promises community and resilience-building.

You’ll hear how to:

· Use gratitude to bridge patient-physician divides.
· Challenge limiting beliefs to find fulfilling work environments.
· Build a culture of kindness and collective advocacy in healthcare.

If you’re seeking hope amidst healthcare’s challenges, this episode offers actionable inspiration.

About the Guest

“If your goal is to change the world in one fell swoop, you will fail. But if you brighten the corner where you are, you will succeed.” – Kim Downey

Kim Downey is a physical therapist, three-time cancer survivor, and passionate advocate for physician well-being. As Community Ambassador for Medicine Forward and the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation, and founder of Stand Up for Doctors, she amplifies physicians’ voices through her YouTube channel, Substack, and book White Coats, Courageous Hearts. Her journey through thyroid and breast cancer, and the loss of her radiologist to suicide, fuels her mission to foster gratitude and systemic change in healthcare.

📍 Learn more at standupfordoctors.org or connect on 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-downey-a9307b72/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StandupforDoctors

📚 Resources + Mentions
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/@StandupforDoctors  – YouTube Channel, Substack, standupfordoctors.org
🔗 https://www.amazon.com/White-Coats-Courageous-Hearts-  by Kim Downey and contributors
🔗 Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation – drlornabreen.org
🔗 Medicine Forward – medicineforward.org
🔗 Healthcare Reinvention Collaborative – healthcarereinventioncollaborative.com
🔗 From Hurting to Healing by Dr. Simon Craig
🔗 Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

🔑 Top 3 Key Takeaways
· Gratitude, like thank-you notes, builds patient-physician connection and supports well-being.
· A culture of kindness, starting in med school, can transform healthcare’s toxic environments.
· Collective advocacy—patients and physicians together—creates ripples of systemic change.

🩺 About the Host

Dr. Andrea Austin is a board-certified emergency physician, educator, and passionate advocate for system-level change in healthcare. As the creator and host of Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare, Dr. Austin brings curiosity, compassion, and bold honesty to conversations with leaders who are challenging the norms and reshaping medicine from the inside out.

With decades of experience in high-pressure clinical environments, Andrea has seen firsthand the cracks in the system—and the people working to repair them. Whether she’s mentoring residents, speaking on national stages, or recording with a fellow disruptor, she centers one theme: change doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens heart to heart.

💫 About the Show

Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare isn’t just a podcast—it’s a pulse check on what’s possible.

Hosted by emergency physician and educator Dr. Andrea Austin, Heartline features conversations with healthcare leaders, innovators, and quiet disruptors who are challenging the way things have always been done.

Each episode explores real stories of change—from redefining leadership and communication, to reimagining systems built on burnout and hierarchy. This is a space for truth-telling, for asking better questions, and for reconnecting with the reason