Learn more about Pearson Ravitz here.
Learn more about Empowered Surgeons Group here.
Learn more about Hippocratic Collective here.
What happens when the surgeon becomes the patient? When the body you relied on to do your life’s work… stops cooperating?
Today’s guest, Dr. Stephanie Pearson, walks us through her powerful, often painful journey, from aspiring pediatrician to ObGyn surgeon to founder of PearsonRavitz, a physician disability insurance firm born from lived experience.
This episode is a raw, inspiring conversation about loss, identity, reinvention, and the deep cracks in our medical system that no one talks about until it’s too late.
We cover:
🔹 Wanting to be just like her childhood pediatrician, and realizing in med school she couldn't make kids cry
🔹 The inappropriate OR moment that changed her surgical trajectory (and the perfect clapback that still lives rent-free)
🔹 Falling in love with ObGyn by accident and matching into her dream program
🔹 The career-ending injury: torn labrum, frozen shoulder, being called a “pussy” by an orthopedic surgeon, and ultimately losing her surgical identity
🔹 The spiral that followed, and how a puppy and her husband saved her life
🔹 What happens when physicians become the meanest part of your grief
🔹 Losing everything that brought joy: martial arts, rock climbing, her career
🔹 Trying to rebuild through med mal, biotech, editing, until nothing lit her up
🔹 The disability insurance nightmare (rejected workman’s comp, denied group policy), and why she sued the state of Pennsylvania
🔹 Getting licensed in insurance and crying in her car when she passed... because she didn’t get an A
🔹 Why musculoskeletal injuries are just the tip of the iceberg for physician disability
🔹 The “emotional ergonomics” of surgery and why we need an ergonomic time-out
🔹 What it means to “protect the asset”
🔹 People-pleasing, perfectionism, and the impossible standard for woman surgeons
🔹 How understanding both medicine and insurance is her value add
🔹 Building a mission-driven business (Pearson Ravitz just turned 8!)
🔹 Why she won’t be satisfied until every resident is covered
🔹 The quiet truth: Physicians are human. Health issues happen. And identity can evolve.
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