Pamela Wible is an American physician and activist who promotes community-designed
medical clinics; she also maintains a
suicide prevention
Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public health ...
hotline for medical doctors and medical students. Wible is based in
Eugene
Eugene may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...
, Oregon.
Biography
Early life
Pamela Laine Wible was born in 1967 in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to physician parents: her mother is a psychiatrist and her father was a
pathologist.
She spent time growing up both in Philadelphia as well as in rural Texas.
She would accompany her father in his work in the
morgue, and she spent time visiting state mental hospitals with her mother.
Education
Pamela Wible attended
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...
(in
Wellesley,
Massachusetts) as an
undergraduate and then received her
MD degree in 1993 from the medical school of the
University of Texas Medical Branch (in
Galveston,
Texas). In 1996 she completed her training in
Family Medicine
Family medicine is a medical specialty within primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primary ...
at the
University of Arizona Department of Family and Community Medicine.
Medical career
Upon completing her medical training, Wible worked for several years in a variety of medical settings, including hospital-based clinics and community health centers.
Wible began to experience
suicidal ideation
Suicidal ideation, or suicidal thoughts, means having thoughts, ideas, or ruminations about the possibility of ending one's own life.World Health Organization, ''ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics'', ver. 09/2020MB26.A Suicidal ideatio ...
due to depression and pressures related to her job
when she became increasingly frustrated with short patient-appointments and other restrictions, and so she stopped her work in the year 2004, and then in 2005 she held a series of "town hall" meetings where she invited community members to write out what they felt would be the features of an "ideal clinic."
In the same year Wible opened up a new clinic in the city of
Eugene
Eugene may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...
, Oregon which was based on the recommendations from the community.
She has also helped do a similar town-hall feedback session with a hospital in
Chippewa Valley
The Chippewa Valley is a valley in Wisconsin, US.
History
The valley was first inhabited by the Ojibwe and colonized by German and Scandinavian immigrants. The region also has a large Hmong community. While the term "Chippewa Valley" technicall ...
in 2010.
Wible's clinic includes same-day appointments, appointments that start on time and a smaller practice size. She also emphasizes "patient-focused medicine."
The change in her practice helped her enjoy her work as a physician again.
Wible has set up an anonymous
suicide prevention
Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public health ...
hotline to help doctors and medical students who are contemplating suicide. She also collects stories of doctor suicides as a way of raising awareness of the problem. Wible's work on doctor suicide prevention is featured in the documentary film ''Do No Harm: Exposing the Hippocratic Hoax'', by filmmaker Robyn Symon.
In 2015, she spoke at
TEDMED about the problem of suicide in the medical profession. Wible also has a
blog called ''Ideal Medical Care'' which shares physician's stories of their treatment while being trained and also stories of suicides by physicians and trainees.
Wible has also been critical of medical
animal testing.
In February 2023 three United States senators sent a letter to the Department of Justice which cited a study by Wible
in a call to investigate state medical boards which discriminate against physicians on the basis of disabilities, including mental health issues.
Published works
*''Pet Goats & Pap Smears: 101 Medical Adventures to Open Your Heart & Mind'' (2012).
*''Physician Suicide Letters Answered'', (2016).
*''Human Rights Violations in Medicine: A-to-Z Action Guide'', (2019).
See also
*
Slow medicine
*
Doctor's visit
*
Bullying in medicine
*
Suicide awareness
Suicide awareness is a proactive effort to raise awareness around suicidal behaviors. It is focused on reducing social stigmas and ambiguity, by bringing attention to suicide statistically and sociologically, and encouraging positive dial ...
*
Stress in medical students Stress in medical students is stress caused by strenuous medical programs, which may have physical and psychological effects on the well-being of medical students. Excessive stress in medical training predisposes students for difficulties in solvin ...
References
External links
video: TEDx talk; Jan. 31, 2014Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wible, Pamela
Living people
American physicians
Slow movement
Suicide prevention
Year of birth missing (living people)
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston alumni
University of Arizona alumni