Surgeons with Purpose

For 19 years, Dr. Adrienne Towsen practiced in the kind of orthopedic group most surgeons dream of: five partners, employees who'd been there forever, a 30-year reputation, a family feel.
Then came the supergroup. Then came private equity.
The pitch: liquidity events, surgery centers, top-dog status. The math: one year's salary upfront, paid back over five years through a 25% management "scrape." The reality: 12-to-14-hour days, a salary cut in half, a practice that couldn't pay for gauze pads, and a call center in another location that didn't even know she was a doctor there.
Her breaking point came after a weekend of hip fracture call, when she did the math and realized she'd essentially volunteered her time. She sent her resignation the next morning. With no plan. Just the certainty that there had to be another way.
Five months ago, she opened The Towsen Clinic: a concierge direct-care practice built entirely on her own terms, where visits last 60 to 90 minutes and patients finally get what they're starved for: a human partner in their health.
In this episode:
The seductive pitch PE makes to physician groups and the math hiding underneath it
What "we're employed now. This is no longer our practice" feels like from the inside
The moment a 20-year patient left because he couldn't get through the phone tree
Why she resigned without a plan, and what the sadness-plus-relief told her
Walking away from the OR after 21 years and making peace with it
The surprising bridge from hip fractures to hormone health and women's medicine
Her advice if work is murdering your soul: don't stay stuck

"I couldn't have been more miserable." -Dr. Towsen then.
"This is the beginning of my next chapter." -Dr. Towsen now.
Dr. Adrienne Towsen is an orthopedic surgeon and founder of The Towsen Clinic, a concierge preventive-care practice in West Chester, PA. Check out her clinic here. Follow her on LinkedIn here.
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Most of us got less than 20 hours of communication training in four years of medical school. Then we were thrown into the real world.
Dr. Anthony Orsini has spent his career fixing that. A practicing neonatologist and founder of The Orsini Way, he's trained thousands of clinicians to navigate medicine's hardest conversations: breaking bad news, disclosing medical errors, and rebuilding trust when everything's gone wrong. His methods have helped hospitals boost patient satisfaction scores by as much as 60% and reduce malpractice risk.
Learn more here.
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One of the most surprising truths about medical malpractice is this: the work that prepares you to become a strong defendant is the very same work that helps prevent lawsuits in the first place. It's the work that strengthens your relationships with patients, your spouse, your children, your colleagues, and your friends. At the heart of all of it are two skills: compassion and communication.
In today's episode, I sit down with Heather Hansen, a medical malpractice defense attorney and expert in effective communication. As surgeons, most of us will face a lawsuit at some point in our careers. Yet no one teaches us how to navigate that experience, or how to become the kind of defendant a jury can trust.
The research is clear: patients are less likely to sue physicians who communicate with empathy, authenticity, and compassion. Heather has spent decades defending physicians in the courtroom, and she shares a fascinating perspective from the other side of medical malpractice. The defense attorney's job is to humanize the physician and tell the story of a compassionate, thoughtful surgeon who genuinely cared for their patient. The good news is that is a skill set that can be developed long before you're ever named in a lawsuit.
In this conversation, you'll learn how to better understand the game of medical malpractice, see the key players through a different lens, communicate more effectively under pressure, and cultivate the qualities that not only make you a stronger defendant but a better surgeon and leader.
For more than 20 years, Heather Hansen defended physicians, healthcare providers, and hospitals in medical malpractice litigation. During that time, she mastered the art of communicating with compassion, credibility, and charisma when the stakes couldn't have been higher. Today, she teaches those same communication strategies to leaders, teams, and healthcare professionals around the world. You can learn more about her on her website here. Follow her on LinkedIn here.

Take the quiz, What Kind of Surgeon Are You Becoming here.
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We often believe we have to create villains in the world in order to effect change. But what if that were not true?
In this episode, I teach villain compassion, the difference between helping, fixing, and serving, and the power of intentionally choosing our thoughts before we make decisions. Because when we change our mindset, we open up a portal to new ideas and solutions. That's the heart of coaching.

Join us in Empowered Surgeons Group here.
Why are so many talented women surgeons questioning whether they belong in surgery, and what does that reveal about the culture of surgery as a whole?
In this episode of Surgeons with Purpose, I talk to pediatric surgeons Dr. Cornelia Griggs and Dr. Jose Greenspon about the relational challenges of practice, imposter syndrome, the hidden emotional labor women carry in surgery, and why leaving is often a self-preservation response rather than a personal failure.
We discuss the toxic conversation around resilience, the narrow line women are expected to walk between being likable and authoritative, the concept of "status leveling," and the exhaustion of constantly managing others' perceptions. We also explore why women are often the first to challenge the status quo, what gives Dr. Griggs hope for the future of academic surgery, and why creating a more equitable culture will require a critical mass of men who are willing to help level the playing field. This is a conversation about identity, belonging, leadership, and what it will take to build a surgical culture where everyone can thrive.
Read Dr. Cornelia Griggs' and Dr. Adrea Merrill's article here.
Read Dr. Arghavan Salles' piece on the status leveling burden here.