Tennessee Medical Foundation

13/06/2025

We are sharing TMF resources and information this weekend at the Annual Essentials of Clinical Medicine Conference hosted by LMU-DCOM in Pigeon Forge. This meeting offers 18 hours of CME for DOs, MDs, PAs, NPs, and professional students. We are so happy to be here to chat with everyone about their wellbeing and how to help when a colleague is struggling.

11/06/2025

The star of the lauded TV series "E.R." and now producer and star of "The Pitt" is headed to Capitol Hill tomorrow for a briefing on the current mental health crisis among our . Noah Wyle also penned an op-ed in USA TODAY outlining the need for increased support, resources, and changes to improve their well-being. You can read the op-ed here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2025/06/10/noah-wyle-the-pitt-er-healthcare-burnout/84113515007/

Noah Wyle is heading to the pit of political power, with a visit to Capitol Hill to push for funding for programs aimed at improving mental health services for health care workers. “The Pitt&…

07/06/2025

Our 38th Caduceus Retreat is underway in Franklin, TN. Attendees are picking up six hours of (CME) with presentations by our three speakers: Dr. Petros Levounis, director of the Addiction Institute of New York and a past president of the American Psychiatric Association; Dr. Clark Gaither, author of “Reignite,” a landmark book on burnout, and medical director of the North Carolina Physicians Health Program; and Dr. Scott Teitelbaum, chief of Addiction Medicine at University of Florida and medical director of the UF Florida Recovery Center.

Topics cover addiction neurobiology, technological addiction, burnout and wellness, and spirituality in long-term recovery.

We look forward to this event every year!

04/06/2025

Our Medical Director Dr. Michael Baron gives a quick smile during a virtual presentation this afternoon -- he is passionate about providing health, impairment, and wellbeing education to Tennessee and other . Today's lecture was a talk on Professionalism given to PA students at Christian Brothers University in Memphis. Thank you to CBU for the opportunity to speak to your students!

30/05/2025

SAVE THE DATE: SEPTEMBER 18. This will be our 3rd Annual Mental Health, Recovery, and Su***de Prevention Summit, hosted jointly with the Tennessee Pharmacists Association's Tennessee Pharmacy Recovery Network. All Tennessee health professionals, including pharmacy, and all HP students/trainees, are invited to join.

Details and registration still to come.
***dePrevention

28/05/2025

We are coming to the end of , but mental health will be important long past the month of May. For Tennessee's healthcare workers, it is key to their delivery of safe and quality patient care. If you are a struggling health professional, please visit this site and take the 10-minute Tennessee Professional Screening Questionnaire (TN-PSQ). It's free, anonymous, available 24/7, and 100% voluntary:

Stress, anxiety, and the pressures of day-to-day life affect us all. Sometimes those pressures can negatively affect our happiness and disposition, our relationships with others, our job satisfaction, and even our feelings and beliefs about ourselves. 

24/05/2025

We are grateful to all who serve our countey, and this weekend, especially and deeply in debt to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. We remember.

20/05/2025

TMF Medical Director Dr. Michael Baron had a busy weekend; the photo below is from his address to the Tennessee Medical Association House of Delegates on Saturday. Dr. Baron reports annually to the about the activities and mission of the TMF. The TMA birthed our program as a Committee on Impaired Physicians back in 1978. THANK YOU to the leaders and members of the TMA for strongly supporting our work for the past 47 years!

In addition to the TMA HOD meeting, Dr. Baron gave three other presentations this past week: on Thursday to the Tennessee Charitable Care Network; Friday at Meharry Medical College; and Sunday he spoke on a panel at the 2025 Symposium for Cosmetic Advances and Laser Education - SCALE in Nashville. We are grateful for all of these opportunities to share about topics related to health professional health, impairment, safe practice, and professionalism.



*Photo courtesy of Morgan Ripley/TMA

19/05/2025

There is help for Serious Mental Illnesses (SMIs). Tennessee with SMIs can practice medicine, providing they have the help and support they need to manage their condition. We can assist when a healthcare professional is struggling with their illness; please refer them to the TMF for confidential assessment and referrals to vetted, trusted resources.
615-467-6411 or https://e-tmf.org.

16/05/2025

We’re closing out the week with a 2-hour course on Proper Prescribing as part of the 2025 Commencement Continuing Education program at Meharry Medical College. TMF Medical Director Dr. Michael Baron, is sharing about the history behind the current opioid crisis, state and federal prescribing laws and regulations, chronic pain prescribing and treatment, and more.

15/05/2025

"The Physician's Health Program saved my life."

TMF Medical Director Dr. Michael Baron shared his personal recovery story today as part of a presentation on Addiction at a forum for the Tennessee Charitable Care Network.

Dr. Baron's lecture covered the statistics on addiction, mis-prescribing, and overdose deaths in the U.S., the history and root causes of addiction, the unique presentation in and safety risks for healthcare workers, and resources available to address health professional health and impairment, including the TMF and the TN-PSQ screening tool. Thankyou to the TCCN for today's invitation!

Learn more about the TMF at https://e-tmf.org. To request a free TMF presentation, contact us at https://e-tmf.org/contact.

14/05/2025

“While the improvement in physician burnout is encouraging, levels remain substantially higher than the rest of the U.S. workforce..."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, physician burnout and job dissatisfaction rates reached historic highs. In the years since, burnout rates have come down — though not nearly enough to ease concerns about the nation’s physician shortage and patient access to high-quality care.  Every three years si...