Angela Jiang: Good morning! As the class Vice President, it is my pleasure to welcome Dr. Pamela Wible to our graduation. Dr. Wible is a family physician and a pioneer in the ideal medical care movement. After completing a family medicine residency and working in different family practices for over 10 years, Dr. Wible found that neither doctors nor patients were happy with a system that felt much like an assembly line. She decided to follow her vision of practicing medicine in a way that could please both herself and her patients, and invited her community to design their own ideal clinic.
At Stritch, one of the first things we learned was how to treat the human spirit. It’s fitting for Dr. Wible to join us on this momentous day, since her clinic pretty much sounds like a spa for the human spirit. She offers relaxed office visits, house calls, and she has never turned anyone away for lack of money. With her patients, she wears glitter, throws Pap parties, and delivers balloons and homemade soup to patients during house calls. Since her clinic opened in 2005, Dr. Wible’s innovative practice has inspired hundreds of other physicians to create ideal clinics nationwide.
In addition to her devotion to changing health care, Dr. Wible is also passionate about physician mental health. She operates a suicide hotline from her home, and believes in nurturing the invincible human spirit in us all. For her contributions to physician mental health, she was named as one of 2015’s Women Leaders in Medicine by the American Medical Student Association. Dr. Wible’s commitment to promoting mental health and innovative approach to health care has led to Ted Talks, two bestselling books, features in textbooks, and interviews by CNN, NPR (listen to award-winning NPR interview), and many other news outlets.
