If you weren’t a physician, what career or job would you pursue?

100 percent I would try to go to space. So, either an astronaut or Space Force Guardian. If that didn’t work out perhaps a novelist (preferably in space).[/sidebar]

Working at the White House

Dr. Martin learned about the White House Fellowship during his time at the Kennedy School from two of his mentors who had completed it and, as Dr. Martin admits, they were two of the coolest people he had ever met. “And so, I decided to apply two years ago.” He got the job. Initially, Dr. Martin worked on voting rights at the Vice President’s office because of his background with Vot-ER. But then was assigned a second role helping to run health care outreach in the West Wing Office of Public Engagement.

The national discussion around health equity and social determinants of health were the top focus points for Dr. Martin during his time at the White House. Seeing opportunities to, “mobilize the health care community to use some of the federal programs and the initiatives that were being rolled out by [the Biden] administration,” as he said. Forums were a great asset to his work. “We had health equity forums where we would identify a specific issue like homelessness. We would invite a world renowned or nationally recognized figure who is doing work in homelessness to come and basically do a White House event talking about the issue, talking about the data, and some of the background.”

While at the White House, Dr. Martin noticed opportunities to better convene the health care community around the political determinants of health, which, he notes, “are the upstream drivers that create the social determinants of health.” And this—not surprisingly—got him thinking about how to help. “I think that there are missed opportunities to have health care providers and health care groups advocate together to address, via legislation, issues like housing insecurity, climate change, and food insecurity on behalf of the patients,” said Dr. Martin. His latest initiative, A Healthier Democracy, seeks to be a convening place to bring physicians together in an effort to create social change in the health care arena. “It’s a social entrepreneurship incubator,” Dr. Martin described. “For ideas and initiatives that clinicians have, we want to be a home for that which addresses the accounting, legal, fundraising, and administrative elements so the clinicians can just focus on creating that project or initiative they know will move the needle for their patients.”