Physician Champion

The term Physician Champion is a nebulous term often used to describe a voluntary physician leadership role for a limited period of time. The literature equates the term with an opinion leader, a change agent, a physician who influences colleagues and friends. A Physician Champion is an expert that provides education, champions a cause or product, or gives support to staff around the diffusion and implementation of clinical practice guidelines, protocols, or research evidence. In all cases, the Physician Champion is perceived as credible and having the ability to persuade others. Oftentimes the Physician Champion is able to influence other physicians to adopt or implement a new or revised process or guideline for the improvement of care quality or to become a physician champion themselves within their own practice groups.

The championship role can be an invaluable adjunct to change within a health care organization. However, when the chosen physician is unable or unwilling to engage in the variety of tasks required to be an effective physician champion, the role is not clearly defined, or the prospective champion only has a narrow sphere of influence, the champion will not be able to fulfill the expectations of the organization, the change may not be thoroughly implemented, or the change may not be sustainable.

There remains a significant gap between research, evidence, and practice. As a profession, physicians may struggle to remain current with knowing, understanding, and implementing newer evidence-based guidelines. Physicians gain knowledge and learn from others they trust. This is the role for the Physician Champions — to use their spheres of influence to promote changes within their specialty and the profession. A Physician Champion promotes autonomy for the entire profession by modeling behaviors, serving as an example to others, and providing information and guidance to other physicians. Practicing physicians can be skeptical about newly discovered evidence for a practice change. Having another physician who supports the change, has already implemented the change, and is willing to share the knowledge eases the transition and narrows the gap between evidence and practice.

Few organizations reimburse the Physician Champion, although successful Physician Champions have reported intrinsic rewards that they gained from the experience. These rewards include increased professional satisfaction, enhanced respect from others, and improved patient care.

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