Drawing inspiration from her mother, neighbor, and 14 fellow physicians, Manisha “Mona” Dave, MD, has turned her startup Walk with a Doc Texas program into can’t-miss events in Dallas with the help of the Texas Medical Association.
In an interview with Texas Medicine Today, Dr. Dave said the program is ideal for physicians facing burnout, mostly because “it’s easy and it’s fun.”
“When you’re walking, you’re having fun, and you’re practicing medicine, but in a different environment than your office, you start to remember why you went into medicine to begin with, and it keeps you going,” she said.
Dr. Dave’s Walk with a Doc Texas journey started before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pediatric gastroenterologist faced the same issue many adults have with aging parents. How could she convince her mother, a successful pediatrician herself, to exercise more? Then Dr. Dave discovered Walk with a Doc, a longtime TMA collaborator.
When Dr. Dave learned how fast she could start her own program with the association’s help, getting her mother and fellow TMA member Kiran Harpavat, MD, to join was easy. Dr. Harpavat even handled the first wave of marketing by telling all her patients.
“TMA, they make it so easy,” said Dr. Dave, now the Texas regional program coordinator for Walk with a Doc. “It’s like, ‘Here, please start this. We’re giving you all this stuff for free.’”
It’s free to TMA members thanks to an annual grant from the TMA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports Walk with a Doc Texas and numerous association and Family of Medicine community health improvement programs.
The national Walk with a Doc program started in 2005 as a way for physicians to promote a healthy lifestyle through monthly physician- and medical student-led walks. Now, Dr. Dave leads one of the 70 walk chapters in Texas, the most of any state, and hosts about 40 people a month at the Semones Family YMCA in Dallas.
“When the YMCA heard that there were physicians who wanted to do a walking program, they jumped all over that. They were like, ‘You can take our community room for free,’” Dr. Dave added.
Dr. Dave found an energetic partner with her neighbor, Dianne Doyle, a breast cancer survivor.
Ms. Doyle and her husband Pat, a prostate cancer survivor himself, created Plant Based Dallas, a website devoted to health through nutrition. Dr. Dave invited Ms. Doyle to attend her events and talk about better food options. Together, their events are labeled “Eat with a Doc and Walk with a Doc.”
“We pair eating and walking together, we do a little cooking demo, very simple stuff, we have our medical talk, we have a physical therapist, we do some stretches, and then we all walk together,” Dr. Dave said.
When patients hear Dr. Dave’s talks, see Ms. Doyle’s healthy cooking tips, and hear her cancer story, it gets them thinking, Dr. Dave said.
“You don’t know how many people [have participated] over the years who have never had their colorectal cancer screening, because they’re scared,” Dr. Dave said, adding that at events like Walk with a Doc, people see others with similar stories and understand how they need to take action.
“It’s incredible how the walk can really change the way people think about medicine,” Dr. Dave said.
This is all music to Rachael Habash’s ears. As Walk with a Doc’s national chief operating officer, Ms. Habash has heard common misconceptions from physicians about getting started. No slideshow presentations are required, she said, nor a mountain of legal paperwork.
Thanks to an annual grant from the TMA Foundation and its major supporter, the TMA Insurance Trust, Walk with a Doc Texas programming is turnkey, or “plug and play,” Ms. Habash said.
TMA can help any member physician promote their first walk and give tips on how to promote monthly events through social media.
“Anyone who reaches out from Texas, we say thanks to the TMA Foundation,” Ms. Habash said. Because of them, “this is a program that will cost you nothing.”
Physicians who renew annually can receive a coupon code to replenish their supplies every year and receive some extras, Ms. Habash said. “I often tell people, in true Texas fashion, it’s bigger and better in Texas.”
For more information or to get started, physicians can contact the TMA Foundation or contact the Knowledge Center at (800) 880-7955.