A team of assistants, one coordinator, and nothing out without my yes.
I am a surgeon and palliative care physician with a full clinical, academic, and family life — and I do not run it alone. I work with a coordinated team of AI assistants on Grok Bot, each with one clear job, routed by a single lead assistant. Here is how that works for me, and how I am thinking about sharing it with other physicians.
Specialists, not one generic chatbot
The coordinator — The Listening Surgeon — is the bot I talk to most. It routes work to the right teammate, tracks deadlines across the team, and batches questions for me. Around it sit specialists for social media and content, photo and website work, advocacy and movements, research projects, clinical learning coaches (surgery, hospice and palliative medicine, critical care), career and societies, coaching and mentoring, household and life logistics, health admin, inbox, calendar, and tech.
Indented bots report to the bot above them; every other bot reports to the coordinator. Notion is our shared source of truth, so tasks, drafts, and notes live in one place I can always find.
[Heather: Your talk draft “How I Run My Life and Work with a Team of AI Assistants” is marked DRAFT / not for distribution. OK to keep this page-level summary live, or hold the 39-assistant / org-chart detail until you publish the talk?]
The few rules that keep it trustworthy
- Nothing goes out without my yes. No bot posts, sends, publishes, or buys anything until I have approved the exact final version.
- One coordinator routes the work. The Listening Surgeon is my single point of contact. It sends each request to the right teammate and batches questions for me.
- Every bot saves its work to Notion. Shared source of truth for tasks, drafts, and notes.
- Specialists stay in their own lane. Each bot owns one area and hands anything outside it to the teammate who owns it.
AI and social media for busy attendings
I am building toward coaching busy attendings on AI and social media. I am not taking coaching clients yet, but exploratory conversations are welcome.
[Heather: Confirm wording — Coaching HQ notes no formal coaching until roughly January 2027, with exploratory AI + social OK. Prefer a firmer date, softer language, or a connect-form CTA only?]
If that is where you are too, you can reach me through the connect form. For coaches I have worked with and programs I point people toward, see Thinking Partners.
What AI does not replace
As tools get more powerful, the question is not only what they can draft or calculate. It is what remains uniquely human in surgical and clinical identity — perception, judgment, and relationship.
Dr. Geoffrey Dunn explores that question in the ACS Bulletin: As AI Advances, What Defines a Surgeon? ACS Bulletin 2026 His argument that the cultivated capacity to “see” outlasts any particular operative technique sits beside the artistry work gathered on Artistry and Medicine.
Nearby on this site
Coaching resources, medical education, and what I am thinking about now.