14 May 2026
Episode 354 - This Doctor Gets It: Burnout, Bureaucracy, & Better Diabetes Care, Dr. Gregory Dodell
Diabetics Doing Things Podcast
About
Rob sits down with Dr. Gregory Dodell, an endocrinologist from New York
City and one of the more honest voices in the diabetes space online. What
starts as a conversation about why a doctor would bother making Instagram
videos turns into something a lot more real, a candid look at what actually
happens between patients and their providers, why those relationships
succeed or fall apart, and what it takes to feel like a full person inside
a system that was mostly built around numbers.
Dr. Dodell talks about the thing he keeps learning from patients that
wasn't in any textbook: stress. How it silently drives blood sugars up, how
burnout and over-fixation on every CGM reading can quietly hollow out your
quality of life, and why a slightly elevated number is sometimes worth it
if it means you actually got to live your day.
It's not a permission slip to ignore your management. It's a reminder that
the goal was never the A1C itself. The goal was always life on the other
side of it.
They also dig into the infrastructure problems that make good diabetes care
so hard to deliver, the prior authorization nightmare, the endocrinologist
shortage, and the 20-patient days that leave almost no room to actually sit
with someone.
Dr. Dodell shares, for the first time publicly, that he's moving toward
concierge primary care, not out of ambition, but out of frustration with a
system that makes it structurally almost impossible to do the job he
trained for.
If you've ever left an endo appointment feeling like you only got halfway
through what you needed to say, or worse, left feeling judged, this one's
for you.
Chapters:
00:00 Who is Dr. Gregory Dodell?
01:41 Why HCPs Are Becoming Content Creators
04:06 Reaching Patients Beyond the Office
05:16 Preparing for Short, High-Stakes Endo Visits
06:29 Fitting Everyone Into One Box Doesn't Work
07:18 Listening First — How to Read the Room
08:26 The Surprising Role of Stress on Blood Sugar
09:59 Diabetes Distress and Over-Fixation on Numbers
10:35 Quality of Life vs. Perfect Blood Sugar Control
11:37 There's More to Life Than an In-Range Number
13:33 Complications — Compassion Over Judgment
14:59 Stigma, A1Cs, and the Morality Trap
16:03 How Patients Have Been Traumatized by Healthcare
17:37 The Endocrinologist Shortage Crisis
20:04 Prior Authorizations — A System-Wide Failure
24:38 Dream Scenario: What Ideal Diabetes Care Looks Like
26:10 Concierge Medicine and the Future of the Endo Practice (First
Announcement)
28:44 Exciting Research — T-ZELD, GLP-1s, Autoimmune Breakthroughs
32:47 How to Find and Advocate for Yourself with Your Endo
Resources:
* Dr. Gregory Dodell on Instagram (@EverythingEndocrine)
* Central Park Endocrinology
City and one of the more honest voices in the diabetes space online. What
starts as a conversation about why a doctor would bother making Instagram
videos turns into something a lot more real, a candid look at what actually
happens between patients and their providers, why those relationships
succeed or fall apart, and what it takes to feel like a full person inside
a system that was mostly built around numbers.
Dr. Dodell talks about the thing he keeps learning from patients that
wasn't in any textbook: stress. How it silently drives blood sugars up, how
burnout and over-fixation on every CGM reading can quietly hollow out your
quality of life, and why a slightly elevated number is sometimes worth it
if it means you actually got to live your day.
It's not a permission slip to ignore your management. It's a reminder that
the goal was never the A1C itself. The goal was always life on the other
side of it.
They also dig into the infrastructure problems that make good diabetes care
so hard to deliver, the prior authorization nightmare, the endocrinologist
shortage, and the 20-patient days that leave almost no room to actually sit
with someone.
Dr. Dodell shares, for the first time publicly, that he's moving toward
concierge primary care, not out of ambition, but out of frustration with a
system that makes it structurally almost impossible to do the job he
trained for.
If you've ever left an endo appointment feeling like you only got halfway
through what you needed to say, or worse, left feeling judged, this one's
for you.
Chapters:
00:00 Who is Dr. Gregory Dodell?
01:41 Why HCPs Are Becoming Content Creators
04:06 Reaching Patients Beyond the Office
05:16 Preparing for Short, High-Stakes Endo Visits
06:29 Fitting Everyone Into One Box Doesn't Work
07:18 Listening First — How to Read the Room
08:26 The Surprising Role of Stress on Blood Sugar
09:59 Diabetes Distress and Over-Fixation on Numbers
10:35 Quality of Life vs. Perfect Blood Sugar Control
11:37 There's More to Life Than an In-Range Number
13:33 Complications — Compassion Over Judgment
14:59 Stigma, A1Cs, and the Morality Trap
16:03 How Patients Have Been Traumatized by Healthcare
17:37 The Endocrinologist Shortage Crisis
20:04 Prior Authorizations — A System-Wide Failure
24:38 Dream Scenario: What Ideal Diabetes Care Looks Like
26:10 Concierge Medicine and the Future of the Endo Practice (First
Announcement)
28:44 Exciting Research — T-ZELD, GLP-1s, Autoimmune Breakthroughs
32:47 How to Find and Advocate for Yourself with Your Endo
Resources:
* Dr. Gregory Dodell on Instagram (@EverythingEndocrine)
* Central Park Endocrinology