Physician biography playbook
Specialty, training, hospital, and what you take patients for.
What the reader is hiring this bio to do
A physician bio is read by three audiences: prospective patients deciding whether to book, colleagues evaluating referrals, and hospital marketing teams who own the page. Bios that serve only one audience fail the other two.
Credibility signals to include
- Specialty, subspecialty, and board certifications.
- Medical school, residency, fellowship — institutions with city.
- Hospital, health system, and group affiliations.
- Conditions treated and procedures performed.
- Languages spoken and insurance accepted, when relevant.
Avoid in this industry
- Listing every committee you sat on.
- Marketing language that sounds borrowed from a hospital brochure ('passionate about patient care').
- Inflated procedure counts.
- Omitting the bedside specifics patients actually need.
Structure
Preferred structure for the bio
A reliable order that performs in this field. Adjust to the venue.
- 1Name, specialty, and primary practice setting.
- 2Conditions treated or procedures performed.
- 3Training pedigree with institutions and years.
- 4Affiliations, leadership roles, and research interests.
- 5Personal sentence — languages, geography, what patients can expect.
Tone
How this industry's bios should sound
Warm, precise, and oriented to the patient who will actually read it. Avoid jargon a layperson will not parse, but do not condescend.
Lengths
Recommended lengths by venue
Openings
Opening formulas that work in this field
Open with the specialty, the procedure or condition focus, and the hospital.
Dr. Aisha Mensah is a pediatric cardiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, where she specializes in congenital arrhythmia.
Worked examples
One hundred words. Fifty words.
Dr. Aisha Mensah is a pediatric cardiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, where she specializes in the diagnosis and ablation of pediatric arrhythmia, including supraventricular tachycardia, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, and post-surgical atrial flutter. She completed her residency at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and her pediatric cardiology fellowship at Boston Children's, joining the faculty in 2017. Dr. Mensah is board-certified in pediatric cardiology and pediatric electrophysiology, and her research on long-term outcomes after pediatric ablation has been published in Heart Rhythm and Circulation. She speaks English and Akan, and sees new patients on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Brookline campus.
Dr. Aisha Mensah is a pediatric cardiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, specializing in pediatric arrhythmia and ablation. CHOP residency, Boston Children's fellowship. Board-certified in pediatric cardiology and pediatric electrophysiology. Published in Heart Rhythm and Circulation. English and Akan.
Vocabulary
Words to reach for — and words to handle with care
Cross-references
Frameworks and voices this playbook pairs with
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