The Medical Matrix: One Physician's Story Maneuvering the Minefields of Medicine

This is a book every medical student and doctor should read.

Dr. Alagoz writes a powerful memoir on the dangers healthcare professionals face, chasing their dream to pursue a medical career with integrity and to change lives. She was a successful and well-respected Obstetrician/Gynecologist in a small Texas town, having delivered over four thousand babies in her career, when a powerful hospital administrator lodged accusations that changed her life forever.

She was forced to close her private practice overnight, due to a Sham Peer Review by the hospital in which she practiced and she was reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, a black list for physicians.

This memoir chronicles her ordeal, a personal story of depression, shame, racism, moral injury and finally resilience. It is a wake-up call for both doctors and patients alike to be aware of the minefields doctors face during their careers. Doctors are getting burned out in record numbers and are retiring or simply leaving medicine. Doctors in training and in practice are sadly dying by suicide. This book is an urgent call for a more open dialogue to help foster much needed changes in the laws surrounding hospital peer review as well as physician health programs.

We can and must do better.