Dr. Tim Wheeler

Over the course of his long and successful career, Tim watched identity politics infect the medical field like a virus.

When he learned about Do No Harm in the Wall Street Journal, he knew it was time for him to speak up against political ideology in medicine.

“If we aren’t successful in our efforts to root out and destroy the DEI virus in medicine, I think that will be the beginning of the end of the medical profession.”

As a child, Tim fell in love with science education (STEM) watching the space race between the U.S. and Russia. He was accepted into medical school in 1973, a time when merit drove admissions and curriculums focused on rigorous training in medical science.

He remembers how faculty members went above and beyond to provide guidance and support for every student, including women and students of color. The class formed a close community, with many living together, studying, and socializing. Discrimination never crossed their minds.

“In my entire career, I have never seen any patient denied top-quality care because of race, or sex, or orientation, or any other demographic. Never.”

In spite of this, as the years passed, Tim felt the attitudes emanating from the upper echelons of the medical profession drift further and further away from the realities of practicing in the field. Identity politics had completely infected the medical profession after he retired in 2010.

In 2019, California enacted a law that forced doctors to complete a training on implicit bias as part of the continuing education required to keep their medical licenses. Attorney General Bonta even demanded to see a list of providers who had not yet taken the training—a clear intimidation tactic for doctors like Tim, who had practiced in the state. 

Do No Harm has since filed a lawsuit against the Medical Board of California to overturn this radical, divisive, and discriminatory requirement.

The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Tim’s area of specialty, became a silo of thought control. In 2019, he was suspended from the Academy’s online forum for criticizing a DEI initiative and suggesting that a colleague adopt a more measured response to rare instances of bigoted patient behavior. 

But Tim would not be censored. He used the downtime to write opinion columns for national news outlets such as the Washington Examiner (Is Your Doctor Woke Enough?).

Thank you Dr. Wheeler, for speaking out against identity politics in medicine, and doing your part to ensure that medical students and doctors get the best training possible, for the benefit of us all.

Patients are safer and healthier when doctors put medicine first, not politics.