By Benjamin I. LeeAug. 24, 2026
Lee is a retired cardiologist who volunteers at a community-based clinic in Maryland.
After nearly 40 years in clinical medicine, I retired in 2022. While I expected to feel a sense of freedom, quitting medicine brought me an unexpected sense of loss over the thought of decades of accumulated knowledge, experience, and judgment suddenly going to waste.
Volunteering at a nonprofit community clinic gave me the chance to continue using my knowledge and skills. But it also taught me firsthand what I had not learned in private practice: For millions who must pay out of pocket for their health care, the options are very limited. Both community clinics and retired doctors are underutilized resources.
The community clinic serves the “working poor” — those who are employed but cannot afford high insurance premiums or deductibles, those who are ineligible for federal aid, and the unemployed. Most clinic patients do not speak English, and caring for them via translation is challenging and inefficient. Scribes assist by entering patient data into the electronic health record. Our scribes are pre-medical students who volunteer part time at the clinic to gain clinical experience, a requisite for admission to medical school. I enjoy mentoring these future doctors by explaining key clinical findings of patients we had seen, having them listen to a heart murmur through my stethoscope, or answering their many questions about life in medicine.
