Maggie Kozel

In “The Color of Atmosphere: One Doctor’s Journey In and Out of Medicine,” Maggie Kozel tells the story of her medical career with warmth, humor, and above all, honesty. As we follow Kozel from her idealistic days as a devoted young pediatrician, through her Navy experience with universal health coverage, and on into the world of private practice, we see not only her reverence for medical science, and her compassion for patients, but also the widening gap between what she was trained to do, and what is eventually expected of her. Her personal story plays out against the backdrop of our changing healthcare system, and demonstrates the way our method of paying for healthcare has reached its way into the exam room, putting a stranglehold on the way doctor’s practice, and profoundly influencing the doctor-patient relationship. The stories she shares illustrate the medical, economic and moral complexities of U.S. healthcare. To understand Dr. Kozel’s ultimate decision to leave medicine is to have a better understanding of the disconnect between our marvelous medical resources, and the ways our healthcare system falls short of delivering them.

Dr. Maggie Kozel graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine and went on to specialize and practice in pediatrics, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Kozel left practice after seventeen years, and is currently teaching high school chemistry in the Providence area. She is a regular contributor to Huffington Post and to Kevinmd, as well as her own site, barkingdoc.com. She lives in Jamestown, RI with her husband and daughters.