Washington – – September 25, 2026 -- The American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL) has released "Quiet Leadership in Medicine: An Early-Career Clinician's Guide to Building Programs That Change Care," a book by Kardie Tobb, DO, MS, CPE, FACC, FASPC, FACOI, aimed at closing the gap between clinical training and organizational leadership skills for junior physicians.
Book targets clinicians at career start, not mid-career
AAPL positions the title as the first framework of its kind written explicitly for early-career clinicians rather than seasoned executives. The guide covers building stakeholder coalitions, framing clinical initiatives for hospital administrators, sustaining programs post-launch, and using routine interactions — rounds, follow-up emails, hallway conversations — as tools for institutional change.
"There is an entire generation of clinicians who see exactly what needs to change in their institutions and have no idea how to make it happen," Tobb said. "You do not need a title or a decade of seniority to build something meaningful."
Author built cardio-obstetrics program within five years of practice
Tobb founded the Cone Health Cardio-Obstetrics Clinic within her first five years as an attending physician, establishing a program now offering preconception cardiovascular counseling, pregnancy cardiac care, and postpartum follow-up. She subsequently took on system-wide leadership of Cone Health's Center for Health Equity.
Teams under Tobb secured grants from state and federal health agencies
Tobb's teams have won competitive grants from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the NC Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, and the CDC's Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program. She has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed articles, including in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The book's frameworks are written for a broad clinical audience, extending beyond physicians to nurses, advanced practice providers, pharmacists, and allied health professionals seeking to move from delivering care to designing it.