Physicians as Leaders: A Systematic Review through the Lens of Expert Leadership

A systematic review was conducted on the current state of physician leadership in the United States. The theory of expert leadership (TEL) (Goodall 2009, 2012) was utilized to explore the effects of physician inherent knowledge, industry experience, and leadership capabilities on physician leader behaviors and leadership outcomes. This systematic review spanned from August 2011 – February 2022 and applied the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) strategy. Our initial search began with 3,537 studies and the final sample consisted of 12 articles. The findings offer a number of studies which note the relationship between physician leadership and the three dimensions of TEL. How influential these are to leader behaviors and health related outcomes varies. We also found a number of studies which described general physician leadership behaviors which were not directly linked to factors of TEL, as well as two additional themes: leader identity and trust. These findings offer healthcare organizations insight into the potential strengths of having physicians in leadership positions and offer insight into potential challenges that should be addressed. This is the first systematic review which has applied a theoretical framework to the data and the first which focused solely on a U.S. population.