Hello Friends of FAIR in Medicine,
After a hiatus, FAIR in Medicine (FiM) is re-launching in a cultural landscape that’s evolved considerably in the five years since FAIR’s founding. As the new Interim Director, I’d like to introduce myself and invite your input. My name is Douglas Novotny, Ph.D. I’m a Licensed Psychologist and honored to step into this role to help lead our community forward. As I attend conferences around the country I invite you to come meet me in person and share your thoughts and ideas. The first of those conferences will kick off our listening tour and will be hosted by our collaborators at Open Therapy Institute, which has extended a generous offer to FAIR members at the bottom of this newsletter.
Thanks to Monica for her generous announcement in FAIR’s recent newsletter. Below is a preview of FiM’s planned activities, key topics of interest, and longer-term vision for 2026 and beyond.
Planned Activities
Strategic Plan: FiM is updating its Strategic Plan in late 2026.
Listening Tour: What should FiM’s Strategic Plan look like? What merits our attention? What work needs to be done? Share your feedback at: medicine@fairforall.org.
Substack: We’ll soon resume publishing on a quarterly basis. Please contact me if you have essays to develop or colleagues in your network who’d like to submit to us.
Social Media: FiM is expanding its online presence to build connections and drive influence. Look for us on Substack Notes, Facebook, X, and Instagram. Please share and boost our posts!
Continuing Education (Psychotherapy): Following the rollout of our first FAIR-aligned CE course, FiM aims to offer more courses, including other instructors. The course will remain available for home study here. Future courses will be offered live, as well as recorded so we build a HomeStudy CE Course library. Contact us if you are interested in teaching.
Key Topics
Sex-Denying Interventions/Gender Affirming Care remain a focus amid emerging legal and federal developments, including Supreme Court rulings protecting clinician speech and HHS studies examining care protocols.
Accountability is needed in our field. For example, Anthony Fauci’s texts and emails are now coming to light, including evidence that Public Health officials at the highest levels lied to us — not once but repeatedly —- and not on small matters, but grave ones. Public health transparency remains essential to addressing past policy deceptions and restoring standards across medicine and research.
Restoration and trustworthiness in Medicine & Psychotherapy begins with accountability, some of which will come through our legal system. As professionals, we recognize that the integrity of our judgment is vital to medical credibility. Rebuilding trust in our fields requires active professional engagement.
Longer-Term Vision & Goals
Strategic Vision: Cracks have formed in the foundation of cancel culture, and we must understand them and build on the opening they create. As we adapt our core mission to the current climate and focus on implementation of our Strategic Plan, we’ll keep FiM’s founding principles at the center of all we do.
Institutional Reform: Driving accreditation and organizational reform by working through laws, policy changes, and litigation at the same time we are pursuing change within professional organizations and institutions.
Professional Culture: Promoting character traits and practices that counteract institutional overreach. Using “soft power” of professional values, while difficult to measure, are often more important than formal institutional changes.
Navigating Political Shifts: Encouraging professionals to advocate for sound clinical standards independent of partisan politics.
Douglas C. Novotny, Ph.D. | doug.novotny@fairforall.org | medicine@fairforall.org
Earlier this year FAIR announced its collaboration with the Open Therapy Institute read here.
FAIR members are invited to join the Open Therapy Institute‘s Conference on Political Bias and Mental Health, October 9–11, in Washington, DC.
The program features a live podcast recording with Rob Henderson and Erica Komisar, a panel with Sally Satel, and more. 9.25 CE credits available.
Use code OTISPECIALRATE2026 for 50% off. Register here.
We hope to see you in DC!
Support Our Mission and Our Collaborators Through Attendance & Donations
Your generous support enables us to continue developing resources and advocating for unbiased practices in therapy and beyond. Please consider supporting FiM today.