Announcing HIN Summit 2026 · Carbondale, CO · September 25-26 · Register Here

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Announcing HIN Summit 2026 · Carbondale, CO · September 25-26 · Register Here

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Physician.

Speaker.

Healer.

Where Emotion Meets Science

Board-Certified Physician · Executive Producer, Suck It Up, Buttercup (feat. Mark Cuban) · National & International Speaker on AI and Physician Burnout

As Featured In:

You became a healer because something in you knew

it

it

mattered.

mattered.

You studied for years. You sacrificed weekends, holidays, sleep. You earned the privilege of caring for people at their most vulnerable.

And somewhere along the way, the system made you forget why. If you’re reading this, you already know something needs to change.

You’re in the right place.

Over 60%

of healthcare providers
report burnout.

1 in 4

physicians considered leaving medicine entirely in the last year alone.

Behind those numbers are real people — doctors skipping meals to finish charts, nurses crying in parking lots before shifts, leaders watching their best people walk away.

The system wasn’t built to support the people who hold it together. And most of what’s offered in response — pizza parties, resilience workshops, another survey — doesn’t touch the real problem.

The real problem is that we’ve disconnected the science of medicine from the humanity of healing.

What We've Been Missing

For decades, we've measured human capability in two dimensions: how well we think (IQ) and how well we feel (EQ). But there is a third intelligence — one that science is only beginning to understand and that healers, teachers, first responders, and parents have always known in their bones.

The Intelligence That Heals

Healing Intelligence® (HIQ) is the ability to process and integrate verbal and nonverbal cues, in an emotional state of empathy balanced with compassion and conscious awareness, in order to co-create a compelling future of health, acceptance, and well-being.

It is not IQ. It is not EQ. It is what happens when presence meets purpose — and it is a teachable skill.

How You Can Work With
Dr. McDermott

How You Can Work
With Dr. McDermott

Red heart icon with a brain icon in the center
Red heart icon with a brain icon in the center

Testimonials

Headshot of CEO Brian Murphy in a blue collar shirt and suit jacket
Headshot of Dr. Erica Kesselman with a white shirt, blazer, and blue glasses
Headshot of Dr. Erin Kempe in a teal blouse and black blazer

The Girlfriends' Gyno

"Through working with Rob, I have become a speaker and influencer to primary care physicians and women abroad, and I am now nationally and internationally recognized. He has helped me create a new source of income and I have secured multiple streams of additional income in just 9 months."

Erica Kesselman, MD

Founder of The Girlfriends' Gyno

Headshot of CEO Brian Murphy in a blue collar shirt and suit jacket
Headshot of Dr. Erica Kesselman with a white shirt, blazer, and blue glasses
Headshot of Dr. Erin Kempe in a teal blouse and black blazer

The Girlfriends' Gyno

"Through working with Rob, I have become a speaker and influencer to primary care physicians and women abroad, and I am now nationally and internationally recognized. He has helped me create a new source of income and I have secured multiple streams of additional income in just 9 months."

Erica Kesselman, MD

Founder of The Girlfriends' Gyno

What Is Healing Intelligence?

IQ measures how well your brain processes data. EQ measures how well you read and manage emotions. But neither explains why a doctor orders a test that saves a life when every objective measure says the patient is fine. Neither explains why a teacher reaches a child who's been written off by everyone else. Neither explains why a police officer de-escalates a crisis that was seconds from violence.

 

That's Healing Intelligence — a distinct form of human intelligence that integrates intuition, attunement, emotional regulation, and conscious presence into a capacity for healing that transcends what IQ or EQ can achieve alone.

HIQ Is Built on Three Pillars:

01

Nonverbal Safety

The ability to create an environment of trust through tone, distance, silence, and breath — before a single word is spoken.

02

Emotional Regulation

The capacity to ground your own nervous system so that others can regulate theirs. You cannot attune to another person unless you are grounded yourself.

03

Healing Without Fixing

The understanding that presence is often more powerful than intervention. Sometimes the most healing thing you can do is listen.

The World Needs a Third Intelligence

Healthcare providers are burning out at record rates. Teachers are leaving the profession. First responders are in crisis. Our political discourse has lost the capacity for empathy. And artificial intelligence is accelerating faster than our wisdom can govern it. 


We don't need more data. We don't need more technology. We need a deeper human capacity — one that reconnects us to the healing power of presence, attunement, and conscious awareness.

Healing Intelligence is that capacity. And it is teachable, measurable, and universal.

Why Work With Dr. Robert McDermott

I'm not a former physician who left practice to become a coach. I'm still in the exam room.

"I still run a practice. I still deal with insurance companies and staffing challenges and the daily grind of clinical medicine. That's what makes this work different — I'm not observing the problem from the outside. I'm living it alongside you and building solutions in real time."

Board-Certified Allergist/Immunologist
Nearly Two Decades in Clinical Practice
National and International Speaker to Thousands of Physicians
Executive Producer of Suck It Up, Buttercup
Founder of the CPR for Leaders™
Author of the Forthcoming Book Healing Intelligence: The Third Intelligence — Beyond IQ and EQ
Endorsed by Health System CEOs Who’ve Seen the Work Firsthand

Why Work With Dr. Robert McDermott

I'm not a former physician who left practice to become a coach. I'm still in the exam room.

"I still run a practice. I still deal with insurance companies and staffing challenges and the daily grind of clinical medicine. That's what makes this work different — I'm not observing the problem from the outside. I'm living it alongside you and building solutions in real time."

Board-Certified Allergist/Immunologist
Nearly Two Decades in Clinical Practice
National and International Speaker to Thousands of Physicians
Executive Producer of Suck It Up, Buttercup
Founder of the CPR for Leaders™
Author of the Forthcoming Book Healing Intelligence: The Third Intelligence — Beyond IQ and EQ
Endorsed by Health System CEOs Who’ve Seen the Work Firsthand

Why Work With Dr. Robert McDermott

I'm not a former physician who left practice to become a coach. I'm still in the exam room.

"I still run a practice. I still deal with insurance companies and staffing challenges and the daily grind of clinical medicine. That's what makes this work different — I'm not observing the problem from the outside. I'm living it alongside you and building solutions in real time."

Board-Certified Allergist/Immunologist
Nearly Two Decades in Clinical Practice
National and International Speaker to Thousands of Physicians
Executive Producer of Suck It Up, Buttercup
Founder of the CPR for Leaders™
Author of the Forthcoming Book Healing Intelligence: The Third Intelligence — Beyond IQ and EQ
Endorsed by Health System CEOs Who’ve Seen the Work Firsthand

Healing Intelligence: The Third Intelligence — Beyond IQ and EQ

Healing Intelligence:
The Third Intelligence — Beyond IQ and EQ

Written by Dr. Robert McDermott

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Coming Soon

Screenshot of Notion template homepage

Coming Soon

Screenshot of Notion template homepage

Coming Soon

"I'm really thrilled about your work — it's so needed. I encourage you to get it out there as fast as possible."

Jack Canfield

Author of Chicken Soup for the Soul

Suck It Up, Buttercup

Documentary Healthcare Trust & Betrayal

This work goes beyond the clinic into a documentary examining trust, betrayal,
and the growing crisis in American healthcare.
This work goes beyond the clinic into a documentary examining trust, betrayal, and the growing crisis in American healthcare.

Dr. Robert McDermott serves as Executive Producer alongside Dr. Nicole McDermott, Dr. MaryAnn Wilbur, and Dr. Todd R. Otten.
The film is produced by an Emmy Award-winning production team at ONE80 Visual, led by Creative Director Scott Pressler (five National Emmy Awards for work with NBC Sports and the Olympic Games).

Start a Conversation

You do not have to figure this out alone. Whether you are a clinician looking for support or a leader ready to invest in your team, the next step is simple.

Start a Conversation

You do not have to figure this out alone. Whether you are a clinician looking for support or a leader ready to invest in your team, the next step is simple.

Start a Conversation

You do not have to figure this out alone. Whether you are a clinician looking for support or a leader ready to invest in your team, the next step is simple.