It began as an acute illness, sometime about a decade ago. Doctors, who had for centuries belonged to a proud and rewarding profession, were suddenly reporting a series of alarming symptoms: exhaustion, frustration and extreme hopelessness.
Surveys indicated that physicians were feeling beaten up and burned out by a broken healthcare system, which was becoming increasingly computerized, corporatized and commoditized. Doctors were being bogged down by endless regulations and paperwork and administrative demands—so much that medicine had somehow become a profession in which doctors no longer had the time to do the one thing that doctors are supposed to do: care for patients.
Clinicians were being systematically sapped of their love for medicine.
High-profile reports, like this one out of Harvard University, validated growing concerns about this acute illness, stressing that physician burnout had become “a public health crisis” that urgently demanded action. If left unaddressed, this plague of dissatisfaction would soon destroy the mental health of all doctors and radically undermine patient care.
Frightened and frustrated, physicians sounded the alarm, alerting everyone in the industry of the dire consequences that would soon come. They cautioned that unhappy physicians work fewer hours, retire earlier, make costly mistakes and even commit suicide.
And yet, some 10 years after burnout became an urgent matter in medicine, little has improved. Some argue the problem is getting worse. Half of all doctors now report symptoms of burnout. More than 400 physicians die by suicide each year, a rate higher than nearly any other profession.
I had the opportunity to address this unfortunate reality at the Ending Physician Burnout Global Summit, hosted by a passionate and compassionate physician named Jonathan Fisher. This exceptional event brought together more than 500 attendees and 60+ top-notch speakers, including Arianna Huffington (author and founder of the Huffington Post), Daniel Kraft (physician-scientist and TED speaker), Faisel Syed (primary care director at ChenMed), and Paul De Chant (author and speaker), to name just some.
On Day 2 of the conference, having observed dozens of speakers and breakout sessions—all of them housed on one of the most impressive virtual platforms I’ve ever seen—I felt inspired to ask my industry colleagues some difficult questions:
- We’ve been talking about burnout and moral injury for close to 10 years. Do we believe that the problem is that we have not yelled loud enough or made our concerns clear to others?
- Without question, the American healthcare system is broken. But are there any ways we as doctors contribute to the problems, either for patients or ourselves?
- In what ways has Covid-19 impacted doctors relative to their psychological well-being and what can we do to be of help?
- Are we as physicians helpless or do we possess the power to make a major difference in the future of healthcare’s structure, financing and culture?
Throughout this momentous summit, I have been dogged by the realization that physician burnout is now a chronic illness and will invariably be passed on to the next generation of doctors if nothing different is done.
I concluded my remarks with a challenge to those in attendance to think about the ways we as physicians can positively impact the system of healthcare and the culture of medicine. The links in the previous sentence contain what I believe are some of the answers, spelled out in my two books “Mistreated” and Uncaring,” for which all profits go to Doctors Without Borders.
I hope that doctors feel inspired enough by the Ending Physician Burnout Global Summit to seize the opportunity in front of them, work together to ease their suffering and, in time, make conferences like this one obsolete.
Until then, I extend my sincerest thanks, appreciation and admiration to the entire team of James R. Doty, Jonathan Fisher, Kelcey Trefethen, Ellen Ingraham, Marcie Cheung, Soracha Cashman, and the many others who helped make this remarkable summit possible.
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Dr. Robert Pearl is the former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, the nation’s largest physician group. He’s a Forbes contributor, bestselling author, Stanford University professor, and host of two healthcare podcasts. Pearl’s newest book, “Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors & Patients,” is available now. All profits go to Doctors Without Borders.
