Burnout in healthcare - the Emperor's New Clothes

Abstract

Burnout is common among physicians; it severely alters their health and has a negative impact on functioning of healthcare systems. Hypertension, increased cortisol levels, maladaptive behaviors with negative social consequences, and suboptimal quality of care have been associated with healthcare providers' burnout. As the number of patients with cancers, psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders will rise, we need new solutions to maintain physicians' health and, therefore, quality of care. Coping strategies before the COVID-19 pandemic seem ineffective in scaling all the deficits of the global healthcare systems. Examples of new initiatives include new collaborative projects, such as COH-FIT (The Collaborative Outcomes study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times - https://www.coh-fit.com), which aims to collect global data and understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical and mental health in order to identify various coping strategies for patients and healthcare workers during infection times, or MEMO (Minimizing Error, Maximizing Outcome), funded by the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Others: i) Rome Foundation GastroPsych undertake efforts dedicated to the science and practice of psychogastroenterology, a burgeoning field with roots in behavioral intervention, cognitive science and experimental psychology focused on fostering the professional growth and collaboration of those engaged in medical practices, or ii) World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO), Train The Trainers (TTT) program including a new topic of the impact of burnout on career longevity in order to foster strategies for staying healthy and increasing career satisfaction. There is a need for continuous development of digital technologies (e.g. training simulators, telemedicine, robots and artificial intelligence). Their implementation into medical practice is inevitable. Now more than ever, there is a need for a new spirit in healthcare. Together with others in the field, we believe this article is a desperate call for maximizing the use of novel technologies supported by collaborative interactions among healthcare providers and medical professionals of diverse medical fields.

Keywords: COH-FIT; TTT; WGO; artificial intelligence; burnout; healthcare; medicine; mental health; psychiatry; stress.

Figure 1

The multinational participants of Train The Trainer Program of the World Gastroenterology Organization, Warsaw, 2022. The TTT program included a new module on Career Longevity addressing burnout issues among healthcare professionals. The Train The Trainer (TTT), since its inception more than 20 years ago, has been a very successful program designed to disseminate teaching skills to gastroenterologists who already underwent training programs and hold professional positions in their own countries. TTT continues to provide an excellent platform for the exchange of ideas and networking among scientists around the globe, enabling them to conduct learning and teaching as well as maintaining scientific and personal interactions

Figure 2

Warsaw 2022 Train The Trainer Program WGO Faculty. TTT program organized by WGO in collaboration with the Polish Gastroenterology Society (PTG-e) represented by Prof. Grażyna Rydzewska

Figure 3

In the era of neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI) some of the latest developments in these fields are highly relevant. We have openly advocated for the role of telemedicine solutions, robots and mini-invasive diagnostic solutions (e.g. capsule endoscopy) as well training simulators in gastroenterology and cardiology. There is an urgent need to implement them into clinical practice to minimize physicians’ burnout, but also a great need to work on strategies aimed at minimizing digital burnout among healthcare professionals