FHC #111: Among wealthy nations, U.S. docs rank average for burnout

This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being.

Today’s show leads with an in-depth look at bias. In particular, the kind of cognitive biases studied by Nobel Prize researchers Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, who identified the many reasons why the human brain makes illogical and irrational choices. The two then talk about how doctors view technologies like ChatGPT through the lens of their own preconceived notions about the world around them.

Later in the episode, Dr. Robert Pearl introduces some surprising data on physician burnout. In August, an independent research group, the Commonwealth Fund, published a global report on satisfaction among primary care physicians.

According to the data, a paltry 47% of America’s primary care doctors are satisfied with their medical practices overall. Most surprisingly, however, is that the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Canada all claim less-satisfied doctors, despite working in countries that consistently and considerably outperform the United States in clinical outcomes.

With all the talk around America’s dysfunctional healthcare system as the main driver of physician burnout, how is it that the U.S. sits squarely in the middle of 10 other developed countries in rankings of professional satisfaction (especially when doctors elsewhere work in government-funded healthcare systems and don’t have to deal with things like prior authorization and computer systems designed around fee-for-service payments)?

Today’s show provides some answers and offers new ways the burnout crisis can be remedied.

To discover more, press play and check out these helpful links:

Presale: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s ucpoming book)

Overworked and Undervalued: Unmasking Primary Care Physicians’ Dissatisfaction in 10 High-Income Countries (The Commonwealth Fund)

The Healthcare Burnout Symposium featuring Dr. Fisher (Event: November 2-3, 2023)

Who has the power to end clinician burnout? (RobertPearlMD.com)

Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn)

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Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple Podcasts or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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