A Call to Action – Our Radiology Chairs Are Burning Out

Abstract

Leaders of academic radiology practices in the United States are experiencing one or more symptoms of burnout. This should not be a surprise given current reports suggesting that 45% of practicing radiologists are also experiencing one or more of these symptoms ( 1 Harolds J.A. Parikh J.R. Bluth E.I. et al. Burnout of radiologists: frequency, risk factors, and remedies: a report of the ACR commission on human resources. J Am Coll Radiol. 2016; 13: 411-416 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (113) Google Scholar , 2 Fishman M.D. Mehta T.S. Siewert B. et al. The road to wellness-engagement strategies to help radiologists achieve joy at work. Radiographics. 2018; 38: 1651-1664 Crossref PubMed Scopus (27) Google Scholar , 3 Kruskal J.B. Shanafelt T. Eby P. et al. A road map to foster wellness and engagement in our workplace—a report of the 2018 Summer Intersociety Meeting. JACR. 2018; Google Scholar ). Data from recent surveys supports similar burnout rates in leaders in other medical disciplines ( 4 Gabbe S.G. Vetter M.H. Nguyen M.C. et al. Changes in the burnout profile of chairs of academic departments of obstetrics and gynecology over the past 15 years. Am J Ob Gynecol. 2018; 219: 303.e1-303.e6 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (10) Google Scholar , 5 Kusano A.S. Thomas C.R. Bonner J.A. et al. Burnout in United States academic chairs of radiation oncology programs. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2014; 88: 363-368 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (16) Google Scholar , 6 De Oliviera G.S. Ahmad S. Stock M.C. et al. High incidence of burnout in academic chairpersons of anesthesiology. Anesthesiol. 2011; 114: 181-193 Crossref PubMed Scopus (72) Google Scholar , 7 Cruz O.A. Pole C.J. Thomas S.M. Burnout in chairs of academic departments of ophthalmology. Ophthalmology. 2007; 114: 2350-2355 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (40) Google Scholar ). A recent survey of academic radiology chairs by Ganeshan et al ( 8 Ganeshan D.M. Wei W. Yang W. Burnout in chairs of academic radiology departments in the United States. Acad Radiol. 2019; Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (9) Google Scholar ), the first to collect such data specific to radiology chairs, demonstrated that almost 40% of radiology chairs are experiencing one or more symptoms of burnout, and 5% are experiencing symptoms of high burnout.