Brigham and Women's Hospital Center to Study Physician Well-Being

Boston-based Brigham & Women’s Hospital, part of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, has launched a research center with the goal of generating and disseminating evidence to improve physician well-being while enhancing patient care.

Supported by a $1 million grant from the Physicians Foundation, the Center for Physician Experience and Practice Excellence will partner with health systems and experts from across the United States in their work to elucidate contributors to and solutions for physician burnout.

The Center’s core team will be comprised of Brigham and Women’s Hospital physicians and Harvard Medical School faculty. Lisa Rotenstein, M.D., M.B.A., will serve as the Center’s director and principal investigator; David Bates, M.D., will serve as a key internal advisor and co-investigator; Christine Iannaccone, M.P.H., will serve as senior project manager; and Michelle Frits as senior data analyst. 

Rotenstein’s research on physician and trainee mental health has fostered increased awareness of the epidemic of depression and burnout in medical students and physicians, catalyzing action to address this public health burden. As a nationally recognized expert on gender issues in medicine, the impact of the electronic health record on clinicians, and outpatient care delivery, she has also focused her research on identifying ways to create a more effective healthcare delivery system.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Physicians Foundation for their vision and partnership, which has enabled us to launch this Center,” Rotenstein said in a statement. “We know that physician burnout has consequences for physicians and patients alike. At present, we still have an inadequate understanding of what works to simultaneously enhance physician well-being and advance patient care across multiple types of physicians and practice settings. Our research will seek to develop a robust evidence base regarding how to improve physician experiences of providing care, drawing upon the insights of physicians practicing in diverse clinical settings across the United States."

Co-investigator David Bates, M.D., is chief of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has done extensive work on improving efficiency and quality, and on assessing health information technology adoption.

“Physician well-being remains an important focus for the Physicians Foundation, especially as we see the tremendous stress the current state of our country and healthcare system has put on our physicians,” said Gary Price, M.D., president of the Physicians Foundation, in a statement. “Our nation’s physicians, residents and medical students are in need of systemic change to help improve the future of medicine. We are thrilled to collaborate with Brigham and Women’s Hospital to help deliver evidence-based solutions to improve physician well-being for current and future physicians, ultimately benefitting patients everywhere.”