By: Richard Gunderman, MD, PhD
IU School of Medicine 

On Sept. 6, 2024, the Friday of Convention weekend, ISMA offered its first daylong Physician Wellness Symposium. The first major initiative of ISMA’s Physician Wellness Steering Committee, the symposium proved to be a very well-attended event that received very high marks from those who attended. Nearly 90% of participants strongly agreed with the statement, “I found the symposium inspiring and helpful.”  Said one, “I absolutely loved this. I wish that it had lasted at least another hour.”  

The day started with a presentation by Brett Kramer of the Indianapolis Colts entitled “Kicking the Stigma,” highlighting the team’s efforts to raise awareness of mental health issues and reduce the stigma associated with such disorders. So far, the program has distributed more than $6 million via grants to over 60 organizations. Her presentation featured numerous testimonials from Colts players and staff who opened up about their own challenges and the need to reduce the stigma around mental health.

Harvard psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, MD, then addressed “What Makes a Good Life?”, drawing on an 85-year-long series of studies on well-being. He described the powerful connection between social connectedness and health, including the fact that loneliness is as harmful as smoking a half-pack of cigarettes per day. Married people live five to 17 years longer than those who are single, and those with broader social networks benefit from later onset and slower rates of cognitive decline.

Waldinger also cited data suggesting that 20% of all physicians feel intense loneliness most of the time, a concern more prevalent among women under 40 and non-whites, as well as findings that those who report loneliness are more likely to burn out. To remedy the situation, he argued, we need to prioritize social connections, encourage giving and receiving help, create time and space for collaboration, and develop opportunities to learn about each other’s personal lives.

St. Vincent Ascension Hospital CMO Jeff Rothenberg, MD, an OB-GYN, addressed the role of the arts and humanities in wellness. He described several arts and humanities-related projects he has helped organize, and invited participants to create thank-you cards to express gratitude to someone who helped them get to where they are today. Dr. Rothenberg and his wife Joani invited all participants to contribute a piece to a mosaic commemorating the ISMA’s 175th anniversary.

Stefanie Simmons, MD, of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, told the story of her organization’s namesake, an emergency physician in Manhattan who found herself overwhelmed by the number and acuity of patients during the early days of the COVID pandemic as she worked around the clock with limited supplies, beds, and person power. She feared that if she admitted her mental health difficulties. she would lose her license.  Although she had no history of mental health problems, she took her own life.

Dr. Simmons, an emergency physician, highlighted six barriers to mental health access, including licensure, hospital credentialing, commercial insurance, malpractice insurance, legal discovery in malpractice, and health plan design. Her organization is responding with efforts to care for caregivers, including taking action to improve well-being, breaking down barriers to help-seeking, and integrating well-being into operational improvement.

Clif Knight, MD, an ISMA Physician Wellness Steering Committee member, moderated a panel discussion of six physician leaders who described their experiences with physician wellness initiatives. One audience member said, “I very much appreciated that this went beyond just identifying causes of burnout at the individual level. It provided great detail on how to address it at a system level.”

The day’s final formal event consisted of roundtable discussions moderated by the day’s speakers on topics including physician engagement activities, DEI impacts on wellness, and wellness opportunities for medical students. Participants rotated from table to table at 15-minute intervals during the one-hour session. Numerous participants expressed the wish that there was even more time for these discussions, a sign that they relished the opportunity for small-group conversation.

In summary, there are many contributors to physician burnout. One of the most notable is inefficacy, the sense that there is little physicians can do to improve our situation. By bringing together a large group of physicians from around the state to spend a day focusing on physician wellness, ISMA did a great job of showing that we are not helpless, outlining practical steps that we, our practices, and systems can take to improve matters, and helping to inspire everyone in attendance to set to work enhancing physician wellness.

Richard Gunderman, MD, PhD, is the chair of the ISMA Wellness Steering Committee.