How the right technology is key to solving physician burnout

Currently, more than half of neurointerventionalists, neurosurgeons, neurologists, and radiologists suffer burnout as a result of shortages of healthcare providers, simultaneous coverage of multiple hospitals, and increased demand for emergency stroke care. We have experienced this and expect it to get worse.

Neurologist burnout is caused by a variety of reasons, including a shortage of providers, simultaneous coverage of multiple hospitals, and increased demand for emergency stroke care. Shortages are expected to get worse, especially among neurologists – It is projected to grow by 19% by 2025.

The human and financial costs of this burnout can be felt at all levels of healthcare. It is estimated that the US healthcare system alone spends $4.6 billion (£3 billion) annually on burnout. Due to lack of doctors, physician turnover, and the cost of effectively hiring and training successors. Worse, this growing problem can also significantly increase the number of medical errors, compromising overall patient care.

Fortunately, new technologies can help alleviate many of the burdens that lead to burnout for those working in neurology. There are two types of artificial intelligence (AI).

Intuitive clinical workflow technology helps

One of the biggest complaints from neurologists (and many other physicians) is the challenges they face in communicating between hospitals. Patients need to be transferred from spoke hospitals (often small and potentially rural hospitals with limited service delivery) to larger and more comprehensive hub hospitals to receive adequate care. In some cases there is often a lot of information about the patient. It gets lost along the way.

This information may include current symptoms and medical history collected upon arrival, both of which are important for doctors to determine appropriate treatment.These ineffective communication processes not only make it difficult for physicians to treat stroke patients effectively, but ultimately Contributes to increased stress and burnout.

Intuitive clinical workflow technology is one of the easiest and clearest ways to address this problem. Technology should help connect care teams from the moment patients arrive until they leave the hospital. This includes enabling physicians to view, organize and track cases from multiple sites and communicate with stroke teams in a single application.

Another key benefit of many workflow applications is increased convenience and flexibility for remote physicians. This is unlike the technology implemented in many other industries. Improve the quality of life for physicians by providing anytime, anywhere access to results and critical patient images on mobile devices, and virtualize response teams via secure messaging apps that are GDPR and HIPAA compliant. make it supportable. Finally, all these improved efficiencies will make it easier for physicians to efficiently manage higher case volumes and deliver more consistent patient care.

Clinical decision support AI

We know time is of the essence when it comes to stroke. As such, doctors are under tremendous pressure to make quick treatment decisions around the clock.

After all, they are just humans. Artificial intelligence and automated scan review technology improve diagnostic accuracy and assist physicians by acting as a second eye, enabling faster and more accurate treatment decisions. The technology empowers burnout clinicians with algorithms created and approved by fellow neurologists to ensure patients are triaged with appropriate treatment options.

A good example of this is RapidAI.

A stroke platform that automates image processing and analysis to provide an easy-to-read, near real-time view of the brain. It also provides clinicians with standardized results for assessing whether a patient is suitable for endovascular treatment, minimizing the variability associated with interpretation by individual clinicians. Clinical decision support AI can finally significantly reduce healthcare stress Provides a second opinion and reduces the burden on clinicians.

looking to the future

While there is no quick fix to burnout, workflows and clinical decision support AI are two ways hospitals can ease the burden on providers. With the costs of burnout in mind, as the health system begins to consider new investments for his 2023, burnout goes hand in hand with clinician stress and even patient care. It is important to keep Healthcare systems must act now to improve the patient and healthcare provider experience.