How Conversational AI Can Help Cure Physician Burnout

Physician burnout is one of the most serious conditions in today’s medical profession. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality defines the condition as “a long-term stress reaction caused by emotional exhaustion [and] depersonalization,” among other factors. According to the American Medical Association, physicians suffer from considerable stress caused by facets of their job that have little to do with actually providing personalized patient care. The AMA reports that physicians spend up to six hours daily working with electronic health records (EHRs) to adhere to government and hospital documentation requirements. That’s six hours not spent seeing patients, and thus not having the time to listen carefully and diagnose, empathize, hold a hand, speak with family members, or explain conditions and next steps. Physicians are not to blame.

All of this belies the fact that good patient care is the primary source of job satisfaction for 79% of physicians, according to The Physician Foundation. Healing patients is why doctors choose to practice medicine. Dissatisfaction is sounding alarms as physicians leave the field at alarming rates.

At the most recent Health Information and Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) annual conference, technology was front and center of industry efforts to improve health care. Nuance Communications’ focus on how Conversational AI and Ambient Clinical Intelligence (defined below) are particularly promising. I had the opportunity to speak at length with Nuance CEO Mark Benjamin about how technology may help cure physician burnout. 

The full Forbes article can be viewed at this link.