We are adding a new type of post to our blog. Starting today, we will be including some posts that are self-narrative, describing the work that we are doing, in addition to the usual informative posts on a variety of topics related to healthcare. So, here we go... What are we working on?

Well, we have been talking about it a lot - the problem of physician burnout. Regardless of your profession, role or affiliation, physician burnout affects everyone. Cultural, systemic, and technical changes must be made to reduce the burden on physicians and re-empower them to do the work that inspired them to go into medicine. We have a vision of creating a free, open, shared resource that contributes to this work.

We are still determining what exactly this resource will be. At the moment it is an evolving experimental idea. We are in the process of interviewing people in various roles, locations, and organizations to learn what would be most useful.

Our initial vision is to create an open-source clearinghouse of experiments and results that can be used by physicians, administrators, and IT departments alike. Or it could be a compendium of best practices - what have organizations tried, measured , and proven successful. It could be technological guidance - how to configure systems to be most efficient. It could be a systems assessment tool to capture and analyze technical inefficiencies, as well as to measure the effectiveness of improvement efforts. It could be an organizational assessment toolkit for Chief Wellness Officers. Or maybe a combination. Or maybe something else entirely.

At this point, we are trying to listen and understand what work is being done, what needs to be done, and where knowledge can best be shared and propagated. We will be sharing what we learn in this blog and we hope this will become a dialog.

What would you like to see in a resource to help combat physician burnout?