An antidote for burnout: Vascular surgeons as hospital administrators

The much-maligned electronic health record (EHR)—sometimes referred to as electronic medical record, or EMR—is not among the causes of burnout, per se, but rather a symptom, the 2022 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) heard during the John Homans Lecture on the…
Silence is golden—but does self-imposed silence lead to burnout?

Burnout is associated with silence in various contexts. It is called the silent crisis, the silent epidemic, or the silent killer. What is not talked about is the pressure or fear at work, whether professional or personal, that can lead…
Rise in cardiovascular disease, vascular surgeon burnout presents a public health crisis, Western Vascular Society hears

Cases of cardiovascular disease are rising across the U.S., with large disparities seen in ethnic groups and poorer geographical areas. In combination with increased burnout in the vascular workforce, this has led to a public health crisis that requires immediate…
Trainee wellness: ‘No one really prepared me for the failures’

Communication and an awareness of how often vascular surgery fails emerged as key talking points during a Vascular Surgery Interest Group (VSIG) Lunch Symposium panel discussion aimed at providing trainees and medical students with career guidance during the Western Vascular…
Cuts to Medicare: ‘As vascular disease complexity increases, reimbursement for complex care decreases’

Outgoing Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society (MVSS) President Kellie Brown, MD, has seen fundamental changes to the way vascular surgery is practiced during her 20 years as a surgeon. The advance of endovascular techniques. The arrival of the electronic medical record…
Pandemic affected surgeons financially and emotionally, COVID-19 session hears

Besides the stunning death toll and the disruption of life around the world, COVID-19 hit vascular surgeons financially and emotionally. Two presenters at the Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) special session on COVID-19 on Wednesday afternoon discussed these impacts. It may…
UPMC study probing stress-reduction interventions among high-burden specialties begins enrollment

A new study aiming to establish whether a series of mindfulness and physical interventions can help reduce stress and burnout among physicians who treat high-acuity patients has started recruitment at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in Pennsylvania. Led…
Medicare E&M coding changes and EHR physician burnout

A recent article published in Vascular Specialist summarized data regarding the undeniable relationship between electronic health records (EHRs) and burnout amongst physicians. There is ample irony in the fact that a graph depicting the increased focus on “physician wellbeing” in…
The top 10 most popular stories from April

Our April cover story on the links between electronic health records (EHRs) and physician burnout, the continuing problem of manels (or all-male speaking panels) at vascular surgery meetings, and some of the latest details on the 2021 Vascular Annual Meeting…
An open letter to Epic Systems

Dear Epic, I am not writing to you today as a customer, but rather on behalf of your users. More specifically, I am representative of the 870 American Medical Association (AMA) physicians who gave their electronic health record (EHR) an…

