Tackling today’s challenges for tomorrow’s physicians

Each summer, watching a new group of physicians begin their careers, I’m reminded of my own graduation from medical school. I remember my pride in achieving a long-held dream after years of hard work, and the excitement I felt to be on the brink of a challenging and rewarding career that would benefit both individuals and society at large.

It’s gratifying to know that our class of newly-minted MDs will feel this same joy tomorrow, when they graduate from the Stanford University School of Medicine. But while these feelings translate from generation to generation, the world of medicine has not remained static. Everything from how we conduct surgeries to how we screen for cancer has evolved over the decades, to the great benefit of the patients we serve. At the same time, tomorrow’s physicians must navigate a vastly different landscape, rife with challenges that were less pressing—or didn’t yet exist—when I was in medical school.

Managing record student debt

Chief among them is student debt. Eight out of ten medical school graduates borrowed to earn their degree; and as of this year, the average medical school debt in the United States has skyrocketed to more than $230,000. Adjusted for inflation, that’s nearly double what graduates faced in the year 2000. This extraordinary burden—disproportionately shouldered by students from disadvantaged backgrounds—can have an outsized influence on important decisions, including whether students pursue less-lucrative specialties, such as family medicine, and even whether they remain in medical practice. It’s critical to continue addressing this issue, and I’m proud that Stanford Medicine is a leader among U.S. medical schools that have launched initiatives to reduce debt.

Applying new technologies in medical practice

Beyond financial complications, the next generation of physicians will practice in an environment much different than years past. With technology transforming patient care, they will increasingly interact with wearable health monitoring devices, electronic health datasets, genetic tests, and artificial intelligence algorithms when guiding patient care. These innovations have incredible potential to empower health care providers to predict, prevent, and cure disease, based on a patient’s individual biology. They will also enable us to better engage the health of entire communities through proactive, data-driven medical and social interventions. As we found in our 2020 Health Trends Report, physicians and medical students are eager to embrace these new capabilities. But training opportunities must be made available, in subjects ranging from data science to population health management, for physicians to take full advantage of these advancements for their patients.

Addressing burnout

One thing I don’t expect will change is physicians’ deep dedication to their patients. In my experience, overwhelmingly, people who decide to become doctors want to help others—which is one reason it’s so disconcerting to see the drastic rise in burnout in our profession. As physicians in the United States contend with greater workloads, regulatory requirements, paperwork, financial pressures, and public scrutiny, as many as half report feeling depressed, exhausted, dissatisfied, or a sense of failure. The added challenges of the pandemic have only exacerbated these stresses—and we must address them. Burnout is damaging to physician well-being, increasing risk of suicide and driving good doctors out of the field. It also has been linked to an increased likelihood of medical errors and reduced quality of care. Thankfully, many medical institutions are pushing to counteract this trend. At Stanford Medicine, we’re proud to have been the first US academic medical center to appoint a chief wellness officer, and our WellMD Center continues to break new ground in this field.

Looking ahead to my ninth commencement with Stanford Medicine, I couldn’t be more hopeful for the future of my profession. The promise of medicine is greater today than it has ever been before; but in order to realize this potential, we must build a work environment that is healthy and sustaining for medical professionals and gives them the tools needed to thrive in a rapidly changing field.

Our most recent in-person graduation ceremony was in 2019, before the pandemic. I look forward to resuming them when we can do so safely. Credit: Steve Fisch

Here are some resources for further reading about medical school debt, how health care technology is transforming medicine, and physician burnout.

• Nearly two-thirds of physicians carry medical school debt, survey finds Fierce Healthcare reports on a survey of more than 500 actively practicing physicians, delving into details of their student debt and their timeline for paying it off.
• 10 emerging trends in health IT for 2021 From telehealth to big data, health system chief information officers tagged these health tech trends to watch in Becker’s Health IT.
• ‘Death by 1,000 cuts:’ Medscape National Physician Burnout & Suicide Report 2021 Medscape surveyed more than 12,000 physicians in 29 specialties and captured findings on how they cope with burnout in an easily digestible slide deck.
• Battling burnout: Programs that address the stresses of being a physician begin to show results This article from Stanford Medicine magazine describes in detail how our WellMD program is approaching physician burnout and how we’re measuring our progress.