I am writing this in reflection before the third annual National Physician Suicide Awareness Day on September 17, 2021. We talk about physician suicide, but not enough. Not enough to prevent the more than one physician death by suicide daily.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), drawing on an 18-month collaboration with five other health care organizations, will publish a multi-specialty supplement on “Women in Medicine” in the September 2021 Pediatrics. This issue explores challenges to improving gender equity and strategies for advancing women in medicine.

The pandemic is significantly impacting the mental health and well-being of physicians. A new 2021 survey by the Physicians Foundation shows that 61 percent of physicians often experience feelings of burnout—a massive increase from 40 percent in 2018.

COVID-19 may be the latest challenge to primary care physicians, but it’s just one of many threatening the profession, including the increased focus on specialty drug markets—if PCPs are left out of the equation.

The death of Lorna Breen, MD, FAEP, the New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital clinician who took her own life in April 2020, drew new attention to physician suicide, and led to an act of legislation that bears her name.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing issue of clinician burnout related to health IT use, according to a national survey from the Physicians Foundation.

Sixty-one percent of physicians reported experiencing burnout in 2021, up from 40 percent in 2018, according to a small survey the Physicians Foundation released Aug. 4. The survey is based on responses from 2,504 U.S. physicians collected between May 26 and June 9. Thirty-six percent of physicians were in primary care. The remaining 64 percent practiced in one of 27 specialties.

The pandemic has had a negative impact on physician mental health, with 57% of survey respondents reporting inappropriate feelings of anger, sadness, or anxiety because of COVID-19.

A total of 46% of physicians said they have isolated or withdrawn from other people in the last year, more than one in three said they felt hopeless or without a purpose, and 57% reported experiencing "inappropriate episodes of anger, tearfulness, or anxiety."

At the same time, physicians at the intersection of burnout and growing older are closing their practices or retiring (see the Next Avenue article, "When Your Trusted Professionals Retire"). The Physicians Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group, in a report issued in August 2020 says COVID-19 prompted the closing of approximately 16,000 medical practices with another 8,000 expected to close within the year.