November 15, 2023

WHO   Lisa Rotenstein, MD, Director and Principal Investigator, Center for Physician Experience and Practice Excellence

WHAT   This week, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, launched a new research center with the goal of generating and disseminating evidence to improve physician well-being while enhancing patient care. The Center for Physician Experience and Practice Excellence is made possible by a $1 million grant from The Physicians Foundation, a non-profit organization that empowers physicians to lead in the delivery of high-quality, cost-efficient health care. Its launch comes amidst recent studies demonstrating that six in ten physicians often have feelings of burnout, and that turnover attributable to burnout is associated with hundreds of millions of dollars in excess healthcare spending annually.

The Center’s core team will be comprised of Brigham and Women’s Hospital physicians and Harvard Medical School faculty. Lisa Rotenstein, MD, MBA, will serve as the Center’s Director and Principal Investigator; David Bates, MD, will serve as a key internal advisor and co-investigator; Christine Iannaccone, MPH, will serve as Senior Project Manager; and Michelle Frits as Senior Data Analyst. The team will partner with health systems and experts from across the United States in their work to elucidate contributors to and solutions for physician burnout.

Dr. Rotenstein’s research on physician and trainee mental health has fostered increased awareness of the epidemic of depression and burnout in medical students and physicians – catalyzing action to address this public health burden. As a nationally recognized expert on gender issues in medicine, the impact of the electronic health record on clinicians, and outpatient care delivery, she has also focused her research on identifying ways to create a more effective healthcare delivery system.  

For Rotenstein, the Center will serve an important role in helping strengthen Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s position as a leader in creating a culture of well-being for clinicians, researchers, and patients.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Physicians Foundation for their vision and partnership, which has enabled us to launch this Center. We know that physician burnout has consequences for physicians and patients alike. At present, we still have an inadequate understanding of what works to simultaneously enhance physician wellbeing and advance patient care across multiple types of physicians and practice settings.” Said Rotenstein. “Our research will seek to develop a robust evidence base regarding how to improve physician experiences of providing care, drawing upon the insights of physicians practicing in diverse clinical settings across the United States.”

Serving as co-investigator of the Center is David Bates, MD, Chief of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Bates has done extensive work on improving efficiency and quality, and on assessing health information technology adoption. As the Center’s co-investigator, he will bring this expertise to the Center’s projects and collaborations.

“Physician wellbeing remains an important focus for The Physicians Foundation, especially as we see the tremendous stress the current state of our country and healthcare system has put on our physicians,” said Gary Price, MD, President of The Physicians Foundation. “Our nation’s physicians, residents and medical students are in need of systemic change to help improve the future of medicine. We are thrilled to collaborate with Brigham and Women’s Hospital to help deliver evidence-based solutions to improve physician wellbeing for current and future physicians, ultimately benefitting patients everywhere.”

For more information, please visit https://centerforphysicianexperience.bwh.harvard.edu/