IT Solutions Are Critical in Addressing Healthcare Threats, But What Now?

An interesting finding in the chart “IT Solutions are Critical in Addressing Healthcare Threats” is that clinician burnout is a greater threat to U.S. healthcare organizations than financial pressures, payer dynamics, cybersecurity, and regulatory issues. Someday, historians will tell us how the pandemic really impacted the clinical workforce. For now, suffice it to say that many physicians are not happy, and, as we have seen elsewhere in CORRelations, demand for surgeons outpaces supply because of demographic shifts, and because doctors are leaving the workforce at an alarming rate.

My solution? Don’t withdraw. Lean in more. We gave a tremendous amount of our lives to become orthopaedic surgeons, and the opportunity cost of the quality time we missed is huge. Many orthopaedic surgeons struggle in retirement. This suggests to me that there is a hole in our souls that only orthopaedic surgery can fill. We have plenty of financial resources to retire, but we can’t seem to loosen our grip on being orthopaedic surgeons.

As I wrote elsewhere, here’s what I mean by “lean in”: Look for opportunities using your skill sets that help you invest in others, even if it seems like doing so will deliver minimal return to you. I think you’ll be surprised at how large that return actually is. When you do so, you might think about exploring one (or more) of these four domains: leadership, research, teaching, and charity. If leadership is in your DNA, seek opportunities to make the world better through your influence. If your passion is teaching or research, dive into those activities, and watch your daily contentment return. If serving the underprivileged domestically or internationally is your calling, get involved now while you still can. It’s been my experience that in trying to help others, I’ve gained more than I’ve given. It also helps to restore joy and passion to the activity we’ve given so much of our lives to get good at: orthopaedic surgery.