Physician Wellness Culture Awards 

Tatyana Vayngortin

Project: Improving Peer Support and Access to Mental Health Care for Emergency Medicine Physicians

Team: Elise Zimmerman, MD, Joelle Donofrio-Odmann, MD, Rachna Subramony, MD, Alicia Minns, MD, Desiree Shapiro, MD, Sidney Zisook, MD

Project Description: In the demanding field of emergency medicine, physicians often face high-stress situations that can lead to burnout and negatively impact personal well-being and professional performance. To address these challenges and foster a supportive work environment, pediatric and adult emergency medicine wellness leads collaborate with psychiatry and the Healer Education Assessment and Referral (HEAR) program. We will implement a physician peer support program within our departments based on the stress first aid model, in which physicians will support their colleagues in times of crisis. Moreover, for colleagues requiring additional mental health services, there will be support and referrals facilitated by HEAR.

Ryan Moran

Project: Non-Face-to-Face Time and Electronic Health Record Monitoring: Primary Care Expansion to Understand Burden, Burnout, and Equity

Team: Habib Sabbagh, Ottar Lunde

Project Description: We will measure, compare, and describe physician time spent on clinical activities, including time outside of earmarked clinical hours related to patient care, utilizing four parallel measures (Signal, Epic raw, self report, administrative audit) over four weeks across broad and representative academic primary care practices. Additionally, we will examine how these time burdens relate to physician demographics and perceptions of burnout, contextualized by measures of compassion with the goal of identifying patterns that may inform more equitable and sustainable practice environments.

Michele Kowalski-McGraw

Project: Implementation of a Clinical Coaching and Mentorship Program in CommUnity Care

Team: Ian Diaz, MD, RMD; Lisa Coles, MD, Primary Care Clinical Service Chief; Shauna Conry, MD , RMD; Tyson Ikeda, MD, Chief Medical Director

Project Description: To build on the continuum of services offered through the UCSD Physician Wellness Department, CommUnity Care is launching a wellness-focused initiative to foster resilience, reduce burnout, and strengthen professional growth by connecting newer physicians and experienced clinical leaders in a coaching and mentorship program. The goal of this program is to promote and sustain joy and meaning in the practice of medicine for those whose focus is hands-on patient care.

Rachna Subramony

Project: Evaluation of Emergency Department flow facilitator effectiveness and identification of areas for potential improvement

Findings: Physicians overwhelmingly responded positively to the program, with the most consistent positive responses directed towards perceived improvement in logistical challenges over clinical challenges. Over 85% of physicians agreed that the program had improved their overall wellbeing. The specific throughput metrics showed that for CT, Ultrasound, and Xray the time for order placed to results obtained decreased significantly (51 minutes, 69 minutes, and 19 minutes respectively) . There was also an increase in average ED census and based on increasing number of patients the time to admission from ED triage decreased. The ED time to discharge and left without being seen did not significantly change.

Claire Soria

Project: Improving Empathy and Communication in the Operating Room: Interprofessional Simulation Training with General Surgery and Anesthesiology Residents

Team: Minh Hai Tran MBBS

Caitlin Carter

Project: Pediatric Division Chief Retreat to Improve Faculty Wellness

Team: Ami Doshi

Sidney Zisook

Project: Understanding Physician Peer Support: A Mixed-Model Study of Feasibility and Effects on Givers and Receivers of Peer Support

Team: Judy Davidson, Neal Doran

Findings: It is feasible to recruit and train peer-selected, voluntary physician peer supporters. Physicians are reluctant to request peer support. A physician peer support program requires leadership support and proactive outreach.

Ami Doshi

Project: DWD Training and Leadership Development

Ryan Moran

Project: General Internal Medicine as a pilot to better capture/understand the work-burden of patient care including comprehensive measurement of non-face to face time

Team: Ottar Lunde, MD

Findings: The average clinical full-time equivalent (cFTE) was 0.58 (SD=0.28), with no significant gender difference (p=0.31). Time-tracking methods showed poor agreement (ICC=0.04; 95% CI: -0.038-0.31; p=0.21). Controlling for cFTE, self-reported Clockify time was most strongly correlated with uncorrected Signal time (r=0.94), followed by corrected Signal time (r=0.89) and scheduled activities (r=0.54). While the average monthly scheduled time per physician was 102.7 hours, the closest comparable electronic measure—Signal-cleaned time—averaged 90 hours per month. The correlation between scheduled time and Signal-cleaned time was modest and not statistically significant (r=0.47; p>0.05).