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48 PATIENT AND CAREGIVER EXPERIENCE How a Northwestern physician wellness program reduces burnout, creates well-being advocates By Erica Carbajal T he Scholars of Wellness program developed by a psychiatrist at Chicago-based Northwest- ern Medicine decreased physician burnout among the majority of participants and led to increased comfort in communicating with leadership to drive change. The American Medical Association spotlighted the program and the creator, Gaurava Agarwal, MD, asso- ciate professor of psychiatry, and behavioral sciences and medical education at Northwestern, in a March 23 blog post. The year-long scholars program is in its third cohort, providing resources and training to drive change and address the sources of burnout across physician departments. In its first run, which included 10 physi- cians from different specialties, 60 percent of schol- ars said their burnout had decreased, 70 percent said they felt confident recommending Northwestern Medicine as a workplace and all participants said they were more comfortable collaborating with leadership to promote change. Three notes on what makes the the program effective: 1. Prioritize leadership building. "There's this idea of coaching in the healthcare ecosystem and what we've really done here is we've selected leaders and front-line physicians who we are effectively coach- ing," Dr. Agarwal told the AMA. Physician scholars in the program are each assigned two coaches. "We're coaching them on how they should think about well- ness, change management and process improve- ment, but also how they can coach others in creating a well-being environment." 2. Start small before implementing the initiative on a wider scale. Evaluating the success of pilot pro- grams at the local level was important before rolling it out on a wider scale and helped establish peer-sup- port, Dr. Agarwal said. 3. Collaboration builds trust. A focus area of the scholars program was to encourage physicians to col- laborate with leadership and administrative business partners to drive change. "When we are working to- gether on a project, people really started investing," Dr. Agarwal said, adding that "when we start to under- stand each other, we build trust." n 52% of COVID-19 survivors report signs of depression By Erica Carbajal O f 3,904 who reported a prior COVID-19 infection in a research survey, 52.4 percent met the criteria for symptoms of major depressive disorder, according to findings published March 12 in JAMA Network Open. Researchers evaluated responses from monthly surveys dis- tributed between June 2020 and January 2021. Of 82,319 respondents, 3,904 reported a prior COVID-19 infection. Findings showed more than half of COVID-19 survivors met the criteria for moderate or severe depression. Those who reported having a headache while they had COVID-19 had an increased risk of depression symptoms, the analysis found. However, the study authors wrote they could not "exclude the possibility that individuals with current de- pression are more likely to recall or report headache." Overall, depression symptoms were more common among younger respondents compared to older respondents and men compared to women, according to the findings. The risk also increased with the level of self-reported COVID-19 ill- ness severity. "Our results add to a growing body of evidence suggesting the importance of considering potential neuropsychiatric se- quelae of COVID-19 infection," the study said. "Our results also suggest the importance of considering strategies that might mitigate the elevated risk of depressive symptoms fol- lowing acute infection." n 120 hospitals, providers to measure burnout in Massachusetts By Mackenzie Bean M ore than 100 hospitals, physician groups and healthcare leaders have pledged to research physician burnout as part of a statewide effort launched by the Massachusetts Med- ical Society and Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, the organizations said March 31. rough the MMS-MHA Joint Task Force on Physician Burnout, the 120 participating organizations will each measure a specific contribut- ing factor to burnout or a wellness metric and prioritize improvement efforts in this area. Healthcare organizations involved with the effort include Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute — all in Boston. n