ACG's Committees (cont.) PROFESSIONALISM COMMITTEE MEMBERS Joseph C. Anderson, MD, MHCDS, FACG, Chair George G. Abdelsayed, MD, FACG Edward L. Barnes, MD, MPH Steven J. Bernick, MD, FACG Somasundaram Bharath, MD, FACG Divya B. Bhatt, MD Mohammad Bilal, MD Richard S. Bloomfeld, MD, FACG Joseph A. Cappa, MD, FACG Sita S. Chokhavatia, MD, MACG Shirley Cohen-Mekelburg, MD
Andrew D. Feld, MD, JD, FACG Ann D. Flynn, MD, FACG Robert Hirten, MD Sara N. Horst, MD, MPH, FACG Jeffrey T. Laczek, MD, FACG Alexander T. Lalos, MD, FACG Edward J. Levine, MD James F. Marion, MD Omar Mousa, MD Ramzi H. Mulki, MD Alexander Perelman, DO
RESPONSIBILITIES AS STATED IN THE ACG BYLAWS The Professionalism Committee shall be responsible for promoting professionalism within the ACG, gastroenterology, and medicine. The Committee will be the College’s primary forum for maintaining and promoting professionalism, focusing on patient-centered care, improving the patient-physician relationship and providing resources for the College’s membership to address issues of personal wellbeing.
COMMITTEE REPORT Battling Physician Burnout Much of the work of the Committee has been related to physician burnout. We continue to work on the Burnout Survey led by Carol A. Burke MD, FACG, and others. This 60 question Burnout Survey was sent to ACG members in 2014. This has yielded rich data, and two abstracts which were presented at the World Congress of Gastroenterology at ACG 2017. While significant analyses of the data have been completed, the Committee Chair, Joseph C. Anderson, MD, MHCDS, FACG, has spent many hours reanalyzing the data. This has been a significant undertaking given the large number of variables that were included in the survey. Drs. Christina M. Surawicz, Carol A. Burke, Mohammad Billal, Jill K. J. Gaidos, Amy S. Oxentenko and Joseph C. Anderson are currently writing a paper on burnout which combines all of the surveys described below. Our data are unique since the member data predate COVID. Furthermore, our fellow data represent the largest sample for survey burnout. The authoring team hopes to publish the manuscript in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.
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Sheryl A. Pfeil, MD Meena A. Prasad, MD Amanda B. Pressman, MD, FACG Aparajita Singh, MD Karolina Siniakowicz, DO Patrick A. Twohig, MD Kimberly N. Weaver, MD
Joseph C. Anderson, MD, MHCDS, FACG
The Committee has worked with the Training Committee to address burnout in fellows in training. A survey was developed jointly by the two committees and was sent to all fellows last fall. As with the member survey, we plan to submit these data combined with other survey data. We have also conducted a survey to assess the impact of COVID on fellow burnout based on a suggestion from the ACG Board of Trustees. We also developed a survey which assessed the program directors’ perception of their trainee’s burnout levels. The Committee is considering an in-depth examination of burnout in order to develop solutions for burnout. Since burnout is likely a heterogeneous phenomenon, with many causes, a comprehensive evaluation with structured surveys of trainees and program directors will be essential. The project would likely require the Committee to partner with professionals who are trained in qualitative methods. ACG members who have such training and are interested in working on this project should contact the ACG office.
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