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 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

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 . 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 .