Meet the startups using AI to help doctors fight burnout
A new wave of health care startups is using artificial intelligence to reduce the load on medical professionals.
Even before COVID-19, 40% of physicians said they felt burned out. But the pandemic was a tipping point. Working in jerry-rigged PPE in overcrowded, understaffed ICUs, more than 3,600 U.S. healthcare workers died in the first year of the pandemic alone. After bearing witness to the lonely deaths of some 1 million patients, holding the phone as they shared their final minutes with family members via FaceTime, more doctors are deciding to retire early, exacerbating a looming shortage. A report last year by the Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034. That includes a gap of as many as 48,000 primary care physicians, who report higher levels of burnout than other specialties. And it’s not just doctors: In a January 2022 survey by Prosper Insights & Analytics, just 50% of all healthcare workers said they were “happy” at work.