Key Researcher
Mark Linzer, MD, MACP, is the M. Thomas Stillman Endowed Chair and Director of Education, Mentorship, and Scholarship for the Department of Medicine at Hennepin Healthcare System (HHS).
In addition, Dr. Linzer is also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He has served as the Director of the Hennepin Healthcare (HHS) Office of Professional Work Life since 2014 and the Institute for Professional Work Life since 2017. He’s been a general internist and clinical researcher for over 30 years. He served as the Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at HHS from 2009-2017. His research primarily focuses on understanding how the quality of the work environment affects clinicians, healthcare workers, and patients.
Patient & Provider Work Life & Wellness
Provider wellness has been central to Dr. Linzer’s academic career. He has experience as a Principal Investigator (PI) for a landmark longitudinal study in 119 practices, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), called Minimizing Errors, Maximizing Outcomes (MEMO), and led a randomized trial, also funded by AHRQ, to test strategies to reduce burnout called the Healthy Work Place (HWP) trial.
For the past 20 years, a large proportion of his research has been devoted to understanding the mechanisms of clinician burnout and the means to predict and prevent it. He began with a national study called, the Physician Work Life Study for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This led to over 20 papers demonstrating key issues in physician reactions to busy work lives, including stress, dissatisfaction, burnout, and intention to leave a practice.
Following the results of this study, they performed the MEMO study for AHRQ and demonstrated the relationship between work conditions in primary care doctors’ offices, clinician reactions to stress and burnout, and the quality of patient care.
Afterward, the team completed a randomized trial for AHRQ called the Healthy Work Place (HWP) trial. In this study, they demonstrated the impact of interventions to improve the work environment for improved outcomes for clinicians and patients. Their next study, Minimizing Stress Maximizing Success of the Electronic Medical Record (known as MS Squared) assessed the contributors to stress and successful coping strategies from the use of Electronic Medical Records (EMR).
There was no greater stressor to medical professionals than the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2022. This inspired the 2020, Coping with COVID study with the American Medical Association (AMA), which documented stress levels, burnout, and their remediable predictors during the pandemic. These studies have been among those leading the nation and the world in determining the unique challenges clinicians face in defining the ways to turn around the epidemic of clinician burnout.
Pub Med:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1N5wA0hjqst1un/bibliography/public/
Suggested Links:
Institute for Professional Work Life:
https://www.professionalworklife.com/
Contributing to the Surgeon General’s Addressing Healthcare Worker Burnout
https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/health-worker-burnout/index.html
Recent Publications:
- Trends in Clinician Burnout With Associated Mitigating and Aggravating Factors During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Improving diagnosis: Adding Context to Cognition (in journal Diagnosis, 2022)
- Where trust flourishes. In Annals of Family Med. 2021
- Eliminating burnout and moral injury. Lancet eClinicalMedicine. 2021
- Association of Electronic Health Record Design and Use Factors With Clinician Stress and Burnout
- Factors associated with patient trust in their clinicians: Results from the Healthy Work Place Study
- Working Conditions in Primary Care: Physician Reactions and Care Quality
Presentations/Podcasts:
- Resident burnout and creating a culture of well-being with Mark Linzer, MD | AMA Update Video | AMA (ama-assn.org). Interview with Todd Unger, American Medical Association Chief Experience Officer, for podcast and video series AMA Update. December 9, 2022.
- Etz R, Linzer M. Bending to the breaking point: healthcare providers are being pushed to their limits. Interview by Dr. Chad Kellser for C20 podcast, Veteran’s Affairs. June 16, 2022.
- Moral Matters: How Are You Doing? | S3: Episode 8 | Drs, Mark Linzer and Michelle LeClaire
Key Researcher
Mark Linzer, MD, MACP, is the M. Thomas Stillman Endowed Chair and Director of Education, Mentorship, and Scholarship for the Department of Medicine at Hennepin Healthcare System (HHS).
In addition, Dr. Linzer is also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He has served as the Director of the Hennepin Healthcare (HHS) Office of Professional Work Life since 2014 and the Institute for Professional Work Life since 2017. He’s been a general internist and clinical researcher for over 30 years. He served as the Director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at HHS from 2009-2017. His research primarily focuses on understanding how the quality of the work environment affects clinicians, healthcare workers, and patients.