Hi, I'm Henry Bear. And I'm Tyler Johnson. And you're listening to The Doctors Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine. Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered, what makes medicine meaningful? Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors? How can we build healthcare institutions that nurture the doctor-patient

connection? What can we learn about the human condition from accompanying our patients in times of

suffering? In seeking answers to these questions, we meet with deep thinkers working across health care,

from doctors and nurses to patients and health care executives, those who have collected a career's worth

of hard-earned wisdom. Probing the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear

stories that are by turns heartbreaking, amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.

We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do. Join us as we think out loud about what illness and

healing can teach us about some of life's biggest questions.

The epidemic of physician burnout isn't just a personal problem.

Burned out doctors are more likely to make mistakes, less likely to follow preventative care

guidelines, and more likely to have dissatisfied patients. When a burned-out physician leaves an

institution or quits altogether, it can cost north of a million dollars to replace them. Unwell

doctors lead to unwell patients and an unwell health care system.

The toll that the burnout epidemic has taken on physicians, patients, and even the bottom

line requires more than the individual adaptation on the part of physicians that is often

discussed. It requires a grassroots movement to heal the healers. Our guest on this episode is Dr. Mary

Brandt, pediatric surgeon and distinguished emeritus professor of surgery, pediatrics, and

medical ethics at Baylor College of Medicine. Over the course of her clinical career, Dr. Brandt

published over 245 peer-reviewed publications, 26 chapters, and two books.

She became particularly attuned to the suffering of trainees and physicians while serving

as General Surgery Program Director in Dean of Student Affairs at Baylor, and she subsequently

obtained a Master of Divinity degree

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