Newsletters

POSTED: December 17th, 2025
POSTED IN: 2025 EM Pulse - Q4, EM Pulse - The Official Newsletter of MOCEP, forum, Forum Topic,

Authors: Dr. Jake Moulton, Dr. Pooja Patel, Dr. Jim O’Brien

Improving physician wellness in emergency medicine (EM) is a crucial and developing topic. High burnout rates within EM are well-known and initiatives to mitigate contributing factors to burnout are worth investigating. As AI continues to integrate into clinical practice, we explore ways to utilize this technology to optimize physician wellness while discussing the potential benefits and challenges. Current literature identifies several influencing factors, including (but not limited to): administrative burden, organizational support, meaningfulness of clinical work, clinical workload, and oscillating shift scheduling. Current interventions used to address physician wellness include practicing mindfulness, engaging in cognitive behavioral therapy, and utilizing peers for support. These interventions place heavy onus on the individual to actively engage in order to reap benefits and often do not directly address the source issues causing burnout. From an organizational perspective, reducing on-shift workload, optimizing schedules (and therefore improving sleep hygiene), and reducing administrative burden are areas of improvement that could be optimized by AI.

AI’s potential role may not be easily recognizable, however, the long-standing use of automated sepsis risk alerts are a clear example of AI that has already been integrated with the benefits of reducing physician cognitive workload on shift. As AI progresses, full utilization may result in a true revolution with its ability to decrease repetitive tasks and increase efficiency. AI scribes within EMRs to generate documentation and assist in generating discharge instructions have already shown promise in its early stages. This directly decreases emergency physician workload by reducing time working on non-patient care tasks and leading to increased job satisfaction. It can also result in supplementary direct patient care time which may enhance the meaningfulness of clinical work and patient care being performed. AI-based clinical decision tools for pneumonia severity, pulmonary embolism risk, or early clinical deterioration prediction models are being employed in real time to assist with the goal of simplifying clinical workflow. Optimization of shift scheduling by AI is being explored to improve sleep patterns and avoid chronic fatigue caused by suboptimal shift design, with at least one study noting improved sleep outcomes from AI driven scheduling. The application of AI into these domains has the potential for meaningful impact on known factors that influence the overall wellness of physicians in EM.

The adoption of AI tools in the modern emergency department is not without limitations and may present unique foreseen and unforeseen challenges. Burnout is multifactorial, and while AI may streamline certain tasks, it is far from a cure-all. Many drivers of stress—such as interpersonal conflicts on shift and emotionally taxing patient encounters—remain beyond the reach of current AI technology. Like any major system change, implementation of AI may introduce additional work such as providing necessary staff training, the need for ongoing performance monitoring, on shift workflow redesign, and the need for continual troubleshooting as AI tools evolve. While AI frequently gives the impression of automation, it remains far from autonomous; most systems still require careful human oversight, contextual judgment, and validation before their recommendations can be safely acted upon. As these technologies continue to develop, concerns regarding algorithmic bias and appropriate utilization remain central, alongside the growing awareness that over-reliance on AI poses a risk to necessary clinical vigilance and critical thinking. AI may be a support to emergency physicians, however it cannot yet address the all systemic issues at play in regards to burnout and decreased wellness.

AI is already part of the landscape and its continued integration into emergency medicine practice presents promising opportunities to mitigate several well-recognized factors that plague physician wellness. It offers tools that have the potential to reduce administrative burden, optimize scheduling for improved sleep hygiene, and decrease the cognitive burden of the emergency physician. Emerging tools such as AI documentation support, sophisticated decision aids and shift-scheduling programs demonstrate a very real potential to enhance emergency physician wellness. AI is also promising in regards to increasing workflow efficiency and increasing time spent at the bedside providing meaningful clinical work. These benefits must be balanced against the technology’s current constraints. AI cannot resolve the human, interpersonal, and systemic drivers of burnout, and its implementation requires substantial oversight, adjustment, and vigilance to avoid unintended consequences. As the field advances, AI should be viewed not as a singular solution but as one component within a broader, multi-layered approach to improving wellness in emergency medicine.

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