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We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Key takeaways: Todd R. Otten, MD, FAAFP, discusses Ripple of Care in a Healio Community webinar. Otten offers \u201cOur Quadruple Aim\u201d to empower physicians and patients to find a solution to burnout in the health care system. In Healio Community\u2019s June book club, Todd R. Otten, MD, FAAP, shared the impetus behind his book, Ripple of Change, a collaborative story of physician and patient burnout caused by an impaired American health care system in need of change. Otten, a family physician and Naval flight surgeon, coauthored this book with his patient, Joshua Judy, to encourage stakeholders to reconceptualize the system and consider the well-being of both doctors and patients. Hansa Bhargava, MD, chief clinical strategy and innovation officer at Healio, emphasized the book\u2019s timely relevance. \u201cSo many of us actually have experienced burnout, and especially after the pandemic, we\u2019ve seen a significant rise,\u201d she said in the webinar. \u2018Medicine is a world of gray\u2019 The dialogue revealed the existing issues within the health care industry, specifically how the needs of health care professionals (HCPs) are overshadowed. Otten read from his poem, \u201cMedicine is a World of Gray,\u201d which is also included in the book and describes the disheartening changes he has seen over the 20 years he has been practicing in the field of medicine. \u201cDoes data make the dying feel better? … I question if I am truly making a difference. How many burned-out providers does it take? Will this crisis in medicine end? Perhaps when the health care leaders actually hear the voices of physicians and patients, and listen. Too often, issues in health care are assumed to be black and white,\u201d Otten read. Physicians are trained \u201cto compartmentalize and be more resilient,\u201d Otten said, even when it comes at the expense of their own well-being. He says this is because the health care system has become reliant on monetary interests, which can result in a succession of issues for the patient and the HCP. Bhargava agreed, saying that \u201cthe most significant flaw in the system\u201d is that monetary outcomes appear to be more important than health outcomes. \u201cTwenty-five percent of hospital stays have adverse events,\u201d Bhargava said. \u201c[There is a] 50% error rate of medication reconciliation [and] 832,000 delayed diagnoses per year. … I think we\u2019ve lost sight of our goals.\u201d Otten said that HCPs are personally disillusioned, as well, which compounds the sacrifices they make and results in what he calls \u201clearned helplessness.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve got this moral injury where people are being asked to make moral decisions that are against their values … from higher authorities. And when that happens repetitively and over and over and over again, it wears on people,\u201d he said. This notion of \u201clearned helplessness\u201d has created \u201czombie doctors,\u201d Otten said. \u201cPeople are just walking through the day with blinders on, just trying to survive,\u201d he said, adding that critical consequences may arise from the lack of individualized support in health care, including clinician suicide. Writing for change When Otten recognized a need for change, he turned to writing to inform a larger audience of health care consumers about the effects of burnout. He advocated for a personal and interactive approach to transforming health care. \u201cWe need to get patients involved at scale, and we need to learn how to work together,\u201d he said. Through his partnership with Judge, Otten expanded the Quadruple Aim approach \u2014 an idea that adds tackling physician burnout to the medical field\u2019s traditional \u201ctriple aim,\u201d developed in 2014 by Thomas Bodenheimer, MD, MPH, and Christine Sinski, MD \u2014 by adding the word \u201cOur\u201d to the concept. His reimagined Our Quadruple Aim alters the conventional health care institution and elevates both HCPs and patients and their overall well-being. \u201cWe need more clinicians, whether it\u2019s nurses, whether it\u2019s physicians, whether it\u2019s [advanced practice providers] … to be involved in leadership positions and understand what it\u2019s like and how decisions actually impact care at the bedside,\u201d he said. In conjunction with Ripple of Change, Otten produced a short film titled \u201cSuck It Up, Buttercup: Trust and Betrayal \u2014 Healthcare in America,\u201d which similarly reveals issues in the health care industry. The film includes different voices, including physician perspectives, that draw attention to undetected problems that are driven by greed, he said. These voices reveal a twofold call to action, including \u201cunlearning learned helplessness\u201d among HCPs and to encourage all stakeholders in the medical field to prioritize people over profits. Otten said he\u2019s already received encouraging feedback from viewers, and as an example mentioned that an upper-level educator said the film helped provide direction for a new health care MBA program in development. \u201cIf we have health care administrative leaders who truly understand the mental health impact and all these other things, then we\u2019re making a difference,\u201d Otten said. Sources\/Disclosures Source: Healio Community. The American Health Care System: What Needs to Change? with Hansa Bhargava, MD, and Todd Otten, MD, FAAFP. June 24, 2026. Reference:
Disclosures:
Bhargava reports serving as chief clinical strategy and innovation officer at Healio. Otten is coauthor of Ripple of Change.
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