Preventing Physician Burnout
Our book helps you understand what to do about physician burnout
In Preventing Physician Burnout: Curing the Chaos and Returning Joy to the Practice of Medicine, my co-author and I define burnout, explore the consequences for physicians, patients, and the health care system, and identify the underlying causes that are fueling the epidemic. Based on extensive interviews, we give voice to patient advocates, burnout researchers, leaders of health care organizations, and the physicians themselves.
We also share examples of strategies that hospitals and physician practices across the United States are using to address the root causes of burnout among physicians, including action items for preventing burnout and curbing the crisis.
Our book focuses on the very real system issues that drive physician burnout. I continue to highlight the need for change, and potential solutions, on my podcast, Vital Signs: Thriving as a Woman in Medicine and in my blog.
Praise from Readers
“Offers the prescription we need to address this crisis”
DeChant and Shannon have addressed one of the central issues of health care today: physician burnout. It is hard to see how we can create the health care system we want and need on the backs of joyless and unengaged doctors. This well-written, practical book offers the prescription we need to address this crisis.
– Robert Wachter, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, Author of The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age
“A must-read for health care leaders.”
DeChant and Shannon make a powerful and compelling argument for how to reduce physician burnout. The comprehensive case studies and physician interviews in this book clarify the symptoms, causes, and treatment for burnout. A must-read for health care leaders.
– John Toussaint, MD, Chief Executive Officer, ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value
“The authors are addressing one of the most critical issues in health care delivery today.”
In this book, the authors are addressing one of the most critical issues in health care delivery today, and more importantly, doing so in a way that addresses the real challenges and opportunities to create the kind of health care systems that treat our patients well but also support our caregivers to serve the critical role that they play without having to damage themselves in the process.
– James Hereford, Chief Operating Officer, Stanford University Medical Center
If the topic of physician burnout resonates, know that you don’t have to go it alone. Simply schedule a call.
Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH, PCC
diane@dianeshannon.com | Connect on LinkedIn
Website Designed by Gem Seven Studio
Photography by Julia Snider and Kira M. Shannon
All rights reserved © 2026, Diane W. Shannon