The PennZone

WORCESTER, Mass. - PennZone -- With physician burnout already considered a public health crisis before the coronavirus pandemic, the need for ways to reduce physician anxiety and prevent burnout is critical. A new study published April 1 in the peer-reviewed eHealth journal JMIR Mhealth Uhealth found that the MindSciences Unwinding Anxiety app reduced both anxiety and a major component of physician burnout—cynicism— by at least 50 percent.

The pilot study is the first to test the effectiveness of app-delivered mindfulness training for physicians in reducing these major components that contribute to burnout.

More than half of U.S. physicians experience symptoms of burnout. From a healthcare perspective, physician burnout is linked to lower quality of care, medical errors, poorer patient outcomes and decreased patient satisfaction. Burnout also has personal and professional consequences for the physicians themselves, including prematurely leaving the profession, a higher likelihood of being sued for malpractice, substance abuse and poor interpersonal relationships. Physicians experiencing symptoms of burnout are at higher risk of having mental health disorders, being in motor vehicle accidents and dying by suicide.

More on The PennZone

• Hazel E Hosts Starline Tours Bus to Sonic Desert - A Launch to Coachella
• Best Companies Group Launches Free Top Companies to Work for in Arizona Program
• A Powerful Beginning Inside One of Philadelphia's Most Inspiring Early Childhood Education Centers
• A1 OM Ads LLC Expands Platform With AI Tools And Digital Marketing Solutions
• Streater Appointed to Judicial Commission of the Philadelphia Bar Association

During the current coronavirus pandemic, physicians and other healthcare workers are facing an even more stressful and dangerous work environment, including exposure to a highly contagious disease, lack of essential resources and long hours.

"It's more important than ever that we prioritize providing physicians effective tools to help reduce anxiety and burnout and increase resiliency," said the study's lead investigator Jud Brewer, M.D., Ph.D. "Evidence-based digital therapeutics like the one in our study can be widely disseminated at low cost and used anytime and anywhere."

Conducted in 2018 on 34 physicians who volunteered to participate, the study's key findings include:

●Anxiety was reduced by 57 percent after three months of app usage (measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 questionnaire)

●Cynicism was reduced by 50 percent after three months (measured using Maslach Burnout Inventory)

●Emotional exhaustion declined by 20 percent after three months (measured using Maslach Burnout Inventory)

●Physicians are willing to engage in digital therapeutic treatments

Unwinding Anxiety helps extinguish worry at a core mechanistic level by teaching a process that includes:

More on The PennZone

• Contracting Resources Group and Aalis Management Consulting Launch ARG Joint Venture Under SBA Mentor-Protégé Program
• Space Opera Debut Earns Prometheus Award Nomination
• Card makers turn to Pink and Main for tools to support their craft
• Revenue Optics Completes Full Commercial Buildout. A Nine-Month-Old Firm Built on 25 Years of Distribution Expertise. Five Clients From $200M to $3B
• EduCare Inc. Bridges Critical Gap in Breast Cancer Education with Spanish COPE Library Launch

●Understanding how anxious worry is developed and perpetuated through reinforcement learning mechanisms;

●Recognizing these anxiety "habit loops;"

●Bringing mindful awareness to moments of stress and worry so users can uncouple feelings of anxiety from reactive worry thinking and work with habitual mind states that perpetuate and reinforce anxiety.

The app progresses through daily modules of brief didactic and experience-based mindfulness training, app-triggered check-ins, user-initiated guided meditations and on-demand mindfulness exercises to help disrupt anxiety cycles.

About MindSciences
MindSciences is a Massachusetts-based company that develops clinically validated digital therapeutic apps. Visit www.mindsciences.com.