Sharp Index is a nonprofit dedicated to reducing physician burnout and suicide and improving physician, nurse, and clinician mental health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing physician burnout crisis. The “2021 Survey of America’s Physicians, COVID-19 Impact Edition: A Year Later” found that 61% of physicians experienced burnout during the pandemic. A Washington Post – Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that nearly 3 in 10 health care workers have considered leaving the profession and citing the pandemic as a primary reason. The NIHCM Foundation also reported that physicians are twice as likely to die by suicide than the general public. The physician burnout and suicide epidemic are serious problems that require immediate attention.  

Things that we do:

• Through donations, we are able to provide direct support through scholarships and the caring for caregivers fund, as well as other local initiatives.

• Annually, we recognize the leaders in mental health through our awards.

• We coordinate healthy activities around healthcare technology industry events, such as parties with a purpose and #turnout4burnout.

• We curate our unique data analytics tool, the index, which helps to maximize workforce satisfaction among our partner health care organizations and medical schools.

• We research and develop toolkits for advocacy.

• We partner with schools, communities, government, and corporations to promote research.

• We measure organizational wellbeing and recognize excellence.

• We partner with technology companies and healthcare leaders to provide tools to physicians and help transform healthcare systems. We are aiming to reduce physician suicide and burnout by both raising awareness and by using data science to provide meaningful tools to improve provider quality of life. We utilize human-focused and data-backed solutions to address the complex issues that physicians face regarding burnout and suicidal ideation.

• Sharp Index amplifies the voices of physicians and other leaders in the industry. How we do this is by communicating with mental health and burnout advocates in our video interview series on YouTube called Sharp Conversations as well as on our primary channel to hear stories about their experiences with mental health, burnout, and suicide in healthcare. Working with physicians and other clinicians allows us to create tools and interventions to reduce physician burnout and suicide by addressing the source of the problem.