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Steven B. Bird, MD |
Steven B. Bird, MD, professor of emergency medicine, has been elected to the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Board of Directors and will serve as its president-elect for a one-year term.
Dr. Bird, vice chairman for education in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the emergency medicine residency director, has been actively involved with the society since 1998, most recently as secretary-treasurer. The society announced his new position as president-elect during its annual meeting in Orlando on May 17. Bird will assume the president’s post for a one-year term in May 2018.
As president-elect, Bird will support the president, D. Mark Courtney, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, and work with the Board of Directors to implement the society’s strategic plan. As president, Bird intends to focus on resident and faculty well-being.
“Burnout is increasing in physicians, particularly in emergency physicians, who have the highest burnout rate of any specialties with 70 percent meeting the criteria for burnout,” Bird said. “We know how prevalent it is based on completed studies; it’s time for intervention trials and implementing ideas. I believe that SAEM should be involved in the science, evaluation and interventions to improve well-being and resiliency among members.”
“I firmly believe that a well physician will take better care of his or her patients. I think as a patient, you’d want your physician to be well, to be happy and find joy in his or her work. I want to be part of the effort to learn how to mitigate burnout and improve physician wellness and bring the joy back into medicine,” Bird said.
