Lotte Dyrbye is Professor of Medicine and Medical Education, Division of Community Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, and is a thought leader in physician burnout and engagement. As Co-Director of the Program on Physician Well-Being, she has conducted numerous national and multi-institutional studies, conducted randomized clinical trials of possible solutions, and been an innovator. She is frequently invited to give presentations both nationally and internationally and has authored >130 journal articles, abstracts and other written publications related to physician well-being.

She has received 11 competitive research grants to support her work. Dyrbye also co-developed the Well-Being Index and an interactive web-tool that provides a validated instrument for self-assessment, access to tailored resources, and organization level reports with comparisons to national norm. In addition, she led efforts, in collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, to develop and disseminate information on how medical schools and residency programs should respond in the case of a trainee death by suicide, to mitigate the risk of contagion, and help promote a culture of healing after a tragedy.

Her research has translated to meaningful changes for physicians, including physician well-being now being on the scorecard for organizational leaders and state medical licensing boards modifying their questions about physicians’ mental health. Dyrbye’s work was the impetus for the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience where she serves on the research subcommittee (2017-present). Within this role, Dyrbye wrote a NAM discussion paper, Burnout Among Health Care Professionals: A Call to Explore and Address This Underrecognized Threat to Safe, High-Quality Care, the most downloaded NAM discussion paper to date. As a result of this collaborative, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine funded the “Committee on System Approaches to Improve Patient Care by Supporting Clinician Well-being” in October 2018. Dyrbye was nominated and ultimately selected to be a member of this prestigious committee, and the report, Taking Action Against Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being, was released in the fall of 2019. The report calls upon leaders in health care organizations to prioritize major improvements in clinical work environments to prevent and mitigate clinician burnout and foster professional well-being. In recognition of her expertise, Dyrbye is frequently asked to review for major scientific journals (New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, etc.).