Despite the popular belief that many doctors retire with large stashes of cash in their bank accounts, some end up leaving the profession with relatively little in savings—often thanks to education-related debt and delayed earnings earlier in their careers.

Earned, a wealth management platform formed in 2021 exclusively for physicians and their families, is looking to change that, John Clendening, the company’s founder and CEO, told Healthcare Brew.

“It’s shocking to realize, when you look at the data, that one in four physicians [ages 65+]  in the last couple of years retired with less than $1 million in total [household] net worth—two people working, a lifetime of service to the rest of us,” he said. “We feel like physicians deserve better.”

US physicians earn a median annual salary of more than $223,000, according to federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates released in April 2023. But more than seven in 10 students graduate medical school with debt, a 2020 Association of American Medical Colleges report found. The median debt for those graduates was about $200,000 in 2019. 

To help doctors navigate debt and plan for future financial decisions, Clendening said that Earned creates individualized plans so physicians can optimize their career choices and investments, as well as protect their assets through insurance and estate planning. The company—which uses both technology and human financial advisors—also helps break down the trajectory of a physician’s net worth and how various decisions or investments can affect it.

Earned is not alone: Several other wealth management companies offer specific financial advising services for physicians.

But, Clendening said, those competitors do not usually offer all the services or functionality that Earned does.

Keep reading here.—SY

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It’s time to let you in on some game-changing data. GE HealthCare recently surveyed 5.5k patients, their families, aaand 2k clinicians across 8 countries. The results? Well, they speak for themselves.

Here’s the kicker: 99% of respondents share the common belief that tech will improve healthcare. And get this: 61% of all clinician participants believe that AI can support clinical decision-making + enable more rapid health intervention. What’s that tell you?

There is hope for the future of healthcare, and AI’s here to enable the next step. Hooked? Good, because GEHC’s full report has tons of other compelling data to offer, from stats on workforce burnout to insights on reducing clinical burden.

Step into the future of healthcare.

When Canadian wildfire smoke flooded the East Coast and the Midwest in June and caused poor air quality, it sparked headlines and health concerns as officials—who were largely unaccustomed to dealing with the rare haze—were forced to quickly revamp their public health playbooks.

But on the West Coast, where large and deadly wildfires have become an all-too-common occurrence in recent years, public health officials are well versed in dealing with the crisis. Some states, like Oregon, have even taken steps—with the help of new technology—to ensure that residents most at risk for smoke-related health conditions are not subjected to poor air quality.

“Oregon is very on the forefront,” Robin Traver, VP of clinical operations for Umpqua Health, which operates one of 15 coordinated care organizations that serve Oregon Health Plan members, told Healthcare Brew. “It’s really based on what we know: The correlation between those social determinants of health, your environment, and the impact [of these two factors] on health.”

That proactive approach could be adopted by other jurisdictions as wildfire smoke and other climate-related emergencies threaten to exacerbate existing public health disparities, she said.

Oregon lawmakers approved legislation in 2022 to help communities prepare for extreme weather and wildfires, including $5 million to help offset the costs of purchasing, installing, or improving air filtration systems. The air filtration device distribution part of the program, which began in June 2023, will distribute about 4,700 devices to residents most at risk for health issues due to wildfire smoke.

But first officials had to identify the residents with respiratory or cardiac conditions, like asthma and heart disease, which can worsen due to smoke and poor air quality. The program prioritized distribution of the devices to residents ages 65+, medically fragile children, and those with disabilities or health conditions that make them vulnerable to wildfire smoke, including diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.

Keep reading here.—SY

The healthcare industry has had a rough three years. Doctors, nurses, and administrative staff have been battling burnout while trying to provide patients with quality care. The US Surgeon General has called for hospitals to provide more mental health care to hospital workers, among other resources, as many in the industry have left or plan to leave.

But as healthcare workers serve patients, there’s a team of human resource professionals behind the scenes, and they’re trying to make their jobs better. Janel Allen, EVP and chief people officer at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, told Healthcare Brew how her hospital keeps attrition low and supports employees.

Connecting with the entire team. Allen said that it’s vital for a hospital’s organization to create an overall culture of inclusion and care for all.

“It’s truly about creating a culture that provides the best care for kids and their families [who] we serve,” she said. “We do that through the people that provide the care. So, we’ve been really passionate about [asking], ‘What can we do for our people?’”

She also believes that a lot of success comes from a holistic approach to employee well-being. Managers and other leaders should consistently check in with employees, as well as create focus groups and engagement surveys.

Hospitals also need to focus on building the right team to ensure the mission and guidelines around patient care are clear and well executed. Children’s Hospital & Medical Center has zeroed in on the right traits for staff through focus groups with existing teams. This process has helped teams align on what they’re looking for when interviewing candidates.

Keep reading here.—KP

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: A Los Angeles restaurant has tacked on a 4% surcharge to help cover the costs of health insurance for its employees, prompting some pushback from diners. (CBS News)

Quote: “Like many things in the healthcare industry, I think we need to look at this with some skepticism, because the proof is going to be in the actual results.”—Chris Rubesh, first VP of the Minnesota Nurses Association and a nurse at Essentia Health, on a proposed merger of two Wisconsin- and Minnesota-based health systems (Duluth News Tribune)

Read: Experts believe racial health disparities would close if medical institutions were subjected to penalties and the government held them publicly accountable for health outcomes. (Stat News)

Big step: AI’s here to help press reset on healthcare. How so? Check out GEHC’s report for deets on how AI is helping clinicians and patients build a better future for healthcare. Give it a read.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}