Amsterdam UMC is leading a major European consortium to address stress and burnout among surgical staff with a €6.5 million Horizon Grant. The initiative includes developing AI-supported digital tools to identify and implement effective stress-reducing methods tailored to individual health care providers.
Amsterdam UMC (University Medical Center) has been entrusted with steering a large-scale European study aimed at countering the high levels of stress and burnout plaguing health care professionals engaged in surgical care. With the support of a nearly €6.5 million Horizon Grant, the research could bring transformative changes to medical practices across Europe.
The health care sector is experiencing an alarming rate of burnout, particularly among those involved in surgical procedures. It is estimated that roughly 60% of these professionals exhibit symptoms of burnout, and nearly half of the nursing staff consider leaving the field. The crisis is compounded by a shortage of health care personnel and increasing operational costs, exacerbating waiting times and system inefficiencies.
“Health care providers involved in surgical procedures are under enormous pressure. Think of surgeons, nurses, theater assistants, anesthesiologists. They drop out due to stress or start looking for another job. Partly because of this, we have a large and increasing shortage of health care personnel,” Marlies Schijven, a surgeon and the study’s research leader, said in a news release. “Ultimately, patients, and we as a society, will have to bear the adverse consequences of that if we don’t look for solutions now that keep our people safe at work.”
A Personalized Approach to Stress Management
The study, aptly named KEEPCARING, will unfold in several phases. The initial step involves identifying various stress profiles distinct to different professional groups within the surgical domain. The researchers aim to categorize what constitutes stress for each group and develop personalized methods to measure it effectively.
“Stress is now a catch-all term. What constitutes stress varies from person to person and also from situation to situation,” added Schijven. “That’s why we’re going to start by finding out what stress profiles there are and how they occur in the various occupational groups.”
Innovative Solutions for Real-World Problems
Following the identification phase, the research will progress to exploring and testing interventions tailored to reduce stress in health care settings. Potential solutions range from physical activities such as short stints on a rowing machine, medical interventions like beta-blockers, to new technologies like VR environments.
“After these initial phases, we will look for possible solutions. Here, too, we are looking at existing interventions to reduce stress and want to develop new methods,” added Schijven. “Because not every method fits the work situation.”
Technology Meets Well-Being
One innovative aspect of the study includes real-time stress measurement devices, such as specially designed T-shirts capable of tracking physiological markers like heart rate and perspiration. By combining this data with social interaction metrics in the operating room, the team can pinpoint exact stress triggers and evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation strategies.
“This is how we will measure whether a certain intervention actually reduces stress,” added Schijven. “[W]e can trace exactly when certain stress factors occur, what that does to the people in the team, and especially whether it really helps if you apply stress-reducing interventions before an operation.”
This ground-breaking research spans multiple countries and institutions, including Copenhagen, Hamburg and Amsterdam, with clinical trials set to test the interventions in real-world scenarios.
Building a Better Future for Health Care
The ultimate goal is to create an AI-supported portal offering a variety of stress management interventions, which could revolutionize hospital policies and individual practices.
“This will soon provide insight into the most important stress drivers of the employees they employ for each hospital,” added Schijven. “Based on this, with the help of artificial intelligence, among other things, the organization can determine and predict which methods against stress they need to have in-house preventively.”
The ambitious project brings together a consortium of prestigious institutions and organizations from across Europe, signaling a unified effort to address a critical challenge in health care.
In addition to Amsterdam UMC, participating institutions include University of Limerick (Ireland), Nuromedia (Germany), Erasmus University (Netherlands), ECHAlliance (Ireland), Chino (Italy), Region Zealand (Denmark), Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, National Research Council of Italy, University of Coimbra (Portugal), University of Tartu (Estonia), Healthy Mind (France), NOVA University Lisbon (Portugal), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (Germany), Capital Region of Denmark. European Federation of Nurses Associations, European Hospital and Healthcare Federation, University of York (UK) and University of Warwick (UK).