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Around 6,880 doctors were surveyed by researchers in 2014 and results found that 54 percent of doctors have at least one symptom of burnout. This is a bit higher compared to 2011 wherein only 46 percent have burnout symptoms.

According to Trib Live, health care system UPMC and Microsoft are planning to use artificial intelligence to reduce burnout symptoms. Because physician burnout might be a big factor with the quality of service that the doctors are giving to their patients.

The partnership of UPMC and Microsoft were announced last Thursday. But the two organizations provided only few particulars on how are they going to use the advanced computing to solve the arising problem on physician burnouts.

UPMC treasurer Tal Heppenstall said that data entry tasks take up attention and time of doctors instead of focusing only on their patients' health. He also said that the fact that doctors felt burned out just shows that they are a slave to computer, and it shouldn't be that way.

UPMC Enterprises, the development arm and for-profit research of nonprofit UPMC, is collaborating with Microsoft's research arm. According to Microsoft, this partnership is the first health care venture of Microsoft's New Experiences and Technologies organization.

Heppenstall said that Microsoft's New Experiences and Technologies will likely form a business to sell the product of their joint venture. He said that more information will be given after about six months on how can artificial intelligence can be used in clinical settings. Heppenstall also mentioned that after the physician burnout project, he expects that the partnership will engage in other health care problems.

Head of Microsoft's NExT organization Peter Lee said that through these collaborations between health care partners and Microsoft's artificial intelligence and research organization, the goal is to produce a new wave of impact and innovation, as per Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Heppenstall concluded that this partnership will turn things around. He also said that computers should help the physician's work and not be a hindrance for their quality of service to the patients.