While the COVID-19 public health emergency status has faded away, the pandemic's effects on the healthcare workforce has not.
Tipu Puri, MD, PhD, associate chief medical officer at the University of Chicago, spoke with Becker's to discuss the biggest challenges physicians are up against in 2024.
Editor's note: This response was edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
Question: What are the biggest challenges physicians are up against in 2024?
Dr. Tipu Puri: I think a lot of the challenges will be the same as the ones we've been dealing with post-pandemic. We're still recovering from staffing challenges as they continue to be an issue. There's a lot of people who left healthcare, and now it will take some time to train and reinvigorate the workforce. So that creates a big challenge for physicians in particular because we depend on the entire team to help deliver care to patients. Then there's wellness and burnout continuing to be something that needs to be addressed, and there's strategies being put in place. But this also is just going to take some time to recover from. I think we're in a situation now where many places are trying to do more with less resources and that's exacerbating the problem a bit.