PHYSICIAN. AUTHOR. SURVIVOR. BELIEVER.
Physician Burnout
I am a physician and urologist, but what most people do not know is that I am a survivor of physician burnout and multiple suicide attempts. I retired from clinical practice in 2003 after my third suicide attempt in order to save my life.
Four hundred physicians die annually in the United States of suicide. This amounts to over one per day. Nearly all are attributed to physician burnout. Statistically, there are approximately 50 suicide attempts per completed suicide. This then amounts to around 20,000 physician suicide attempts in the United States annually. This is about two and one-half percent of the US physician population.
There is something wrong with American Medicine. The noble practice of medicine is SICK.
Until 2017 I was a medical recluse, shying away from the noble profession of medicine. The Last Day was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine as a coming out of sorts to the medical profession about my story. I am now an advocate, an author, and a speaker on the subject of physician burnout and suicide.
This portion of the LynesOnLine website is dedicated to addressing the physician burnout and suicide problem. It is a collection of articles, essays, and podcasts. Your comments will be appreciated.
William Lynes, MD
The Note
Addressed to Dr. Lynes, The Note sat menacingly in my inbox like a distress signal ominously blinking on a battered ocean coast. The note was in the form of a postcard, the border delicately decorated with flowers, the writing neatly filling the page.
“You are a devious character… the note went on to explain.”
I am a physician, practicing a noble profession of merit. In The Note, I detail the last days of my medical practice. This profession is in many ways broken. Let us fix and repair what is obviously a broken jewel.
Lived Experience with Suicidality with Dr. Myers and Dr. Lynes.
"As part of my clinical research on lived experience in physicians, I recently interviewed a retired California urologist, William Lynes, MD. Although we’ve never met in person, we’ve communicated a lot over the internet this past year."
"He reached out to me last May about ways in which we might collaborate in the field of physician health, specifically addressing burnout, depression, and suicidality in doctors."