Data Stream
Extinguishing Burnout? The R&D Myth
Preventing and managing physician burnout is a priority
across health-care organizations and, according to a survey
published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, the efforts are working. Pharmaceutical companies frequently blame
the high costs of prescription medications on
their need to recoup investments in research
and development (R&D) to bring the drugs to
market. However, new research from the World
Health Organization debunks that myth.
Of more than 5,000 doctors who completed the Maslach
Burnout Inventory between 2011 and 2017, the number of
physicians who reported at least one symptom of burnout
peaked in 2014 but decreased in 2017:
The report’s authors examined R&D costs and
sales incomes from 99 anti-cancer medications
between 1989 and 2017.
For every 1 of R&D
investment, drug
companies saw a
median return of 14.50.
$
60%
54.4
%
$
$
50%
45.5 %
43.9 %
40%
$
$ $ $
$ $ $ $
$
$ $ $
$
“The costs of [R&D] and production may bear
little or no relationship to how pharmaceutical
companies set prices of cancer medicines,” WHO
officials wrote in the report.
$
Source: World Health Organization, “Technical Report: Pricing of cancer medicines and its impacts,” January 2019.
30%
Baby Boom and Bust
20%
According to a new report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS),
10%
6.0t
$
$6
0%
$5
$
Still, the researchers
observed a steady increase
in the percentage of doctors
experiencing depression,
from 38% in 2011 to 42% in 2017.
Source: Shanafelt TD, West CP, Sinsky C, et al. Changes in burnout and sat-
isfaction with work-life integration in physicians and the general US working
population between 2011 and 2017. Mayo Clin Proc. 2019 February 22. [Epub
ahead of print]
$4
U.S. health spending is expected to grow
by 5.5 % per year for the next decade –
3.6t
$
jumping from $3.6 trillion in 2018 to $6.0 trillion in 2027.
$3
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
Much of that growth will be driven by the influx of baby boomers, most of whom will hit age 65 by the year
2027 and become eligible for Medicare: Average annual spending for Medicare is expected to grow by
7.4% annually.
Source: Sisko AM, Keehan SP, Poisal JA, et al. National health expenditure projections, 2018–27: economic and demographic trends drive
spending and enrollment growth. Health Aff. 2019;38:491-501.
26
ASH Clinical News
May 2019