Smartwatches linked to reduced physician burnout, Mayo Clinic study finds

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Burnout remains a persistent challenge for physicians, with national survey showing rates that outpace the general workforce. Now, a randomized clinical trial led by researchers at Mayo Clinic and the University of Colorado School of Medicine suggests that simply wearing a smartwatch may have measurable benefits.

The study, published August 18 in JAMA Network Open, followed 184 physicians across specialties, half of whom wore a smartwatch for six months with access to their personal data on sleep, heart rate, physical activity and stress.

Compared with colleagues in a control group, physicians who wore the devices had higher resilience scores and a 54% lower likelihood of meeting criteria for burnout after six months.

Trial design and findings

Participants, with a mean age of 37.5, represented a mix of residents, fellows and attending physicians. The intervention group received Garmin smartwatches and periodic newsletters encouraging device use. Importantly, participants were not prompted to make behavior changes; engagement was passive, with physicians free to interpret and use the data as they chose.

At six months, 41.2% of physicians in the smartwatch group met criteria for burnout, compared with 50.5% in the control group. On multivariable analysis adjusting for demographics, specialty and baseline well-being, the intervention group showed a significantly reduced risk of burnout. Resilience scores were also modestly higher, averaging 31.9 versus 29.5 in controls.

The improvements persisted into the second half of the trial. Physicians initially assigned to the control group saw similar gains once they began wearing the devices, suggesting a consistent association between wearable use and well-being.

Perspectives from the research team

“Advancing care starts with caring for those who deliver it,” said Colin West, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of employee well-being at Mayo Clinic and a study co-author. “We’re shaping a future where the well-being of our workforce is integral to the care we deliver.”

Study co-lead Liselotte Dyrbye, M.D., MHPE, senior associate dean for faculty and chief well-being officer at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, emphasized that the intervention should be seen as a complement to broader system-level changes.

“While this is an individually focused intervention, it offers an evidence-based way to support physicians in the short term, complementing longer-term efforts aimed at addressing systemic contributors to physician stress,” she said.

Co-author Arjun Athreya, Ph.D., an electrical and computer engineer at Mayo Clinic, added that wearable technologies paired with artificial intelligence (AI) could eventually help personalize strategies for clinician well-being.

“This study shows we can support health care professionals with passive monitoring digital technologies with innovative engagement strategies to provide potentially helpful data without adding burden to their day,” Athreya said.

Next steps

Researchers cautioned that the study population — largely young, White and employed in academic medical centers — may not reflect all physicians. The self-reported nature of the surveys and the inability to blind participants to their intervention are also limitations.

Still, high adherence rates, with participants wearing devices more than 70% of the time, strengthen the findings.

Future research will explore whether physicians translate awareness of physiological data into concrete behavioral changes and whether similar benefits extend to other health care professionals.

The authors also noted that wearables should not be viewed as a substitute for systemic reforms aimed at reducing administrative burdens, staffing shortages and other structural drivers of burnout.