Dr. Susan Matulevicius has been named Assistant Dean for Faculty Wellness, a new position created to lead efforts on campus to promote physician well-being and resilience against burnout. The appointment takes effect June 1.

Under her leadership, the new Office of Faculty Wellness will strive to promote a culture of health and professional well-being that empowers faculty members to reach their full academic and personal potential. To accomplish this, the Office will assess and track faculty well-being through standardized measures; engage leaders at all levels to support steps that improve work satisfaction; promote better work-life balance; and seek funding for the scientific study of interventions targeted to enhance faculty wellness.

Dr. Matulevicius, a cardiologist and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, serves as the Medical Director of Noninvasive Cardiovascular Imaging for both UT Southwestern and Parkland Health & Hospital System.

Dr. Susan Matulevicius

UT Southwestern’s mission is to promote health and a healthy society that enables achievement of full human potential through education, discovery, and healing. As an institution, we must support the same principles of excellence, innovation, teamwork, and compassion that we value in patient care in the development and support of our faculty, she said. Without an engaged and passionate faculty who feel supported and valued by their leadership, we can’t achieve our academic mission.

The initiative is the result of efforts launched in the fall of 2016 by UT Southwestern President Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, who convened an ad hoc committee to assess faculty wellness and resilience on campus in the wake of growing national attention on physician burnout. That group sponsored a survey of more than 1,800 faculty physicians at UT Southwestern. The results revealed that while overall rates of emotional exhaustion and some degree of burnout were below national averages, burnout rates among some subgroups, including early career women, were higher.

In response to the survey results, a Committee on Faculty Physician Wellness/Resilience was formed in late 2017, chaired by Dr. Steven Bloom, Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences. In a report issued last spring, the Committee made recommendations in five areas: improving the faculty experience in clinical settings; enhancing work-life harmony; supporting women’s career development; improving the career path for clinician educators; and increasing institutional leadership and resources for faculty wellness, including creation of the new Office.

The establishment of the Office of Faculty Wellness, to be led by Dr. Matulevicius, underscores the commitment of UT Southwestern to support the well-being and development of all of our faculty as we continue to expand our research, education, and clinical programs, said Dr. W. P. Andrew Lee, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean, UT Southwestern Medical School.

Dr. Matulevicius said her first priority would be to foster a sense of community among UT Southwestern physicians. She plans to organize events such as lunch-and-learns and networking sessions to provide informal opportunities for physicians to meet one another and share ideas.

Another goal is to identify physician champions in each department to advocate for wellness initiatives and provide feedback on issues. She would also like to address physician concerns regarding electronic medical records with a working group on “EMR detoxification.”

As a 43-year-old female physician and mother of two who is married to a translational researcher, Dr. Matulevicius understands the challenges many midcareer professionals, particularly women, face with work-life integration and job fulfillment. She hopes to harness the strengths of the faculty to create a culture supportive of empowering each other to build a career that is both professionally and personally rewarding.

As faculty feel the pressures of expansion, administrative tasks, and an emphasis on increased productivity, it is easy to feel more cynical, more emotionally exhausted, and less invested, she said. My goal as the Assistant Dean for Faculty Wellness is to ensure that the administration values its faculty, promotes pursuit of passion and lifelong personal and professional growth, and creates a culture dedicated to making faculty members feel invested in and supported as we create the ‘future of medicine, today.’