Burnout is the defining condition of Australian medical practice in 2025. 66 per cent of doctors are extremely or very concerned about burnout, and 49 per cent report their satisfaction with medicine has worsened in the past five years.
Doctors painted a vivid picture of their working reality.
What doctors are telling us
Administrative burden was the top frustration (54 per cent), followed by government requirements and work–life imbalance.
“Way too much unpaid overtime, no support, and constant pressure.”
“Two hours of unpaid paperwork today alone.”
What this means for pharma and health tech engagement
In this environment, any engagement that consumes additional doctor time or cognitive load is immediately disadvantaged.
Doctors said they want:
- Succinct education
- Clear summaries of trials and guidelines
- Practical tools for complex patients
- Patient access and affordability support
As Dr Hespe noted during The Uncomfortable Truth webinar:
“Implementation research in real-world multimorbidity is where pharma could really win GPs over.”
A burnout-aware engagement model
Pharma and others must redesign engagement around:
1. Time efficiency – what “good” looks like
Doctors want interactions that respect the extreme time pressure they face. Engagement needs to be short, focused and easy to consume, designed to save minutes, not take them.
Pharma actions to consider
- Replace 45-minute slide decks with 5-minute micro-updates summarising new evidence in plain language.
- Offer asynchronous, on-demand education instead of scheduled webinars that create time conflicts.
- Provide two-click access to key information, dosing changes, safety notes, guideline shifts, instead of long PDFs.
Health-tech actions to consider
- Build or integrate clinical decision support tools that surface relevant information within the workflow rather than requiring separate log-ins.
- Supply templated patient summaries doctors can auto-populate, reducing typing and admin time.
2. Clinical clarity – what “good” looks like
Doctors are looking for clear, succinct interpretation of evidence that helps them make decisions quickly. Clarity beats volume every time, especially when they’re navigating complex multimorbidity.
Pharma actions to consider
- Deliver balanced trial summaries that answer the practical questions doctors ask: efficacy, safety, patient selection, and how it compares to current care.
- Provide ‘When would I use this?’ guides showing clearly where a new treatment fits in the pathway, based on latest guidelines.
- Offer side-by-side real-world vs trial data comparisons for complex patients (e.g. multimorbidity, polypharmacy).
Health-tech actions to consider
- Integrate guideline-based alerts inside practice software (e.g., “This patient meets criteria for X therapy based on latest recommendations”).
- Use AI to generate concise literature digests relevant to a doctor’s specialty or patient profile.
3. Workload reduction – what “good” looks like
Support that genuinely lightens a doctor’s administrative, cognitive or procedural load is far more impactful than additional touchpoints. Tools, resources and pathways that simplify tasks are now core to effective engagement.
Pharma actions to consider
- Streamline compassionate access processes — single online form, auto-fill options, faster approvals.
- Provide ready-made patient education tools that reduce the time doctors spend explaining complex conditions.
- Develop clinic-ready checklists (e.g., pre-treatment screening, monitoring schedules) that doctors can use instantly.
Health-tech actions to consider
- Automate pre-consult questionnaires so patients complete key information ahead of time.
- Build integrations that allow automatic uploading of bloods, imaging, or GPMP components into the practice software.
- Offer AI-enabled scribes that convert notes into structured summaries.
A doctor quote that strengthens this theme:
“Excessive paperwork and form-filling… has increased, not decreased.”
4. Patient-centred practicality – what “good” looks like
Doctors value solutions that directly improve patient care — access programs, practical resources, clear guidance and real-world applicability. Engagement feels meaningful when it connects directly to better patient outcomes.
Pharma actions to consider
- Provide real-world case libraries showing how treatments perform in patients with comorbidities, not just trial populations.
- Offer co-pay assistance tools or access pathways that help doctors get medicine to patients sooner.
- Create patient onboarding kits that explain treatment steps, monitoring, risks and expectations in simple language.
Real doctor sentiment supporting this:
“Improving health outcomes for patients, empowering patients to improve their health.”
Health-tech actions to consider
- Build apps or portals enabling patients to log symptoms, adherence, or side effects — data that feeds back to the doctor cleanly.
- Enable secure messaging for quick clarifications so patients don’t need another consult and doctors don’t face avoidable rework.
- Support remote monitoring tools that help doctors intervene early when patient outcomes are slipping.
This isn’t just good behaviour its strategic alignment with clinician needs.
Conclusion: A call to action for all
“Doctors are overwhelmed, but not disengaged. They want partners who help them navigate an increasingly complex clinical landscape with speed, precision and credibility.
In a system where administrative load is rising and time is scarce, the companies that deliver clarity and practical support, rather than more noise, will become the ones doctors trust and turn to.”
Contact us
Looking to run a campaign and engage doctors with confidence? For further information, contact us to discuss how AusDoc can support you with the reassurance you need.
Source
AusDoc Big Doctor Survey, September 2025 (n = 1,430)
This article was written with the assistance of AI