A new campaign from medical billing and payment tool Dr.Bill is raising awareness about a public health crisis that has been flying under the radar: physician burnout.

The brand campaign was developed by RBCx’s Strategic Design team and supported by Agnostic’s health team on earned media and partner strategy. It is driven by insights gleaned from Ontario Medical Association (OMA) data which show more than half of physicians have experienced high levels of burnout, leaving nearly half of them considering a reduction in their workload.

“Driven by many health system-level issues and exacerbated by the pandemic, physician burnout is a public health crisis, causing emotional exhaustion, feelings of detachment and cynicism toward people and work, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment,” says Jason Magennis, director of marketing for Dr.Bill. “Physicians were tired of more research quantifying the burnout issue and were looking for someone to take a leadership role in finding solutions. This became the spark behind the campaign: the team saw this as an opportunity to evolve the burnout conversation a to a place focused on finding those solutions.”

The effort launched across digital, social and OOH on National Physicians Day this week, and features alarming portraits of medical professionals paired with copy that juxtaposes medical achievement with the stressful realities of modern-day healthcare. It is paired with a $150,000 donation by the company to the Ontario Medical Foundation (OMF) in order to fund research into reducing the barriers to equitable health care in Canada – with a focus on the issue of physician burnout.

“While significant research on the prevalence of burnout has been done, there needs to be more focus on how to address necessary changes, as it’s clear funding alone won’t solve this issue,” says Sarah Wilkinson, CEO of Dr.Bill. “We’re committed to bringing about systemic change, shifting the conversation from what has happened to how we are going to enable real solutions.”

Alongside the aforementioned executions, the campaign also incorporated branded coffee trucks on-site at hospitals in Ontario and B.C.

The campaign creative was lead by Lionel Wong, Creative Director with RBCx Strategic Design. This was also the first major PR effort to roll out from Agnostic Health, with strategy led by Nancy Dale, the agency’s SVP and Tenney Loweth, its Director.

This is the first major work to roll out from Agnostic Health, with strategy led by Nancy Dale, the agency’s SVP, and Tenney Loweth, its director. Agnostic also led PR for the effort.