Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 31, 2025
Acupoint Application as a Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatment for Fatigue Associated with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Published on: September 5, 2025
Overwork Death of Chinese Physicians under High-Intensity Pressure, 2007-2018
Yingjiang Xu1,2, Gang Chen2, Xinqiang Han2
1Department of Interventional Vascular Surgery Binzhou Medical College Hospital, Binzhou, Binzhou, P.R. China.
Insights
Physician overwork deaths in China are a serious issue, particularly since 2012, with most cases in surgery departments of public tertiary hospitals. Policy changes and public understanding are crucial to address this critical health and social problem.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Medical Sociology
- Occupational Health
Background:
- Physician overwork deaths in China between January 2007 and December 2018 highlight a critical issue.
- This tragedy necessitates urgent attention from authorities and policymakers to mitigate physician mortality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To summarize and analyze cases of physician overwork death in China over an 11-year period.
- To identify trends, demographics, and contributing factors associated with physician overwork fatalities.
Main Methods:
- Data were systematically extracted from medical databases, local mass media, official documents, and medical Bulletin Board Systems (BBS).
- Inclusion criteria focused on published articles, reports, and news; unpublished data were excluded.
Main Results:
- A total of 110 cases (103 males, 7 females) were identified, with a notable increase in incidents since 2012, peaking in 2017.
- The majority of deaths occurred in public tertiary hospitals (78.18%) and surgery-related departments (59.1%).
- Affected physicians included chief physicians, associate chief physicians, attending physicians, resident physicians, and standardized training physicians, primarily in major cities and coastal regions.
Conclusions:
- Physician overwork death represents a significant contemporary health and social issue in China.
- There is a pressing need to refine laws and regulations to prevent such occurrences.
- Enhancing public understanding and trust in physicians is essential for addressing this problem.
Background:
To summarize the cases of physicians overwork death between Jan 2007 and Dec 2018, the tragedy merits the attention of the authorities and policy-makers to increase their efforts to reduce death among physicians in China.
Methods:
Data were extracted from medical databases, local mass media, official documents and medical Bulletin Board System (BBS), in which only included articles, reports and news listed in the retrieval strategy, and unpublished data were excluded.
Results:
Overall, 110 cases (7 females and 103 males) were enrolled in this study. Most incidents have occurred since 2012, especially in 2017. Of these, 86 (78.18%) physicians worked in public tertiary hospitals, four times more than the number of cases taking place in secondary hospitals. Additionally, overwork death was the most common in surgery-related departments that account for up to 65 (59.1%). Notably, these events, taking place in first-tier cities and the southeastern coastal areas of China, included 27 chief physicians, 31 associate of chief physicians, 21 attending physicians, 10 resident physicians and 4 standardized training physicians.
Conclusion:
Overwork death among Chinese physicians is not only a contemporary health problem but also a critical social issue. The laws and regulations should be perfected to prevent the events. Meanwhile, the public should be aware of the need for more understanding and trust in physicians in China.
More Related Videos
05:19Author Spotlight: An Effective Traditional Chinese Medicinal Treatment for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with Abdominal Distension
Published on: September 1, 2023
04:59Heat-sensitive Moxibustion as a Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapy for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Combined with Insomnia
Published on: May 30, 2025
Related Concept Videos
01:25Errors occurring during blood pressure monitoring
Several factors...
01:27Psychoneuroimmunology: Cardiovascular Disease
A key area of focus in PNI is the relationship between stress and coronary...
01:26Imbalances in Cardiac Output
CHF can occur due to the failure of either side of the heart. Left-side failure leads to pulmonary congestion—the right side continues to send...
01:08Obedience