Gastroenterologists are navigating a challenging healthcare environment as physician shortages, burnout and other market pressures continue to pose obstacles to their practice — but they’re also finding relief through new technologies and workflows, Medscape reported Dec. 12.
In its “A Very Challenging Period: Medscape Gastroenterology Practice Issues Report 2025,” Medscape collected responses from 131 gastroenterologists who met screening requirements between July 8 and Sept. 3, 2025.
Here are 10 takeaways from the survey:
1. When asked whether they could add new patients to their practice without experiencing “management headaches,” 91% of respondents said yes. Benjamin Levy, MD, a gastroenterologist at University of Chicago Medicine, said ambient AI systems have significantly improved practices’ ability to increase patient volume efficiently.
Ambient AI “is allowing us to see more patients in the day, because we’re less fatigued from all the typing. It also just speeds up the visit so we can focus on our decision processes,” Dr. Levy told the publication. “It also makes us less mentally fatigued by the afternoon and [we] can focus on the actual patient interaction and diagnosis, which makes us faster.”
2. A slight majority of respondents — 51% — said they have few issues managing their current patient loads.
3. There was some disconnect among respondents when asked how significantly the national physician shortage was affecting their time and patients. Thirty percent said the impact was minimal (a 1 or 2 on a 5-point scale), while 35% described it as more substantial (a 4 or 5).
4. Seventy-nine percent of respondents ranked the shortage’s impact on patient care in their own practice as a 3 or lower on a 5-point scale.
5. When asked the same question about their region overall, 71% rated the shortage’s impact as a 3 or lower, suggesting they perceived greater challenges regionally than within their own practice.
6. Responses were split on how hiring delays affected physicians and patients. Thirty-two percent cited lower-level effects on average time per patient (ranking of 1 or 2), while another 32% reported substantial effects (ranking of 4 or 5).
7. Regarding hiring difficulties’ impact on their practice versus their region, respondents who selected high and moderate levels of impact were roughly even.
8. About one-third of physicians said their personal level of burnout was high or very high.
9. Forty-eight percent said burnout was hurting physician retention at their practice.
10. Physicians said their employers viewed retention with moderate seriousness as a management issue, with a plurality — 35% — selecting a 3 out of 5 to indicate how seriously their employer evaluates retention concerns.
