🧭 REBEL Rundown
📌 Key Points
🎯Partnership Focus: New collaboration with Arena Labs aimed at enhancing healthcare worker wellness.
🏃🏽♂️➡️Personalized Coaching: Tools and coaching programs designed for stress management and performance improvement.
📊Data-Driven Insights: Utilizing wearable sensor data to tackle burnout effectively.
🌄Broad Impact: Offers a unique opportunity to contribute to large-scale healthcare improvements.
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📝 Introduction
Welcome back to REBEL MIND, where MIND stands for Mastering Internal Negativity during Difficulty. Here we sharpen the person behind the practitioner by focusing on things that improve our performance, optimizing team dynamics and the human behavior that embodies the hidden curriculum of medicine. In this episode, hosted by Drs. Mark Ramzy and Marco Propersi, we’re excited to introduce a collaboration with Arena Labs. Arena Labs is helping us measure healthcare performance through innovative programs designed to combat burnout and enhance personal wellness using data-driven strategies.
Cognitive Question
What would it look like in emergency medicine and critical care to be set up with the same tools as elite teams and professional athletes when it comes to measuring performance and recovery? How would our patients benefit?
💭 Why This is Important
- Burnout among healthcare workers is a growing concern, especially in such high-pressure environments as emergency and intensive care units. The collaboration with Arena Labs brings forth a vital focus on using data and coaching to build resilience among medical professionals.
🌟Be Brilliant at the Basics
Ask yourself — “What is it on your time off that gives you a deep sense of fulfillment?”
On your time off are you doing things that fill your bucket and add to your recovery?
❓What is Allostasis and Allostatic Load
- Allostasis: Our body’s ability to adapt over time to stress. It’s relevant to the phase you are in during this particular season in your life.
- Ex. You are a first year medical student freaking out about your very first exam. Over time as you do more exams, they are still stressful, but by now you have developed modified study habits to succeed and get used to the frequent exams
- In the context of emergency medicine, you may be nervous or stressed about your first shift at a new hospital but overtime you learn the staff, the location of equipment, the acuity of that particular site, the patient population so over time you get used to the stress of a shift at that new hospital
- Allostasis: Our body’s ability to adapt over time to stress. It’s relevant to the phase you are in during this particular season in your life.
- Allostatic Load: The wear and tear on the body from chronic stress due to maladaptation or poor recovery methods.
- This refers to the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events. It involves the interaction of different physiological systems at varying degrees of activity.
- Ex. You are an emergency medicine physician at a very busy, high acuity center and have never prioritized taking care of yourself on/during a shift. As a result, external factors add to not being able to fully recover when you get home or are off shift (ie. Admin work, teaching obligations, family/friends) and so you never fully recover before you have to go back on shift to the same stressors you just exposed yourself to. So the cycle continues
- This refers to the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events. It involves the interaction of different physiological systems at varying degrees of activity.

Figure 1: Long term effects of Chronic Stress (Source: Andrew Hogue from NeuroFit)
🏥How This Applies to the Emergency Department or ICU?
- Healthcare workers in emergency departments (ED) and intensive care units (ICU) are often under enormous stress due to the nature of their work. Arena Labs’ program offers tailored solutions, helping ED and ICU staff manage their unique challenges through effective recovery techniques and performance tools. This approach caters specifically to the demanding schedules and the unpredictability inherent in these environments.
👀 Where to Learn More
Intrigued by the possibilities this partnership offers? You can explore more by visiting Arena Labs’ website here. Also, check out the comprehensive coaching program available, designed specifically for healthcare providers looking to enhance their well-being and performance.
🚨 Clinical Bottom Line
In an era where burnout is pervasive, our collaboration with Arena Labs offers a beacon of hope for healthcare workers. By leveraging cutting-edge data insights and practical coaching, this partnership aims to redefine healthcare wellness, fostering a sustainable, resilient workforce that’s equipped to navigate the pressures of modern medicine.
Join us in this journey towards enhanced well-being and workforce empowerment, ensuring that those who care for us are also cared for.
📚References
- Guidi J, et al.
Allostatic Load and Its Impact on Health: A Systematic Review. Psychother Psychosom. 2021; Epub 2020 Aug 14.
PMID: 32799204 - Frueh BC, et al.
“Operator syndrome”: A unique constellation of medical and behavioral health-care needs of military special operation forces. Int J Psychiatry Med. Epub 2020 Feb 13.
PMID: 32052666


