Understanding Stress, Burnout, and Behavioral Patterns in Medical Residents Using Large-scale Longitudinal Wearable Recordings

Medical residency training is often associated with physically intense and emotionally demanding tasks, requiring them to engage in extended working hours providing complex clinical care. Residents are hence susceptible to negative psychological effects, including stress and anxiety, that can lead to decreased well-being, affecting them achieving desired training outcomes. Understanding the daily behavioral patterns of residents can guide the researchers to identify the source of stress in residency training, offering unique opportunities to improve residency programs. In this study, we investigate the workplace behavioral patterns of 43 medical residents across different stages of their training, using longitudinal wearable recordings collected over a 3-week rotation. Specifically, we explore their ambulatory patterns, the computer access, and the interactions with mentors of residents. Our analysis reveals that residents showed distinct working behaviors in walking movement patterns and computer usage compared to different years in the program. Moreover, we identify that interaction patterns with mentoring doctors indicate stress, burnout, and job satisfaction.