Season 7 | Episode 8
Dr. Venktesh Ramnath | GUEST
In this episode, Dr. Seema Khosla explores the critical issue of clinician burnout with Dr. Venktesh Ramnath, Associate Clinical Professor at UC San Diego. Moving beyond typical wellness advice, Dr. Ramnath offers practical strategies for addressing burnout at its systemic roots rather than treating it as an individual failure.
The conversation examines how to recognize true burnout versus temporary fatigue and challenges the common rhetoric about “resilience” that shifts responsibility from broken systems to individuals. Dr. Ramnath shares his personal burnout experience and discusses whether dramatic career changes are necessary before making meaningful improvements to professional satisfaction.
Discover actionable steps for reducing burnout, including negotiating with leadership, establishing horizontal professional networks, and eliminating low-value work. Learn how coding efficiency relates to burnout and understand the emerging role of “health architects” in creating sustainable medical workplaces.
The discussion also addresses Dr. Ramnath’s public response to demands for federal employee productivity reporting, techniques for constructive workplace conversations, and practical advice for saying “no” effectively—a crucial skill rarely taught in medical training. Whether considering a job change or trying to improve a current position, this episode provides essential guidance for creating a more sustainable medical career.
Dr. Venktesh Ramnath completed his degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University, a medical degree at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, an Internal Medicine residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital (Weill-Cornell), Chief Medical Resident at New York Downtown Hospital, and a Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship at Harvard (Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center).
Since finishing training, he has served as ICU Director at multiple hospitals across the U.S. in both community-based and academic hospital centers before joining UC San Diego Health in 2017, where he currently serves as Medical Director for Critical Care and Telemedicine Outreach, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, and ICU director at multiple hospitals within the UCSD hospital network. In addition, his experiences with illness, healing, and human connection have inspired him to pursue writing, and his work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, The Conversation, Annals of Internal Medicine, and MedPage Today. His Substack (@BeAHealthArchitect) addresses practical and experiential ways to overcome physician burnout.
