Becker’s Healthcare -- Spine and Orthopedic Podcast
Dr. Nolan Wessell, Assistant Professor and Well-being Co-Director, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Division of Spine Surgery, University of Colorado School of Medicine
08 Dec 2025
On this episode, Dr. Nolan Wessell, Assistant Professor and Well-being Co-Director, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Division of Spine Surgery, University of Colorado School of Medicine joins the podcast to discuss the growing burden facing the spine field and how clinicians are adapting to rapid shifts in practice and policy. He shares insights on tracking government changes that impact research funding, the ways AI is improving efficiency and supporting clinical decision-making, and the consequences of declining reimbursements across the specialty.
Chapter 1: What is Dr. Nolan Wessell's background and expertise?
This is Carly Beam with the Becker Spine and Orthopedics Podcast, and I'm thrilled to be joined today by Dr. Nolan Wessel with the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Wessel, thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you so much for having me on board. Yeah, absolutely.
And before we dive into our discussion, I'd love to, if you could just introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background.
Sure. So as you already mentioned, I currently work at the University of Colorado Department of Orthopedics, but I was born and raised in North Central Wisconsin, did my undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, and then
After graduation, I worked very briefly in medical research for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute before moving on to medical school at Wayne State University in Detroit. I stayed in Detroit for my residency at the Henry Ford Health System and then moved out to Colorado in 2017 to do my fellowship in adult spine surgery at the University of Colorado.
So since 2018, I've been on faculty at the university. Currently, the majority of my practice is spent on the south side of Metro Denver in the Highlands Ranch community, but I still maintain a small portion of my practice at the main university campus.
Great. And yet an interesting aspect of your title is reading about you earlier, a well-being co-director. Can you talk more about that?
Sure. You know, it's...
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Chapter 2: How is burnout affecting healthcare professionals in orthopedics?
It's probably no secret to anybody that works in healthcare or has friends or family that work in healthcare that burnout, especially on the heels of the COVID pandemic a few years ago, has run rampant throughout the system. And that's not just isolated to orthopedic surgeons. But what I can tell you is that currently about 40% of active orthopedic surgeons
endorse symptoms consistent with burnout and depression. And over the course of an orthopedic surgeon's career, upwards of 60 to 65% of individuals may suffer from symptoms of burnout and depression.
And in a system that's already very strained, this can lead to early attrition, which we certainly don't need because as the baby boomers age into those years where they demand more care, orthopedic care is a major part of that. And we really just want to make sure that we're taking care of not just our patients, but ourselves, right?
We can't be expected to care for other people if we ourselves are not in good physical and mental conditions. So the University of Colorado, like many large institutions, has done its best to prioritize wellness. And myself and one of my colleagues from the Children's Hospital of Colorado, Dr. Sarah Sibyl, serve as the co-directors for wellbeing for our department.
So it's an interesting role that's kind of always evolving.
Yeah, I was about to say, and I mean, obviously, it's burnout being so rampant. And I know there are a lot of different headwinds facing spine surgeons. And I'm wondering, how are you tackling those? How are you training your students, your residents in spine orthopedics to face these headwinds without completely burning themselves out?
Sure. I think that's an important question. And I don't have all the solutions to that. Certainly as you look at an older generation of surgeons and physicians and healthcare providers, I think we can all agree that the work-life balance really was not there. It was kind of just a mentality of work, work, work. I'll relax when I retire. And then you've got a younger generation.
So I'm 41 or nearly 41. And kind of starting with my generation and those a little bit younger than me, I think they are much better suited to help maintain that kind of work-life balance and people in kind of their mid-career are somewhat caught in between, but more and more now, now you see it at the university that prioritizing that work-life balance, especially in a state like Colorado, where
Outdoor activities are available to you essentially 365 days a year. People really want to make sure that they're taking care of their own wellbeing in conjunction with caring for patients.
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Chapter 3: What strategies are being implemented to address burnout in spine surgery?
What's really exciting you in that realm?
Yeah. I already have a robust practice. So when people ask me about growth, I think, well, gosh, there's only 24 hours in the day, right? But kind of harkening the conversation back to some of the artificial intelligence The large language models have pretty quickly found their way into healthcare.
One example I like to cite is that we now use an AI-based passive listening system in the clinic setting. Within mere seconds, the conversations I have with a patient are transcribed into a note.
like a lot of these systems like chat gpt and others the more you use it the more it learns about your conversation style and i've been using it now for about four or five months and i can leave a patient's room walk back to my workstation and by the time i get there my note is written i do a quick review and boom the note is signed that has given me back upwards of 90 minutes a day.
And for my nurse practitioner, she's getting 90 minutes back on her day as well. And that can be used a variety of different ways. You know, we talked a little bit about wellness. Well, you can get some of your personal or family time back, which is fantastic. Or, yeah, or, you know, based on our clinic schedules, that might open up availability for two to four patients a week.
And that adds up quickly, 200 to 300 patients a year that otherwise might have to wait months to get in to see us now can get in to get their care sooner. And that's all on the backs of technological advancement and artificial intelligence. So when I think about growth, I think more about efficiency. How can I personally better use my time? And then how is an entire healthcare system?
Can we better optimize the time we spend with patients and taking care of them?
Yeah, and I really love that how you're describing AI as a tool. Probably, you know, the ambient AI probably helps you stay present in visits, brings in more access for patients. It sounds like a real win-win.
Absolutely. I mean, instead of staring down at a piece of scratch paper or typing notes into a computer, I'm really focused on what the patient is saying and and can develop that more personalized interaction as opposed to staring at a computer screen or staring at a piece of paper.
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