addressed that issue partly by using one definition of burnout (high emotional exhaustion or depersonalisation) and also supplying data on individual domains and numerical Maslach burnout inventory scale scores. Importantly, these scores, taken as continuous or dichotomous variables, have been clearly linked with clinically relevant outcomes and are responsive to both institutional and individual interventions. Although there is still a need for conceptual clarification now that physician distress is finally recognised as a serious problem, discarding the construct of burnout altogether seems unwarranted.