EDMONTON -- Thousands of Alberta doctors are on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis to help others, but what effect is the pandemic having on their own physical and mental health?

A University of Alberta-led study will look at physicians' health before, during and after the pandemic to figure out how best to support them.

Nicola Cherry, an occupational epidemiologist, asked the province's 8,000 doctors to enlist in the study and has already received around 500 surveys back.

"We've been getting a lot of data even in this first phase," she said.

The first survey was sent out shortly after March 6, when Alberta's first case of COVID-19 was reported.

One recurring theme so far is the anxiety felt by doctors who are worried they could potentially spread COVID-19 to their families, according to Cherry.

"They go home, they don't know if they're carrying the infection or not, and they're concerned they're going to spread it in some way," she said.

A second will be sent to doctors shortly after the peak of pandemic, likely at the end of June, and a final set of questions will be sent in summer 2021.

Cherry has experience with studying first responders during a crisis. She completed research on the well-being of firefighters during the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire.

“We found that people do better if they do short bursts of firefighting rather than going up for long stints without a break,” she said. “The fire chiefs realized they should look at when and where people had been deployed before, before sending them off to fight another traumatic fire."

While there are obvious differences in the crises, Cherry said there are lessons learned from Fort McMurray firefighters that can be used to help doctors manage their health in the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I would expect there will be some people certainly for whom the stress of dealing with this isn't something that goes away immediately," she said.

Doctors are still able to take part in the study, which is funded by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, by emailing covidmd@ualberta.ca.