What do healthcare CEOs want from technology in 2024 and beyond?

When do you stop wishing people “Happy New Year”? Probably soon if not yesterday. When do you stop reading recaps from 2023 and predictions/forecasts for 2024? It depends. When do you stop listening to what healthcare CEOs are saying is important to them? Never!

I’ve seen two pieces recently from healthcare CEOs that are worth sharing here.

First off a very powerful message from Michael Dowling, President and CEO at Northwell Health published in Becker’s Hospital Review on January 2 – “The most pressing question to start the year”.  He reminds us of our mission as we start the new year.

“Health is how we work together to build a sense of community. Having a healthy community also requires everyone doing what they can to tone down the political rhetoric and social media-fueled anger that is polarizing our society. Health is bringing back a sense of civility and respect in our public discourse, and promoting the values of honesty, decency and integrity.”

 The second is a piece from Becker’s Health IT published on December 19 – “Health system CEOs’ tech wish list”.  Here is what’s on the technology wish list for the next three years:

    1. Seamless care coordination applications
    2. Drivers of elite patient experience
    3. Automation everywhere
    4. Precision medicine capabilities
    5. AI-driven technology to support the workforce
    6. Health equity and population health boosters

Sound familiar? Does this align with what you are hearing from your healthcare executive team?

You may be wondering how you do this with limited budgets due to continued financial constraints and the workforce challenges of recruiting enough staff and the right talent. The job of health IT leaders is as challenging as ever but as exciting as I’ve seen in my several decades in healthcare. Finding ways to take costs out and create capacity, optimizing existing investments, hiring talent and retooling to ensure your team is ready to deliver on the new demands – those are some of the leadership challenges for 2024.

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From reflection to action – preparing for 2024

 

From reflection to action – preparing for 2024

It’s that time of year when you can find 2023 recaps and 2024 predictions everywhere you watch, listen to, or read content. In health IT, we are no exception to this. My StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, has written our final blog post of the year that health IT leaders may find useful – “12 Steps to Prepare for 2024 – Big Challenges – Bigger Opportunities”.

David is one of the kindest people I know. It is a true pleasure to have been on this StarBridge venture with him for the past 7 years and to have known him far longer than that from when we were CIO colleagues. It is no surprise that he starts his post by talking about how important it is to model kindness, mercy, and compassion in all that we do. He notes the workforce challenges that organizations face and the importance of recognizing that healthcare is a people business. He goes on to address specific opportunities in DEI, digital health, AI, security, and much more.

He closes with a call to make the best of these opportunities in 2024 to improve health and care in our communities, our nation, and our world. After all that is our common goal! I encourage you to add his blog post to your end of year reading list.

All the best to you in 2024! May it be a healthy, peaceful year filled with kindness.

Lessons from Succession: What not to do as a leader

I recently wrote a blog post called “Ted Lasso leadership lessons”. If you were a fan of the Ted Lasso series, you can readily see there were many lessons to be learned. Another popular series, Succession, wrapped up around the same time. I wasn’t sure how I could comment on leadership lessons from that series as there didn’t seem to be any characters that you would want to model. But there were plenty of lessons on what not to do as a leader.

Others have figured out what to say about Succession leadership lessons, so I’ll share the insights from one of them. A Forbes article on June 26th by Robert Pearl, MD, titled “5 Fatal Flaws Of Healthcare Leaders: Inspired By HBO’s ‘Succession’” describes five dysfunctional leadership styles to avoid based on some of the lead characters. In his words:

  1. Delusional leaders overestimate their abilities. Their ideas are unrealistic and their vision for the future: pure fiction.
  2. Narcissistic leaders bask in praise and blind loyalty. They reject and punish those who provide honest feedback and fair criticism. Their obsession with status and self-importance blinds them to long-term threats and opportunities, alike.
  3. Immature leaders get promoted before they’re primed and polished. They often lack boundaries and excel at the sport of making others uncomfortable.
  4. Political leaders are better at advancing within an organization than advancing the organization itself. Like chameleons, these leaders change with the scenery, shifting alliances and values as organizational power waxes and wanes.
  5. Compromised leaders are skilled at making promises. They seek support by vowing to fulfill wants and palliate pains.

Dr. Pearl closes the article highlighting three attributes that excellent healthcare leaders must have:

  1. Clear mission and purpose
  2. Experience and expertise
  3. Personal integrity

The third, personal integrity, is particularly critical. As Dr. Pearl says, “Everything changes when an emerging leader becomes the head of an organization and faces a crisis. As risks and pressures intensify, people tend to fall back on approaches and habits they learned in the past, particularly problematic ones.” Without being a spoiler, anyone who watched Succession can see how easily the emerging leaders fell back to their own demise.

I encourage you to read the full article but must warn you with a spoiler alert – if you haven’t seen the show but plan to watch it given all the buzz, bookmark the article to read later.  What buzz you ask? The fourth and final season just received 27 Emmy nominations with a total of 75 nominations over all the seasons.

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Ted Lasso leadership lessons

The transformative power of bold leadership in healthcare

With reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights under attack in so many states, it was good to see the Summer 2023 Issue of the Brigham magazine in the mail this week. This issue is titled “Care for Every Body – Embracing Inclusive Medicine”. As a former VP and donor to Brigham and Women’s, I receive the paper copy to read. You can access it online here.

The main articles include:

  • Sex & Gender Glossary – essential terms and definitions for understanding sex, gender, and well-being.
  • Pro-Care. Pro-Patient. – describing how the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is working toward reproductive justice for all patients. An alarming data point: If all abortions in the U.S. were to stop, 24% more people would die from pregnancy complications and 39% more non-Hispanic Black people would die.
  • Soul Meets Body – describing how the Center for Transgender Health is breaking barriers and providing state-of-the-art, life changing care for trans and gender diverse people. An alarming data point: 46 states have proposed 491 anti-transgender laws in 2023, more than the previous four years combined.
  • Women ≠ Tiny Men – describing how physician-researchers are working to balance the scales for women’s health.

These articles and the programs described represent bold leadership in healthcare and what we should expect from healthcare providers.

Just as the Winter 2022 Issue titled “Standing Tall for Justice – Cultivating Equity and Inclusion in Medicine” was bold leadership as it covered racial equity in healthcare. And just as Michael Dowling, President and CEO at Northwell Health in New York, regularly shows us what bold leadership means. He doesn’t shy away from controversial issues as he addresses the issue of gun violence and calls for civility and decency in our public discourse.

Dr. Robert Higgins, President, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and EVP, Mass General Brigham comments in the introduction to the Summer 20223 Issue – “While forging the road toward a more inclusive healthcare systems is not an easy or immediately achievable goal, it is a vital commitment we must make. Our sense of humanity depends on it.”

Are you uncomfortable being a bold leader? Do you embrace or shy away from the DEI discussion? The DEI Committee of CHIME is hosting a webinar this Friday, June 30, at 12PM EDT that I highly recommend. It is titled “DE&I in Healthcare 2.0 – Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable in a Safe Space Zone”. Please follow this link to register if you want to learn how to stay DEI focused in an anti-DEI climate.

In a recent podcast interview, I was asked about some of the unique challenges and opportunities of being a CIO in the healthcare sector compared to other industries. I commented on how being in healthcare is mission driven and how we can make a difference in people’s lives. Leaders of our nation’s leading healthcare systems being willing to address the difficult issues and care for every person is one of the reasons I am passionate about working in healthcare.

What we do matters.

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Ted Lasso leadership lessons

I was late to the “Ted Lasso” series so there were some seasons of binge watching. From its earliest days on Apple TV, I kept hearing about this show from my colleague at StarBridge Advisors, David Muntz. He loved it! My husband and I finally started watching some time last year and saw the season 3 finale last week along with all the other devoted fans.

There are so many lessons to share from this incredibly upbeat soccer coach who we came to know and love. Here are a couple pieces worth reading whether you are a fan or not – no spoilers:

If you haven’t already clicked through to the Becker’s article link above to read perspectives on the lessons from well-known healthcare leaders, please do. In the meantime, here are the lessons:

  1. Lead with empathy.
  2. Being vulnerable doesn’t make you weak.
  3. Optimism is infectious.
  4. Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing.
  5. Winning and losing aren’t everything.
  6. Optimists take more chances.
  7. Everyone differs from everyone else.
  8. Embrace change.
  9. Empowerment breeds confidence.
  10. Winning is an attitude.
  11. Humor cuts through tension.
  12. Courage is the willingness to attempt.
  13. Nobody is bigger than the team.
  14. Be self-aware and genuine. A truly authentic leader doesn’t have the time or the inclination to be anyone but themselves.
  15. Don’t dwell on mistakes or let them define you.
  16. Stay teachable.

I like all of them but 1, 4, and 13 are favorites. Continue reading

Confidence gap, wage gap, and more

We have much progress to celebrate as women but sad to say that in 2023, there is still so much more to do. I’ve seen many excellent pieces recently that illustrate the gender gaps that exist in the workplace.

Have you ever heard of “Tall Poppy Syndrome”? I hadn’t. I saw this post on LinkedIn from Women of Influence+ on a study they conducted of over 4,700 women around the world. From the post, their research shows that almost 90% of women worldwide are belittled and undermined because of their success at work. As they say, “The Tallest Poppy, our groundbreaking study, reveals an eye-opening story about how Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) negatively impacts ambitious, high-performing women, and what this means for organizations”. Here is the press release summarizing the results and a link to access their white paper.

It’s no wonder that many women get “imposter syndrome”, even women in executive level positions. As Becker’s reported in this short article, “75% of female executives get imposter syndrome”, imposter syndrome is doubting one’s abilities and feeling like a fraud. The article notes that women expect lower pay than men, are subject to condescension and have less faith they will be treated equally. This all leads to lowered confidence.

As Becker’s reported in this short article, “The gender ‘confidence gap’ is wide in the workplace”, the confidence gap and wage gap continue. And we are now seeing the promotions gap more clearly. Continue reading

#EmbraceEquity

Today is International Women’s Day (IWD) and March is Women’s History Month. The International Women’s Day 2023 campaign theme is #EmbraceEquity. As their website says, “The aim of the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme is to get the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action. International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.”

Yes, we have much progress to celebrate but sad to say that in 2023, there is still so much more to do. Especially with our current political climate and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs being under attack in some states. Take Florida for example where the governor announced in February that he intends to ban state universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, calling them discriminatory.

I continue to participate in CHIME’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee as we start another year of programming for all CHIME members. As leaders, raising awareness and finding ways to take positive and meaningful action for our employees and our patients is what this work is about. This Friday as part of the DE&I Dialogues series, we will host a live webinar entitled, “Why DE&I: Defining Health Disparity, Inequity, and Inequality”. The webinar will cover why DE&I is important in your healthcare organization and how it impacts patient care. Featured speakers are Andrea Daugherty, CIO at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, Cletis Earle, SVP and CIO at Penn State Health, and Dr. Eric Quinones, Chief Healthcare Advisor at World Wide Technology. You can register here for the March 10, 12PM ET webinar. I hope you will join us this Friday and for future DE&I Dialogues as we continue to learn and work together in 2023.

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Leadership means being bold and taking on the tough issues

As a leader, do you shy away from issues that may be considered too controversial or too political? What if those issues are at the core of delivering healthcare to your community and supporting your team? In our current political environment with the level of discourse so negative and uncivil, it can be hard to take a stand on something. But true leaders do just that.

Michael Dowling, President and CEO at Northwell Health in New York, is the kind of leader who doesn’t shy away from controversial issues. He should be a role model for all of us. I have mentioned him in previous posts on the need for civility and on preventing gun violence. This week I want to highlight his unwavering commitment and national leadership to prevent gun violence.

Under Dowling’s leadership, Northwell Health hosted the 4th Annual Gun Violence Prevention Forum this week. It was an in-person event in New York but open for virtual registration. I can’t tell how many were in the room but in his opening remarks he said there were over 2000 registered virtually.

His opening comments were inspiring. He said we were gathered to learn, to share, to strengthen our commitment to work together in unison, and to hold hands as we march down the road bending the curve of gun violence. He challenged us to each rethink and reimagine the obligation and responsibility of leadership. As health systems, to ask who are we, what do we stand for and believe in. He said we need to inspire others that this is health. That we can’t improve health unless we go upstream. And that health is more than medicine. Whether inside the organization or outside, to take on difficult topics. To make sure others get involved and feel bad about not doing so. He talked about the progress made. He reminded us that big issues and big successes are the result of a constellation of small things. And he encouraged us to be optimistic, that people follow optimistic leaders. He asked us to be proud, committed and fearlessly optimistic.

He talked about the National Health Care CEO Council on Gun Violence Prevention and Safety taking the pledge to prioritize the health and safety of our communities. 50 health system CEOs have signed the pledge and are united to fight gun violence. He talked about how even a few years ago he couldn’t get anyone to sign something like this. The response he got back then was it’s too political, their board wouldn’t like it, there were NRA members on their board, and so on. 50 is progress and we can hope that in the future it will be hundreds. Continue reading

End of year thoughts and advice for 2023

This week in between holidays is a time when leaders may be working a more relaxed schedule and planning for the coming year. When I was a full-time CIO, I appreciated this last week of the year with few to no meetings and the opportunity to cleanup, catchup, and prepare for the new year.

While the past three years have at times been a blur as I try to recall when certain pandemic related events and changes happened, and the political discourse is incredibly discouraging at times, I remain optimistic about our collective future.

Health IT leaders will continue to face staffing challenges and cost constraints as organizations are under increased financial pressures. The successful health IT leaders in 2023 will be those who can partner effectively with their peers as a member of the executive team, support their organization’s strategic priorities and goals, find ways to reduce costs without reducing services, create flexible work environments with workforce strategies that ensure the best talent on the team, and embrace new and innovative technologies that solve real problems and improve the patient, clinician, and employee experience.

As in previous years, my StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, has again written an excellent year end blog – 12 Steps to Prepare for 2023 – Big Challenges – Bigger Opportunities. His 12 steps are worth considering as you plan for 2023. And his intro is a powerful reminder of why we work in healthcare and the kind of people we should strive to be in all our interactions:

“Healthcare is a people business.  We need to remind ourselves and our coworkers that mercy and compassion, not anger, define our profession and us as professionals.  We need to model mercy and compassion in our personal lives, in our interpersonal relationships, not just with family and friends, but with strangers and, equally important, our coworkers and business partners.  One way to do that is through genuine listening in pursuit of true understanding – so easy to say, so difficult to do.  Give others an avenue to express themselves.   For your own sake, lower your defenses.  As you create a list of resolutions for the new year, please add to it active and courageous listening, building trust, and treating everyone with kindness.”

May your 2023 be a healthy, peaceful year filled with kindness!

Ban books? No, encourage young readers

It’s that time of year – whatever holiday you celebrate during this Season of Gratitude there is likely some gift giving involved. You may have an obligatory attitude of just getting it done or (hopefully) a more positive giving attitude spending time selecting thoughtful and more personalized gifts. When I had leadership teams reporting to me, I would give them a book each year. It was often the hardest gift to buy – deciding on the perfect book that they would all like. Over the years, my books included some of the best titles on innovation, leadership, technology, public health and more.

Now my holiday gift book buying is all for younger people. In addition to the one big gift for each of my grandchildren, I get them a book. I will be starting two of them on the “National Geographic Kids Almanac 2023” this year – it is filled with information on animals, science, nature, technology, conservation, and more.  I bought “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Inspiring Young Changemakers” for one of the granddaughters at my daughter’s suggestion. I was delighted to get the suggestion as I have been patiently waiting for my granddaughters to be old enough so I could start buying some of the feminist books for girls I see in bookstores. And for my grandson who loves all sports and is learning to read, I’m getting a fun story he should like – “The Dog That Stole Football Plays”. The football player on the cover has a “Jets” jersey on and that happens to be the name of my grandson’s flag football team. Hoping he loves the story, and it encourages him to read more!

I have another book buying annual holiday tradition that continues. I buy a book for each of my grandnephews and grandnieces back home in Minneapolis where I’m from and where my siblings and their families all live. That group is older – mostly teenagers. So, we have progressed over the years from picture books when they were little to books focused on their interests including baseball, ballet, and opera during middle school years, to more scholarly and political books now that they are in high school. For example – “A Choice of Weapons” by Gordon Parks, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas”, and “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene. I count on my three nieces to help me with recommendations and to understand their kids’ evolving interests. The grandnephew who wanted baseball books when he was younger is now into Nordic skiing and heavy metal with his own band. Yes, with my sister’s (their grandmother) help, I found a book he will like.

I can’t talk about nurturing young readers without mentioning the current banned books controversy that goes hand in hand with concerns about teaching critical race theory and talking about LGBTQ. Continue reading