There are just so many hours in the day. We can choose what we say yes to and what we say no to. As part of my commitment to developing next generation leaders, I always say yes to individual requests from 
students and invitations to be a guest speaker at a school. And I never know what other potential connections might come from it.
One of those requests came in October. I got a LinkedIn message asking to be on a panel at the annual Boston Young Healthcare Professionals (BYHP) conference. The young woman who reached out had been an intern in our program at Michigan Medicine when I was CIO. I quickly said yes.
The conference was on “Expanding Our View and Zooming In: What We Can Learn About Healthcare in Our Backyard and Around the World”. My panel was “Healthcare in a Technological Era: Making Boston’s Backyard Even Bigger”. Robert Schultz, managing director at Massnex, was the moderator. On the panelist prep call, I got to know Robert and the other panelists. Robert and I quickly realized that there might be opportunities to work together in the future, so we scheduled a separate call. That call led to another invitation.
Robert teaches the course “Entrepreneurship in Healthcare Organizations” in the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service MPA program at NYU. He asked if I would be a judge for the final class when the students make their business plan pitches – he said think “Shark Tank” but nicer. Of course, I said yes.
The class was this week. The students are not business students but rather healthcare workers, either clinicians or staff working in support functions within healthcare systems. Their business plans focused on problems and gaps they see firsthand in their current jobs. I was impressed with the problem statements and creative solutions the students presented including products focused on addressing social isolation, health smart cards, home triage, instant messaging, home care, telehealth, and drug adherence to name a few. In addition, I saw the challenges of virtual classrooms, even at the graduate level – varying skills with the presentation tools and a few access issues. I can only imagine what elementary school teachers must deal with these days.
My recent interactions with graduate students and young healthcare professionals gives me hope for the future. The energy, enthusiasm, and new solutions to old problems are what we need! Hard as 2020 has been for those in healthcare, the future is bright. I have wondered if the pandemic would deter or inspire more young people to go into healthcare. I am encouraged that nursing schools are seeing an uptick in applications and medical schools are seeing an 18% increase in applications – with some schools calling it the “Fauci effect”.
Here’s to a brighter future!
Related Posts:
7 Ways to develop the next generation of leaders
10 Tips for next generation leaders
Inspiring and developing new leaders – learning from the best
Shaping young minds and tomorrow’s leaders
Make career choices right for you