On Best Practices

It’s all about relationships

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I’m back in New England in the cold and snow with lots of follow-up tasks after the hyperstimulation of HIMSS19 and a much quieter visit with a friend and colleague on the Florida coast. Yes, that meant a canstockphoto15501323 (1) handshake croppeddaily walk along the beach. As I prioritize and re-prioritize my to do’s, I am reminded that this business is all about relationships.

To show how important the relationships are that I’ve built in my 30 plus years in health IT, here’s some of my scheduled and add-on meetings/calls this week:

  • A discussion with someone who worked on my IT team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital many years ago. She is now a sales director for a security vendor and needed a CIO perspective – she reached out on LinkedIn and I agreed to do a call.
  • Conversations with a few CIOs who are interested in working with StarBridge Advisors as potential advisors. Mutual connections introduced us.
  • A search firm I’d been in touch with years ago contacted me and now I am interviewing for a board position with a vendor.
  • A business partner of a colleague invited me to discuss with an investor the potential to join their advisory board.
  • Talking through an opportunity to host monthly podcasts with a colleague I’ve known for 3 years.

Yes, it’s all about relationships. But it’s not just about who you know. It’s about who you are and how you show up with people. You need to be capable and competent with the right knowledge and experience, but also honest and authentic with high integrity. That’s what it takes to be successful in a business that is all about relationships.

One of the best pieces of sales advice I got from a colleague last year was the “know-like-trust-need” model. People need to know who you are and what you can do, they need to like you, and they need to trust you. If you have all that, when they need you, they’ll call you. Simple. That’s why I focus on relationships. Continue reading →

2018 Countdown – top 10 blog posts

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It’s the time of year for top 10 lists and countdowns so I’m adding mine to the mix. These are my most read blog posts from 2018. If you missed any of them first time around now is your chance to check them Top10out.

I cover a range of topics and it looks like readers appreciate the variety. Here are the top 10 as measured by total views with a countdown from number 10:

#10 – Find your voice, a mentor and be bold – Career advice is always a popular topic whether you are early or late in your career.

#9 – What does a high value conference look like? – There are many ways to spend time and money on professional development, some conferences provide unique value.

#8 – Family ties – we all have a story – It’s important to know where we come from to understand who we are.

#7 – Technology making a difference at scale – One of my personal favorites! The power of technology takes many forms. In Africa, drones can be lifesaving.

#6 – 8 Signs of a strong security culture – Security is always a topic of interest as threats continue to increase and organizations are challenged to keep up. Continue reading →

Own your health

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That’s exactly what I did the past 6 months. And this week I graduated. From physical therapy that is. I’ve been cut loose. The next few months is all about me maintaining a daily discipline of stretches and canstockphoto15299929 (1) healthstrengthening exercises.

I first shared this journey in the post “Is there an app for that?” back in June. I also talked then about the importance of patient engagement and personalization.

I’m now around a 2-3 on the pain scale and closer to 2 most of the time. My physical therapist said if in a few months, I’m slipping back or feeling more pain I should get another prescription for more PT sessions from my PCP.

The stretches are much easier to make time for every day. There is short term gain plus a tangible benefit – I actually feel less pain. The strengthening exercises are harder to fit in, especially when I get busy or am travelling. With strengthening, there is no short term gain or tangible benefit – it’s all about the long term. Like going to the gym and doing weights.

The recent Fall ritual of raking leaves, bagging them, then carrying them to the curb led to a lot of pain. When I took care of my 2 ½ year old grandson and his 4-year-old sister recently for almost three days, all the lifting involved set me back. And I know the inevitable snow shoveling that is coming this winter will do so as well. My lower back muscles hurt just from all the coughing I’ve done the past 3 weeks with a bad chest cold.

My physical therapist says be sure to engage my core muscles at all these times and it won’t be so bad. I’m sure she’s right. I will try.

I am well armed with knowledge. I know what I need to do and how to do it. Will I slip backwards or continue to own it? Having lived with this low back and hip pain for years until it got so bad that I finally decided to get help, I know how bad it can be.

It’s now up to me. I need to continue to own it. As with any habit or exercise program, time will tell. Maybe an exercise tracking app or just an old-fashioned paper log is what I need.

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Making time to give back

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As I noted in my recent post on tips for business travelers, I’ve been on the road a lot lately. Some of that travel has been for what I call “give back time”. Over the years I’ve participated on various boards andcanstockphoto28010569 (1) giving back committees, volunteering my time to advance our industry.

But it’s not all about giving – I get plenty from it as well.

I’m in my sixth year on the AAMI board. For this second three-year term, I’ve also been a member-at-large on the executive committee which means an extra day of meetings twice a year and more materials to review beyond the core board work.

As part of the AAMI board I have had the opportunity to get to know a diverse set of senior leaders in the medical technology industry. This includes the CEO of Steris, the Chief Quality Officer of BD, the Global Product Security & Services Officer for Royal Philips, and the Director for Health Technology Management for the VA – just to name a few. There are several board members from provider organizations including physician and health technology management (HTM) leaders. Along with a healthcare CIO on the board, Pam Arora from Children’s Health in Dallas, I offer a health IT and CIO perspective. Different than the contributions that other members make.

As a board we learn from one another and help advance the mission of AAMI which is to lead global collaboration in the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. Continue reading →

9 Tips for better business travel

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I have been travelling a lot for business during the last three weeks: Boston for a conference, New York City for meetings, Florida for client work, and now St. Louis and Washington D.C. as part of my industry canstockphoto888303 (1) business travelinvolvement and “giveback” work.  A colleague suggested that I share my tips for managing business travel. Here goes:

You can work anywhere: To reduce flying time and to keep options open for client meetings, I will opt to do a multiple city flight, instead of round trips  to be home for just one night. We can work anywhere, so why not work from a hotel room for a day?  However, this year I missed Halloween with my grandkids which I regret. Will try to avoid that next year!

Travel logistics – I really dislike making flight reservations and sifting through the options. I rely on my administrative support staff to handle as much of my travel arrangements as possible. I know there are apps that you can use to track it all but I’ve yet to adopt them. Once everything is confirmed, having a one-page itinerary with all the info for the trip I need is an extremely helpful reference.

Planning for the weather – You might be dealing with a 30+ degree difference in the temperature when travelling to multiple cities. I watch my weather app a few days in advance and think about clothes that will work with the weather changes. Then figure out what kind of outerwear I need for the coolest temps.

Packing – There’s no question that men have it easier than women when it comes to what clothes to pack. Men have almost a uniform that serves them for a few days – sports coat, slacks and a couple shirts or just one suit and different ties. Women need to create their own simple interchangeable uniform. Think basics and know that black is your friend (dress, skirt, slacks, jacket). You can always change it up with accessories. Then there are the shoes – go for comfort and 1-2 pairs that work with everything.

Paper files – Organizing your work is as important as packing the right clothes. Having most everything you need online or on your laptop means a lot less paper to carry these days. But make sure you have what you need either electronically or on paper to keep things moving while you are travelling. Continue reading →

Innovation or disruption?

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“You only call it a disruption because you didn’t create it – stop being disrupted, innovate.” That was just one of the messages in the opening keynote from Terry Jones at the fifth Annual Thought Leaders on Access Symposium (ATLAS) in Boston this week. His talk was titled “Turning Disruption OFF and Turning canstockphoto30429373 (1) innovationInnovation ON”.

As an entrepreneur with an impressive history, Terry Jones knows what he’s talking about. He is best known for founding Travelocity.com and serving as founding Chairman of Kayak.com. As consumers, we’ve experienced the disruptive innovations in the travel industry. As healthcare leaders, we were challenged by Terry to consider the innovations and disruptions yet to come in our industry.

ATLAS is a patient access conference for hospital and health system leaders sponsored by Kyruus for their customers and invited guests. Kyruus is a software firm that offers provider search, scheduling, and data management solutions to help health systems match patients with the right providers and enhance patient access enterprise-wide. This year’s theme was “Systemness. Ignited.” with excellent speakers on innovation and digital transformation in healthcare. The focus of the conference was on patient and consumer engagement. Health systems such as Banner Health and Piedmont Healthcare, leaders in transforming the patient experience, shared their stories.

It was inspiring to see so many healthcare leaders passionate about improving the patient experience. I’ve been in health IT management for decades and I was humbled to hear leaders from marketing, patient access, and innovation teams talk about getting things done in spite of roadblocks they sometimes face from IT. Continue reading →

Investing in you: continuous learning

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What was the last webinar you participated in? What was the last podcast you listened to? What was the last book or in-depth article you read to learn something new? The bigger question is do you have a canstockphoto14781905 (1) learningcontinuous learning plan?

One of the things I love about working in healthcare and technology is the pace of change and that there is always something new to learn. But that is also one of the challenges. So how do we keep up?

Don’t doubt that having a continuous learning plan is important for your career. The most recent This Week in Health IT podcast was interviews with six CIOs. Bill Russell asked them each the same five questions. The last question was what did they wish they knew or had done before they started their current role. A theme in the answers was around staff development – needing their staff to develop new skills and developing their leadership teams.

There are many different options and formats for ongoing training and learning to consider. You may prefer reading or webinars or podcasts or classroom training. Most likely you need a combination of all.

A few observations and tips from my own experience:

Reading: What used to be a stack of publications piled up in my office to read has now become a lot of bookmarked articles to read online. I read a lot of articles each week and add more to my list, even though I may not get to them. Having a few good “go to” resources and knowing your key areas of interest help manage and filter out the noise.

Webinars: You could spend several hours a week just doing webinars. Focus on a few “go to” resources and register for the ones that are most relevant to what you need to know. Or register for something new that you want to learn about. Once you put it on your calendar, consider it like any meeting. Continue reading →

Make career choices right for you

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One of the highlights of my week was participating in an American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) panel series with several Boston area healthcare leaders. The panel was part of a series focused canstockphoto13994976 (1) careeron early careerists and co-sponsored by the Boston Young Healthcare Professionals (BYHP). The panel was titled “Making the Next Move: Career Positioning and Proactively Managing Your Career Development”.

We covered a range of topics – taking ownership of your own career, knowing yourself and clarifying your roadmap, the work-life balancing act, gender and cultural diversity, personal branding and using social media, and generational differences.

Ted Witherell, Director of Organization Development and Learning Services, at Partners Healthcare was one of the other panelists. He posed three key questions when thinking about your career:

  • What brings you joy?
  • Are you good at it?
  • Does the world need you to do it?

These questions seemed to resonate with the audience. They came up often during the Q&A period as attendees sought to connect the experiences and advice being shared by the panelists with their own situations.

As the only woman on the five-member panel, I wanted to make sure I spoke directly to the women in the audience on challenges women face. At times, one of those challenges is having self-confidence. I encouraged everyone to check out the excellent article from a few years ago, “The Confidence Gap” by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman published in The Atlantic. I highly recommend reading it to understand that “success correlates just as closely with confidence as it does with competence” and “that with work, confidence can be acquired”.

I also addressed the work-life balance that we all struggle with. Continue reading →

7 HIT blog and podcast recommendations

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I started blogging in 2014. It was a way to share experiences from many years as a health IT leader and to teach others. When I see the number of subscribers to my blog and 100,000 views to date, I think it’scanstockphoto58340963 (1) subscribe fair to say my blogs are having an impact. As long as that’s the case, I will keep blogging.

I was honored to see my blog named for the second year in a row to HealthTech’s Must-Read Health IT Blogger List. Here are some of the ones on that list that I plan to start reading more regularly:

Susannah Fox – She is the former CTO of HHS and covers a range of topics to help people and organizations navigate at the intersection of health and technology.

Inside the Mind of a Healthcare CIO by David Chou, Vice President / Chief Information & Digital Officer for Children’s Mercy Kansas City – I knew David was prolific on social media. I regularly read and share his content. But I didn’t realize that he was also writing a regular blog on a range of topics from his CIO experiences.

Health IT Buzz from ONC – This is a great way to keep up with what is coming from The Office of the National Coordinator and their perspective.

Health Populi by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn – I have met Jane at a few conferences in recent years and always find her insight and analysis to be very enlightening. She covers broad trends in healthcare. Something every IT leader should be tracking.

AAMI Blog – I may be biased as an AAMI board member, but I think all IT leaders need to be keeping tabs on what the issues are in the health technology management (HTM) world. Continue reading →

Never underestimate the importance of good communication

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When you go into business for yourself, you have to make a lot of decisions. One of the most important decisions is who to partner with. I have learned a lot from my two colleagues, David Muntz and Russ canstockphoto9328194 (1) communication word cloudRudish, in our StarBridge Advisors venture over the past two years. They have very different styles, skills, knowledge and experience. But together we make a great team!

Communication skills are critical no matter what business you are in or what level you are at in an organization. David recently wrote an excellent piece on communications for our StarBridge Advisors “View from the Bridge” blog – Meaningful Communication – 10 Lessons from Life.

His life lessons provide an important framework for successful communication in all forms. And as he says, without communication, collaboration is difficult.

I highly recommend you check out David’s blog post. And if you like what you see, read more of our View from the Bridge posts and subscribe to receive notifications of new posts.

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