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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Is there an app for that?

Apps aren’t enough

If not now, when?

Widen the circle

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Thanksgiving is often that day when we gather with family and friends, eat too much, maybe argue over politics, watch a lot of football, and generally have a good time being in the presence of people we carecanstockphoto21096824 (1) starts with you about. It’s that day when families widen their circle, make room at an already crowded table for friends and friends of friends who have no family nearby to be with.

I remember the last several Thanksgivings well. They represent our growing family.

Two of them were in Ann Arbor on long distance “baby watch”. In 2012, I was on my own having just started a new CIO position at Michigan Medicine. I was anxiously awaiting the call from our daughter in California to say she’d gone into labor and that I should get a ticket and fly out. It was our first grandchild. The plan was to help her out for the first week when they came home from the hospital. A couple I had met at church invited me to join their family on Thanksgiving as I waited. Two years later our second grandchild was due in Boston. Our best friends in Ann Arbor graciously invited my husband and I to join their family for Thanksgiving dinner as we waited for that call.

2013 was the only time we had our family at our Ann Arbor house – they travelled from both coasts for Thanksgiving. We also celebrated our grandchild’s first birthday together that long holiday weekend. And for my football fan son-in-law who grew up wanting to play for the University of Michigan, I bought tickets for everyone to go to the Michigan-Ohio game at the big house. A year to remember!

Over the next few years we became part of our Boston area daughter’s big extended family of in-laws. Now that my husband and I live in New England again and our California daughter and son-in-law live nearby, we have all been welcomed into the Boston area clan at the holidays. This Thanksgiving we were again part of that family but on a smaller scale. Continue reading →

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 →

The changing face of leadership

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Ayanna Presley, Sylvania Garcia, Veronica Escobar, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Deb Haaland, Sharice Davids, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, and Lauren Underwood.canstockphoto354515 (1) diversity

These are names you may not recognize now. But you will. They are some of the more than 100 women elected to the House of Representatives on November 6th. Women have never held more than 84 of the 435 house seats according to a November 8th Washington Post article by Mary Jordan – Record number of women heading to Congress.

Ayanna Presley is the first black congressperson elected from Massachusetts. Sylvania Garcia and Veronica Escobar are both from Texas and the first Latino women elected to the House of Representatives. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are the first Muslim women elected to the House. Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids are the first Native American women elected to the House; Sharice is the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in Kansas. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes is the youngest woman ever elected to the House at the age of 29.

Lauren Underwood is a 30-year-old nurse who will be the youngest black woman in Congress. In a district that is 86% white, she beat six men in the primary and unseated a four-term incumbent. Her campaign focused on healthcare.

Another woman to watch is Kyrsten Sinema. She now has a slight lead in the Arizona Senate race but it is still too close to call at the time of this writing. If she wins, she will be the first bisexual person elected to Congress.

Now that’s what I call a diverse group of determined women representing the next generation of leaders in Washington. 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 →

12 more days – forward together

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Pipe bombs sent via U.S. mail to critics of the president have dominated the news cycle for two days. These targets include former presidents, a former vice president, a former secretary of state and acanstockphoto5429849 (1) vote congresswoman. The person or group behind this domestic terrorism is still unknown. But we all know we are living in an ugly, divisive time in the history of our country. What have we become?

As the midterms approach, the divisiveness of the past several years has increased. Can we ever come together again?

We all can make a choice on who we want to represent us. The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy yet women and black people did not have this right until many years later. And we know that gaining that right was a hard fight. Fast forward to 2018 and voter suppression is rampant in several states. This makes your vote all that more critical.

If you live in an early voting state, you can exercise your right to vote any day through November 6th. If you do not, then you need to make time to cast your vote on November 6th.

There are many organizations and initiatives focused on getting people out to vote. When We All Vote is a new, non-partisan not-for-profit organization bringing together people to focus on our rights and responsibilities to shape our democracy. As they say, when we all vote, we can change the world. The good news is that early voting states are showing very high turnouts compared to previous elections.

Remember that the presidential election in 2016 was decided by less than half of the eligible voters. There is no electoral college at play in the midterms. Every vote counts!

Two years ago, I was filled with optimism leading up to the presidential election yet disappointed beyond words with the results. But I wanted to be optimistic in the following days. I wanted to believe the divisiveness would end and our president would try to be a president for all people.

I reread my post “Forward together” from November 11, 2016 this week. My optimism has waned and for good reason in the past two years. But I will vote again in 11 days and continue to look to the future. I encourage you to do the same.

Related Posts and Resources:

When We All Vote

Forward together

Build bridges, not walls

Who do we want to be?

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 →

Advancing healthcare through technology

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Healthcare is personal. Each of us knows stories of friends and family dealing with difficult medical issues. We hear how hard it can be to navigate the health system. It seems that one fills out the same information over canstockphoto21508588 (1) advancingand over and wonders why the physicians and hospitals don’t have it already. We hear how people must research their own conditions to make tough decisions about treatment options. We know there are access and affordability issues for many people.

As National Health IT week comes to an end, we must renew our commitment to make a positive impact on health care through technology.

I am fortunate to have worked with many passionate, committed people in healthcare over the past 30+ years. And I’m grateful to have a team of advisors working with us at StarBridge Advisors. Each has made an amazing and lasting impact on healthcare.

In our most recent StarBridge Advisors blog, “NHIT Week: 6 Leaders on the Value of HIT”, we discussed the value of health IT with six of our advisors. Their perspectives provide a lens into how technology is transforming healthcare though there is much more to do.

I encourage you to check out the perspectives shared by these CIOs and clinical leaders here. And if you like what you see, read more of our “View from the Bridge” posts and subscribe to receive notifications of new posts from our team of industry leaders.

Together, we all make a difference!

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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 →