Ted Lasso leadership lessons

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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 →

Healthcare for all: ensuring inclusivity in LGBTQ+ patient care

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June is Pride Month. In recent years, LGBTQ+ rights have come under attack. All this after the landmark Supreme Court decision in 2015 supporting marriage equality. These attacks are taking many forms – “Don’t Say Gay” bills in state legislatures, bans on drag queen story hours, protests and intimidation at events, bomb threats at children’s hospitals providing gender affirming care, and more.

A March 7, 2023, piece in the Boston Globe by Renee Graham, “Understanding the intersectionality of hate”, begins by highlighting the number of bills pending in state legislatures. “The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking more than 380 anti-LGBTQ bills in nearly three dozen state legislatures, ranging from bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth to prohibiting classroom discussions about LGBTQ people or issues”.

In the face of these attacks and threats, and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, allyship is more important than ever. Who doesn’t have a gay family member, friend, or colleague? Allyship is showing up and speaking up. There are many ways to do this as individuals and organizations, especially during Pride Month.

In 2015 I wrote a post titled “Marriage equality, it’s personal”.  I talked about the experience of my aunt when her longtime partner was hospitalized in her final days and how my aunt was treated. That was 1990. We’ve come a long way in healthcare but need to continue these efforts given the strong anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments.

I’m proud to have worked at Boston Children’s Hospital in recent years. Despite bomb threats due to their gender affirming care program, they are not deterred from their ongoing commitment to providing comprehensive and affirming treatment for LGBTQ+ patients and families. They have been awarded the Healthcare Equality Index’s (HEI) Leadership Status every year since 2015. They provide LGBTQ+ patient and family centered care in four key areas: patient non-discrimination, equal visitation, employment non-discrimination, and training in LGBTQ+ patient and family centered care.

The HEI is the national LGBTQ+ benchmarking tool that evaluates healthcare facilities’ policies and practices related to the equity and inclusion of their LGBTQ+ patients, visitors, and employees. Nearly 500 healthcare facilities achieved the top score of 100 in 2022 and earned the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader designation.

My 2015 blog also referenced this HEI designation. I was working at Michigan Medicine then and they too were recognized with HEI Leadership Status. I closed that blog hoping that in the coming years, thousands more healthcare organizations would receive this same designation. There is progress, but more is needed.

Resources:

National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center – Ten Strategies for Creating Inclusive Health Care Environments for LGBTQIA+ People

Human Rights Campaign Foundation – Transgender-Affirming Hospital Policies

Memorial Day: remembering the sacrifice, celebrating the summer

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This coming holiday weekend for most of us is the first bookend of the summer season. It’s a time for picnics and barbeques, gathering with family and friends. Depending on where you live, it may be warm enough for a first beach trip and swimming pools open for the season.

But we can’t forget that Memorial Day as a holiday honors the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. The history of this holiday may surprise you. Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day, originating in the years following the Civil War. In 1950, Congress passed a resolution requesting that the president issue a proclamation calling on Americans to observe Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace. It became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many people observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials and participating in local parades.

As a child growing up in Minneapolis my family had the annual tradition of visiting graves on Memorial Day. We went to Fort Snelling National Cemetery to visit my father’s grave and then to smaller nearby cemeteries to visit my grandmother’s grave and a great uncle’s grave. Anyone who has been to a national cemetery with rows and rows of uniform white grave markers is moved by the experience. We are reminded of so many who have given unselfish service to our country.

My husband and I had the opportunity last summer to visit the American Cemetery at Normandy in France. That was a very moving experience. Visiting Omaha Beach just prior to that and learning more about the landings on D-Day, then seeing the thousands of graves at Normandy was a sobering reminder of what fighting for our freedom has meant.

I hope that as you enjoy the long holiday weekend you will hold in your heart the memories of all those whose lives are celebrated on Memorial Day.

Inspiring the next generation of healthcare heroes

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It’s Health Technology Management Week, a time to celebrate and thank all the biomed technicians and clinical engineers who make up the critically important HTM teams in our hospitals. Not being involved in AAMI as I was over the past decade, I thought I didn’t have anything new to say this year. And then I saw a social media post that inspired this week’s topic. What better way to celebrate and acknowledge the work of our HTM teams than to highlight the need for more HTM professionals in the future.

Like many healthcare professions, HTM faces staffing shortages now and into the future. Educating young people about health careers and building a pipeline is one aspect of addressing those shortages.

“Ollie the Biomed” by Chace Torres is a new children’s book that describes what a biomed technician does. Like other children’s books about different jobs and careers, it makes the life of a biomed technician exciting and attractive. And it is written from the firsthand experience of a proud biomed tech and dad who is well aware of the staffing shortage in this field. Torres is the lead technician for Texas-based medical equipment manufacturer SPBS Inc.

AAMI featured the book in this May 2, 2023 article: “Meet Ollie, the Biomed ‘Device Doctor’ Who’s Teaching Children About Fixing Problematic Medical Products”. An excerpt from the article:

Torres, who also shines a light on the HTM profession via an ongoing podcast, says it’s more important than ever that young people are exposed to a “profession struggling to build awareness, [because] the majority of the workforce is set to retire within the next decade,” he wrote in an overview of his book.

The book is “about inspiring those who are younger and letting them know that there are other jobs out there besides those found in a typical children’s book—the standard professions that all kids see, whether it’s a police officer, firefighter, or doctor,” Torres said. “Many people have reached out to me who have purchased the book or have bought it for somebody else, and they will say, ‘My son, or my daughter, or my grandchild had no idea what I did as a biomed, but after reading the book, they understand and loved it.’”

The book description on Amazon provides more background:

This children’s book is a depiction of the profession known as Biomedical Equipment Technician, AKA “Medical Device Doctor.” Ollie the Biomed experiences a work day repairing, calibrating, and solving real world problems found within the everyday job of a Biomed. It illustrates the complex but rewarding career filled with so many devices used in healthcare today to treat patients. Biomeds are directly responsible for inspecting, repairing, calibrating, and managing all aspects of any medical device found in hospitals today. I wrote this book for my son to learn exactly what his dad does and why I love what I do each and every day. I hope to inspire kids across the world to seek out more information and become Biomeds because it is truly rewarding and fun.

Torres is an advocate for his profession in other ways. Since 2021 he has hosted “Bearded Biomed”, a podcast that drops twice a month. Some of his recent topics: Women in HTM, the 2022 HTM Salary Survey, and Dealing with Biomed Burnout. Continue reading →

Amplifying the voice of nurses

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May 6-12 is National Nurses Week. Nursing has been the most trusted profession for the past 20 years according to a Gallup Poll. That’s no surprise when you think about the nurses you have interacted with as a patient or as a colleague.

I’ve written a post about nurses almost every year since I started this blog. Do I have anything truly new to say this year? Yes, in that I want to highlight how the past three years has taken a toll on all our clinicians, in particular nurses. The public health emergency is expiring. Health care providers are adapting their policies as they continue to deliver care. We have entered a new phase for healthcare organizations, staff, patients, and families.

Staffing challenges are at the top of the list of concerns for many health executives – staff shortages and clinician burnout. There are no easy solutions. The toll of the past few years on our nurses was highlighted in a May 2nd NPR article by Jaclyn Diaz – “Nearly a third of nurses nationwide say they are likely to leave the profession“. The article starts with some sobering findings from the 2023 Survey of Registered Nurses conducted by AMN Healthcare. The survey examined the impact of COVID-19 on the career plans, job satisfaction, and mental health and wellness of more than 18,000 RNs. Key findings:

  • Close to 1/3 of nurses nationwide say they are likely to leave the profession for another career due to the pandemic. This level is up 7 points since 2021.
  • 89% of RNs said the nursing shortage is worse than five years ago, 80% expect that to get much worse in another five years.
  • Younger generations of nurses are also less satisfied with their jobs compared to their older counterparts.
  • 80% of nurses experience high levels of stress at work, an increase of 16 points from 2021.
  • 77% of nurses reported feeling emotionally drained, up from 62% in 2021.

Of all the blog posts I’ve written about nurses, this one from five years ago has the strongest message – “Celebrate nurses, but more importantly listen to them”.  This is true now more than ever. From the bedside to the boardroom we need to listen, amplify, and prioritize the voice of nurses.

IT leaders won’t solve the staffing challenges. But we have a role to play. The systems and solutions we provide and support as health IT leaders and vendors must help nurses do their job more easily and efficiently, not make it harder. We need to reduce the burden on nurses and ensure they are integrally involved in decision making, prioritization, and design processes.

From workaholic to fitness enthusiast: living a healthier lifestyle

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When I turned 50, I joined a gym – it was a birthday present to myself. Many years of working long hours, commuting, and raising two daughters kept me from regular workouts. I figured at 50 it was well past time. I knew that no one at work was going to come into my office at 6pm and tell me to go home and take care of myself. I had to own it. I have belonged to a gym almost continuously since then though I’ve lived at 5 different addresses in that time.

I had another major milestone birthday last week. And I can honestly say I have never been as physically active as I am now. Go figure. Guess that’s what happens when you work less!

At a minimum, I walk a 1.3 mile loop late afternoon almost every day with our two dogs. I go to 4 classes a week at the YMCA if I register before there are wait lists. I play pickleball every day I can when the weather is good. And I’ve signed up with a women’s golf group to play 9 holes once a week when my schedule allows – I know this will be more fun and social than exercise.

If you are a golfer, you know that’s a humbling experience! From 2000 to 2012, I had periods where I golfed 9 holes once a week but never took lessons. In the past 10 years, I’ve golfed only a few times at charity outings. We moved to a planned community in late 2021 and our townhouse is on one of the two golf courses. We see a lovely but challenging par 3 hole from our deck – we see golfers tee off hoping to hit it over the junk and then we see them hunt for their ball around the green. This summer I decided it was time to get back into golf myself. Continue reading →

Navigating the AI landscape in healthcare: HIMSS23 recaps and more

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Last week I jumped in on the hot topic of AI with my post, “AI in healthcare – is 2023 the breakout year?”. HIMSS23 was just wrapping up so I was waiting to hear overall recaps and especially updates on AI and ChatGPT.

Those recaps came as expected. Here’s a short compilation of several I found:

And finally, a resource to keep watching and listening to is Bill Russell’s This Week Health. His most recent Newsday show was “Today: Deploying Chat-GPT in your setting”. He references an article by Jonathan Balaban, a data scientist, and emphasizes the need for governance and security. Bill sees a lot of potential for ChatGPT but argues organizations need boundaries. As my favorite television news anchor likes to say, “watch this space”.

The use of AI in healthcare is evolving quickly. Every vendor seems to be an AI vendor in some form, or so they say. CIOs need to stay current, leverage their current vendor partners, carefully assess the new niche players and their claims, develop AI skills within their teams, and find ways to experiment that make the most sense for their organization.

If you have AI stories to share, please do. I may use them in future posts.

AI in healthcare – is 2023 the breakout year?

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It has been a while since I wrote on a technology subject. I usually leave it to others who stay much more current and are doing the day-to-day IT work in healthcare organizations. But the rapid acceleration of generative AI with ChatGPT the past several months has caught my attention.

I put my toe in the water and asked it to draft some marketing messages for me several weeks ago. For first drafts, they weren’t too bad. Using ChatGPT in this way gets you past the blank sheet of paper (or screen) and writer’s block. Or as my minister husband would say at times when writing a sermon, you need to get past picking out the font.

My StarBridge Advisors colleague, David Muntz, recently used ChatGPT to do an internal presentation on AI for our advisor team and gave ChatGPT “co-author” credit to make a point.

Bill Russell has talked about it often on This Week Health podcasts. He and his team are exploring ways they can use it in their business. Here are just a few of the podcasts he’s done on ChatGPT:

Generative AI, the new Medical Generalist

GPT4 Use ideas and Use Cases

ChatGPT4 on ChatGPT4

Several health system digital leaders told Becker’s that AI can only do so much in this article dated March 16, 2023, “How far is too far for AI in healthcare?”, and how it needs to be thought as of “augmented intelligence”. Ashish Atreja, MD, CIO and chief digital health officer of UC Davis Health said it well, “Machines lack internal consciousness, and the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Roles that depend on human empathy and critical decision-making in ambiguous situations can be supported but should never be replaced by AI.”

David Muntz’s blog post from October, 2022, “AI and AI – Use Them Responsibly”, talks about artificial intelligence and augmented intelligence. His view is similar to the digital leaders quoted in the Becker’s article. David closes his post by saying, “AI and AI should not be seen as ways to replace humans but as technologies that allow us to instantiate learnings from the human experience.  AI applied responsibly and compassionately allows people to share evidence-based practices and focus on the more human-oriented tasks that cannot be automated.  Importantly, AI helps us recover time to spend on our community, our providers, our patients, their families, and ourselves.”

The potential for medical AI is so significant that there will be a new AI-themed journal from the New England Journal of Medicine called NEJM AI. The inaugural editor-in-chief is Isaac Kohane, founding chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. Continue reading →

HIMSS as a networking event

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For those of you attending HIMSS23 in Chicago next week, it will be a mix of education, vendors, and networking. Let’s face it, while education and the exhibit hall are what our organizations are willing to invest in, networking is what we all look forward to each year. Seeing colleagues we’ve known for years, finally meeting in person people we’ve only known on zoom, and making new connections. Especially after a few years of virtual only conferences.

I won’t be attending this year. But that doesn’t stop me from giving some advice on the networking front.

Whether you are in transition and looking to make connections for your next opportunity or you are focused on learning from your peers and sharing success (and failure) stories from your own work, effective networking is critical to your work and your career.

Here’s some general networking advice:

Network extensions – Everyone you know knows a few more people who could potentially be helpful. Proactively and respectfully work your network.

Professionalism – Always present yourself as the consummate professional whether at work, online, or in business interactions after hours.

Two-way street – Figure out what you need from a connection and what you can offer to them.

Diligent follow-up – If you commit to provide a reference, make an introduction, or something else, be sure to do it in a timely manner.

Networking is one of the greatest values of the annual HIMSS conference and HIMSS provides many ways to find people with similar interests as yours. Here’s some slightly modified advice specific to HIMSS from previous years posts: Continue reading →

What makes an effective sales approach?

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HIMSS23 is less than two weeks away. The second annual ViVE event happened last week. It is a busy time of year for healthcare vendors and their sales staff. I’ve been on both sides of this relationship – for many years as CIO and buyer and for fewer years selling services. It gives me a unique vantage point.

Buyers attending these conferences will be looking at vendors who have solutions they need now (and have budget for) and vendors who are new and interesting with innovative and niche solutions that they may want to explore further in the coming year (explore is the key word here). And they will be meeting with their current vendors to strengthen connections and get educated on what is newly available or coming soon as they leverage their existing investments.

Sales staff will be working hard to get the attention of potential buyers. They may even reach that stage of annoying and overbearing. We all know that kind of salesperson.

In my work as principal at StarBridge Advisors, I recognize it’s all about relationships. As I said in a previous blog post, 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 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.

My husband and I were recently on the buyer side of a sales discussion. By the end I thought, this will blog, meaning, there’s a kernel here to learn from and share. So, what happened? Continue reading →