RWL Newsletter #97 - all about innovation
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! We had our first snow storm of the year last night - and what a mess! About 6 inches of snow, but then it rained on top of it, so the snow was so heavy I couldn't even use my snow blower. I had to clear the driveway the old fashioned way, and my back is not happy!
This week's theme is innovation. I thought about that as my otherwise beast of a snow blower totally failed me today. I hope you think these are kind of cool and fun, and provide you some insights as leaders.
Read
What: Atul Gawande in The New Yorker, Why Doctors Hate Their Computers
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/why-doctors-hate-their-computers
Why: Atul Gawande is a surgeon at Partners Healthcare in Boston and, among other things, a best selling author and columnist with the New Yorker. This appears to be his latest piece. I've heard from providers for years how much they hate electronic medical records. This quote from the article summarizes their disdain: "The surgeons at the training session ranged in age from thirty to seventy, I estimated—about sixty per cent male, and one hundred per cent irritated at having to be there instead of seeing patients."
What I really liked was Gawande's quote from a chief clinical officer about how the real beneficiaries are the patients:
“But we think of this as a system for us and it’s not,” he said. “It is for the patients.” While some sixty thousand staff members use the system, almost ten times as many patients log into it to look up their lab results, remind themselves of the medications they are supposed to take, read the office notes that their doctor wrote in order to better understand what they’ve been told. Today, patients are the fastest-growing user group for electronic medical records.
As with all Gawande's writing, it's worth the time.
Watch
What: Planet Money, The Price Tag Hasn't Always Existed, It Had To Be Invented (3 minutes)
https://youtu.be/FcWgvRXbet8
Why: One of the big ideas in healthcare is calls for price transparency. As it turns out, the idea of price transparency is a relatively new innovation. It's actually a technology that we take for granted. I love this little video because it makes the point that a no-haggle world exists primarily because it reduces transaction costs, which allowed us to build bigger stores and staff them with lower-skilled employees.
Listen
What: JAMA, Have Tent, Will Do Pop-Up HIV Screening (18 minutes)
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-jama-network/jama-medical-news-interviews-discussing-timely-topics-in-clinical/e/57112211
Why: This is an inspiring interview with some social entrepreneurs trying to change the world. As it turns out, you don't need fancy buildings and equipment to move ahead on a public health crusade. These two guys bought tents and HIV testing kits and went to work serving communities in need. Check it out.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau