Look to the future of health care

Recently I attended a presentation by a health care leader who talked to a large audience about the key aspects of leadership, in particular women in leadership. She mentioned having a vision for the future, building relationships, and creating balance in your life. She received a lot of nods and smiles as she spoke. I can’t disagree with her, the points she made are repeated in the literature and by consultants. However the nagging thought that crossed my mind is, this is too safe. How are we going to make the drastic changes needed in the health care industry if we play it safe. I don’t think we really know what the future holds, as described by Ronald Heifetz health care is in an adaptive challenge. We are now bringing smart phones into the health care monitoring world, and soon into diagnostics. What does this mean for the doctor working in a clinic? Does he or she have any idea what the future looks like? I doubt it.

Perhaps relationships need to be broken. Not all of them, just those that don’t serve the needs of patients and their families. In some ways it has already started. Pharmaceutical companies are self-regulating to break past relationships with doctors, those that were detrimental to patient care. I don’t think it will end here. At the same time new relationships will occur. Through technology doctors are able to serve the needs in geographic areas previously untouched. This is the beginning of new delivery of care models where patients “see” doctors who are far away, building lasting relationships to improve health.

Lastly she talked about creating balance. I don’t think we need balance; we need resiliency. Coming out of the work of many researchers, and popular in The Blue Zones, we need to fully engage with our passions. This isn’t about doing equal amounts of work and play. It is about building a structure within ourselves that can handle the bumps and challenges of what drives us.

As health care leaders we have to bring forward the latest and best research. We can’t just repeat what was said 25 years ago. It is a new world and we need the drive and passion to do the work differently and risk failure. Inspiring conversations will lead to revision of failures into new ideas and innovations. I look forward to being part of this revolution.