Technology may be driving much of the innovation in health care, but people will still make the biggest difference.
“It is still a people-serving-people industry. That has not changed. What has changed is the enablement of technology and the innovation of technology,” said Dr. Gillian Kernaghan, President and CEO of St. Joseph’s Health Care, London. “Health care is about people caring for people enabled by technology and enriched by good environments.”
Kernaghan was a panellist at a recent Ivey International Centre for Health Innovation event, Leading Innovation in Health Systems. The panel also included Lisa Purdy, a Partner with Deloitte who specializes in health-system issues; and Dan Ross, the former Chair of the London Health Sciences Centre Foundation Board of Directors. The panel spoke about the importance of aligned interests, team work, and leadership in the face of a changing health-care system.
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Here are some of the key messages:
Technology is changing the role of the health-care provider
Kernaghan discussed how advances in technology are enabling faster diagnoses and changing the outcomes of some illnesses. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and certain cancers used to be death sentences in the ’80s, but can now be managed, she said. As a result, health-care providers will be more focused on the management of chronic diseases.
“Innovation has dramatically changed the population that we serve in health care. Health care used to be more about acute care. It’s now more about chronic care. How do we help people live well in spite of what they have because of genetics, or lifestyle, or injury?,” she said. “Our role now is to help people manage their own health over the long term and help them live well with whatever life has handed them.”
Alignment matters
When implementing system- or service-wide changes in health care, Purdy said it’s valuable to bring groups of people from various sectors, hospitals, or health-care settings together because they may have different ideas and perspectives. But the one constant should be the group’s overall objectives.
“Everybody can design the change on paper, but people need to align their business objectives and their personal interests to figure out how they are going to move a change forward. Until you surface that and get it on the table and get people to work through that, all the design on paper will never come to fruition,” she said. “When you’re looking at health-care changes, really understand people’s interests and don’t assume the business objectives align just because you’re all in health care.”
It takes teamwork
The way health care is delivered is also changing. The management of chronic diseases requires health-care providers with different areas of expertise to work together, said Kernaghan.
“It’s together that we will help people to live well. It’s not one hero; It’s a team that actually provides care,” she said. “That’s an important evolution in health care.”
Knowledge is power
Ross said he’s a proponent of educational programs that combine health care with another discipline, such as business, engineering, or life sciences, because future health-care providers will require diverse skills, backgrounds, and knowledge as well as leadership capabilities. His best advice: Learn as much as you can.
“That interchange of ideas leads to a greater education and, even more important, a greater understanding of what you’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “Become involved and understand the system. It is one of the most important things in our lives.”
