Turning Doctors into Leaders

I just read a fabulous article in this month's issue of The Harvard Business Review entitled 'Turning Doctors into Leaders" by Thomas H. Lee that gave a lot of insight into the future of medicine and our role as physicians in that future.

Here are a few highlights-

• There is a transition happening from ART to FINANCE in the practice of medicine
• Performance and outcomes matter
• Focus on Teamwork
  
• Peer Pressure as an impact on performance of colleagues

The same issue includes "Fixing Health Care on the Front lines" by Richard Bohmer.

The author delves into what it will take to redesign the industry. His argument points to applying scientifically established practices for diagnosing and treating diseases (with flow-charts), fine-tuning those processes for diseases we still do not fully understand, and ultimately making strides in improving patient outcomes. This also includes eliminating waste as illustrated by the recent success in some hospitals through application of the Toyota Production System.

Can we be turned into these kind of leaders? Change in our field is inevitable and actually happening very rapidly as we speak. We as doctors have a responsibility to ourselves and our patients to be open to ways that ultimately benefit the patient. This means involvement with quality assurance issues within our own institutions. This also calls for putting individualistic tendencies aside and communicating more efficiently with our colleagues to ensure the BEST outcomes for our patients. Can health care be fixed on the front lines? It is up to us.

Check out these articles online....

http://hbr.org/2010/04/turning-doctors-into-leaders/ar/1
http://hbr.org/2010/04/fixing-health-care-on-the-front-lines/ar/1