Kenneth Altman, MD, PhD, FACS, serves as Chair, Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Geisinger Health System and Professor at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.
Kenneth will serve on the panel "Balancing Diverse Clinical Teams for Better Patient Outcomes" at Becker's Hospital Review 12th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place in Chicago from April 25-28, 2022.
To learn more about the conference and Kenneth's session, click here.
Q: How do you plan to pivot strategies this year to better serve patients?
Kenneth Altman: Coming from a surgical discipline, there’s an incredible need to address the back-log of patient care. So much time and resources across the industry have been consumed by COVID over the last 2 years, which means that we have that much more care to address (world-wide). We need to develop new approaches and maybe even a paradigm shift with innovations to create improved efficiencies in the operating room and ambulatory clinics.
Q: What technologies and innovations are you most excited about in healthcare right now?
KA: Telemedicine, teleconferencing, higher level health system coordination, and EHR patient outreach are bringing all of us closer together and across state lines. Digital platforms are often without traditional borders, so I expect a greater emergence of multi-state professional licenses, such as with the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission. These technologies increase access for patient care, but also expand the talent pool available to deliver best practice when we lift barriers.
Q: What will the lasting legacy of COVID-19 be on the healthcare system?
KA: Agility and preparedness. There have been so many twists and turns in the story of this sinister virus that we had to stay on top of change, including the surges, variants, understanding the science of transmission, optimizing patient care, telemedicine, teleconferencing, supply challenges, and the demographics of staffing to name a few. Ultimately we need to build “agility” into our culture while enhancing our team dynamics and real-time communications. I’m sure we would all agree that we should enter the next crisis better prepared, in part with these new skill sets.