On October 9th, Dr. McSwain will serve on the panel “Evolving Technology, Disruptors, and Regulatory Issues in HIT” at Becker’s Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place October 9-12, 2019 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Dr. McSwain’s session, click here.
Question: What is the No. 1 principle you uphold and practice to effectively lead a team?
David McSwain: Always do the right things for the right reasons, and when you find others who are trying to do the same, find a way to work with them and do everything you can to empower them to achieve their goals. Their success will facilitate your own success. Your “team” isn’t just people in your reporting structure. It’s people who share your vision and are collaborating toward shared goals. Some of my most valuable teammates work in different departments, different organizations, or even different states. There’s no direct reporting relationship but we’ve accomplished some amazing things together. The key is identifying those people, understanding their goals and motivations, and then aligning them with others in a way that’s synergistic for everyone involved. When you do that, collaborative efforts evolve and succeed in a very organic way.
Q: What does healthcare need more of? Less of?
DM: We need to focus more on burnout in healthcare. The World Health Organization just named burnout an official medical diagnosis in June, but it’s been an increasing problem in healthcare for decades, and it’s a systemic issue, not an individual one. As was pointed out in a recent New York Times piece, the entire healthcare system in this country is completely dependent on our providers over-extending themselves well beyond a 40 hour work week on behalf of their patients, and it’s only getting worse. That’s not a sustainable approach. Technology gets a lot of attention as a cause of burnout, and inefficient technology implementations certainly exacerbate the issue, but the problems we face with technology today are more a symptom of the current healthcare environment than the underlying cause. We have to put our focus, at the highest levels of healthcare, on the optimization and alignment of health information technology to support the provider-patient relationship and reduce provider burden. That means designing systems that operate intuitively, in the background as much as possible and focus on personalization, interoperability, and mobility.
On the other hand, I think the focus on consumerism in healthcare, while important, can at times go too far. Focusing on the consumer is not the same as focusing on the patient. It risks depersonalizing healthcare and removing the emphasis on the importance of the provider-patient relationship. The real focus should be on giving our patients access to their data and the information that they need to make well-informed decisions about their healthcare, and on ensuring that they have access to the care that they need. We have to leverage and develop technologies that share knowledge, expand access and improve coordination of care. Healthcare institutions that do that will have a huge competitive advantage while maintaining a focus on patients.
Q: What is one topic or issue you’ve been investing time in to better understand as of late?
DM: I’ve been focusing on understanding more about artificial intelligence applications in healthcare, specifically areas such as natural language processing, machine learning, and predictive modeling. The intersection of artificial intelligence with electronic health records and mobile technology is the key to the next evolution in healthcare… where the technology is no longer front and center between the doctor and the patient but instead functions almost invisibly to enhance communication and shared decision making between the healthcare team, patients, and families. We can leverage artificial intelligence to facilitate adherence to model practices and care pathways. We can improve information sharing across the ecosystem, freeing up clinicians to focus on optimizing communication with their patients. It’s our most promising path forward to reestablishing the provider-patient relationship as the central component of our healthcare system.
At Becker's 4th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, taking place November 2–5 in Chicago, more than 1,500 hospital and health system executives tackle decisions that determine whether organizations thrive or merely survive: protecting margins under cost pressure, choosing where to grow, renegotiating payer relationships, stabilizing the workforce and proving real ROI on technology. This is where leaders work through them together, face-to-face. Apply for complimentary registration now.
