EDITORIAL: Continuity and innovation
Abraham (Rami) Rudnick and Colleen Galasso
The Canadian Journal of Physician Leadership (CJPL) starts the first issue of 2024 with innovation as well as continuity. As the new editor-in-chief of CJPL, and as part of the innovation, I have co-authored this editorial with the Canadian Society of Physician Leader’s (CSPL’s) executive director, Colleen Galasso, to address collaboratively both content and process related to CJPL. read online | PDF
HEALTH ECONOMICS: The occult of efficiency: frank, and Stein’s, advice for physician leaders
Jeffrey S. Hoch, PhD, and Carolyn S. Dewa, MPH, PhD
In this first article in a series on health economics, we focus on efficiency, which is an important concept for leaders deciding how to spend scarce resources, such as time, effort, and money. Efficiency, or cost effectiveness, activities should consider that progress may be a function of multiple outcomes. Simply focusing on one outcome, such as length of stay because it is easy to measure, may produce overall inefficiency according to a more comprehensive set of objectives. Value achieved, a more difficult type of efficiency, involves “smart shopping,” where both costs and outcomes of options vary. Often the new way of doing something is more expensive and more effective. In these situations, a leader must decide the extra cost for extra effect is worth it. read online | PDF
HEALTH INFORMATICS: The physician executive’s crash course on AI in health care. Part 2: What patients and physicians think
Alexandra T. Greenhill, MD
This second in a series of articles on artificial intelligence (AI) in health care presents six core concepts that will help physician leaders frame their understanding of the rapidly evolving state of what patients and physicians think of AI. It covers biases in data collection, the need for rules, the implications for health care workers, how to avoid assumptions, patients’ attitudes, and hidden inequities. read online | PDF
HEALTH INFORMATICS: AI in health care: a tool for physician leaders
Tyrone A. Perreira, PhD, MEd, Sundeep Sodhi, PhD(c), MSc, Alia Karsan, LLB, MPP, Hazim Hassan, MBA, Anthony Dale, MPA
Artificial intelligence (AI) in health care is rapidly expanding, with the daily emergence of new initiatives, topics, and critical issues, making it challenging for physician leaders to organize and distill this complex topic. We offer a simple approach that involves classifying topics by three levels of scale: the individual, the organization, and the system or sector. Despite the widespread adoption of AI applications across all aspects of our daily lives, its implementation in health care remains limited. There is a need to engage, in all stages of development, key stakeholders, specifically governments, technology companies, health care providers, patients, and civil society. read online | PDF
RESEARCH: Physician insights on strategies for leading quality improvement
Pamela Mathura, PhD, Sandra Marini, MAL, Elaine Yacyshyn, MD, MScHQ, Yvonne Suranyi, BSc, RN, and Narmin Kassam, MD, MHPE
Background: The Strategic Clinical Improvement Committee (SCIC) was established in 2015 to foster physician leadership in quality improvement (QI). In this study, we examined the experiences of physician committee members to determine leadership strategies perceived to support their involvement in QI. read online | PDF
OPINION: We must change our mindset about our health care system
Johny Van Aerde
Our health care system is complex. Because it is human made, its behaviour can be changed by intervening at specific leverage points or spots of influence. Some leverage points are weak because changes resulting from the intervention don’t make much difference; others are strong because they transform how the system works. Unless we choose different and more powerful points of influence, our health care system will continue to be stuck in the status quo. read online | PDF
COACHING CORNER: Canadian Physician Coaches Network: what coaching could mean for you as a medical leader
Debrah Wirtzfeld, MD, MBA
Many of you are familiar with the axiom that becoming a successful leader is a combination of gaining knowledge, acquiring on the job experience, and engaging in leadership coaching. read online | PDF
BOOK REVIEW: The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
Robert Waldinger, MD, and Marc Schulz, PhD
Reviewed by Johny Van Aerde, MD, PhD read online | PDF