On a table in front of us is a grand sight, a collection of "open letters" from acknowledged healthcare leaders. The letters ask us to bring alive a quote by Mark Twain... “You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” The authors ask us to:
- imagine co-designing healthcare services and incentives with citizens so that they get what they need, and we act on it;
- imagine a healthcare system that offers timely, quality safe care – and we prove it;
- imagine a healthcare system that gets the most value for the tax dollars – and we demonstrate it;
- imagine a healthcare system that can track improvements made and those improvements still needed – and we report it;
- Imagine a redesigned healthcare system operating on the needs of patients – and we do it;
- Imagine a healthcare system that aspires to work in a coordinated way to guide the patient efficiently and effectively – and we attain it; and
- Imagine a healthcare system that seeks advice on how to get results – and we act on it.”
- Imagine nothing about me without me is no longer a philosophy we aspire to, it is a reality of day-to-day practice, organizational design and policy-making. Patients/residents as partners is the new normal.
We hope the "open letters" generate open and new conversations between the board and senior management, between senior management and middle management, between care providers, middle mangers and senior management. We hope the "open letters" remind us that patients have a seat at every table that is making decisions about them.
May your balcony of personal reflection be filled with new voices and new conversations to test healthcare assumptions held.
Hugh Macleod, Anton Hart and Matthew Hart
Open Letters
- Community and Home Care, the Digital Age – Shirlee Sharkey, September 20, 2016
- Gaps in the Mental Health Story: A chance to do good – Catherine Zahn, September 27, 2016
- Future of Healthcare 2036: An Integration of Providers, Consumers and Technology – Kevin Smith, October 4, 2016
- Primary Health Care: It’s Time for Disruptive Innovation – David J. Price, October 11, 2016
- A Perfect Storm: Get Ready for a Paradigm Shift in Health Services and Policy Research – Robyn Tamblyn, October 18, 2016
- Directions for Health Care in Canada: The Next 3-5 Years – Sharon Nettleton, October 25, 2016
- Let’s unwind the red tape around Canadian cancer data – Shelly Jamieson, November 1, 2016
- Health Quality in Canada; a cup half full – Anthony Fields, November 8, 2016
- Why do we need a National Seniors Strategy? Because it’s 2016 – Dr. Samir Sinha, November 15, 2016
- Harnessing Simple Rules for System Thinking in Healthcare Transformation – Allan Best, November 22, 2016
- Project Management Skills At The Point of Care Can Empower Staff and Drive Change – Peter Ash, November 30, 2016
- Emotional Courage: Reversing Gravitational Pulls That Subvert Real System Change – Hugh MacLeod, December 6, 2016
- “Nothing about us without us”: Taking Action on Indigenous Health – Carol P. Herbert, President, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, January 3, 2017
- Challenging the Orthodoxies of Health System Design and Management – Dr. Graham D. Sher, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Blood Services, January 10, 2017
- Dear Class of 2020 – Danielle Martin, Vice President, Medical Affairs and Health System Solutions, Women’s College Hospital, January 17, 2017
- What’s Old is New Again – Gillian Kernaghan, President and Chief Executive Officer, St. Joseph’s Health Care London, January 24, 2017
- The Leadership Imperative: Champion Change to Drive System-Wide Improvement - Ray Racette, President and CEO, Canadian College of Health Leaders, January 31, 2017
- Improving Population Health and Reducing Healthcare Expenditures in Canada - Dr. John Miller, Clinical Professor Emeritus, School of Population and Public Health UBC, February 7, 2017
- Leadership “inaction” or Leadership “in Action”—The Change Dilemma - Dr. Graham Dickson, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Royal Roads University, March 7, 2017
- What I Learned from my Personal Board of Directors by Arlinda Ruco, MPH, Practice-Based Research and Innovation, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, March 14, 2017
- Unified Primary Care Engagement: Is It Time? By Tupper Bean, Executive Director of the Centre for Effective Practice, April 25, 2017