61–70 of 146 posts
Imagine if these three companies used their political clout to push for single payer instead of setting up yet another insurance company.
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I’d say hire that person as the COO. This will be a big organization. I think the person at the top needs to have a strong ideals about the direction of the organization
Healthcare/biotech companies typically have a CMO position (chief medical officer) which carries a lot of weight. I'm surprised that's not the way they went with a surgeon.
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I know appeal to authority is obviously a bad way to support an argument, but I would imagine one thing the most senior people at Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPM are fairly decent @ is picking management talent. So if all 3 sides agreed on a pick I would imaging there was pretty compelling case.
I took a short walk down this idea of a vertically integrated system, essentially building the system as a research lab (something like NIH building 10), including approaching some senior people. I sort of wonder if maybe they modified their expectations for the venture after a search revealed that experienced CEOs weren't interested. You have to address questions like "Where are you going to get physicians? Nurses?…
I have an untested hypothesis that one of the best ways to get physician mindshare is actually through think pieces in publications like the new yorker or new york times -- just the kind of articles Atul Gawande writes. The physicians that I know read these articles much more actively than they use linked in (most dont) or any other online community
[1] https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/atul-gawande-che...
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Care to share what you found?
Sure. Well every to-do app has most of the functionality you need (Wunderlist is the one I like the best). They have annual reminders so you can put a checklist for taxes or something. BJ Novak has https://li.st/bjnovak/ which is a general list sharing app. It has the social component that I think would be very useful applied to to-do lists. Finally, there are ready made list apps which help you maintain your home, h…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’d say hire that person as the COO. This will be a big organization. I think the person at the top needs to have a strong ideals about the direction of the organization
Healthcare/biotech companies typically have a CMO position (chief medical officer) which carries a lot of weight. I'm surprised that's not the way they went with a surgeon.
Concerns: - He stated not wanting to give up his privileges of practicing at BWH and professorship at Harvard meaning he can't be fully committed to leading this new organization. This is not an academic medical center environment where a physician can have multiple administrative titles and not put in the hours and work. - Atul's fame is credited to his publication, but also from the prestige of Harvard's affiliations. He knows this and is trying to strategic about not giving that up, but I would hope he realize that truly effective leaders know they can't do everything. Most of those innovator physicians stretch themselves too thin and get their hands into too many pots, making them ineffective. If he's serious, then he needs to commit and prioritize.
IMO, extreme network/lip service must have been invloved in his pursuit or the new venture and company is only buying his fame, reputation, and brand for marketing purposes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know appeal to authority is obviously a bad way to support an argument, but I would imagine one thing the most senior people at Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPM are fairly decent @ is picking management talent. So if all 3 sides agreed on a pick I would imaging there was pretty compelling case.
Jeff bezos mentioned they were looking for someone with expert knowledge, a beginner's mind, and a long-term perspective. Any leader of a current large healthcare organization would probably fail the 2nd and potentially 3rd criteria. In light of these criteria, the choice of Atul Gawande makes sense
Let’s take the checklist manifesto, a fantastic idea that unfortunately isn’t as widely applied as it should be. Why? Because if you ask most surgeons they’ll say, “yeah it’s a great idea, I do it already/I don’t need to do it though because I’m that good”. In practice it doesn’t get applied because humans have ego and incentives get misaligned. It’s not actually that beneficial to reduce complications in surgery for the hospital as long as the patient is insured. And it’s not that beneficial for the insurance company to reduce costs because fundamentally as long as the insurance company can accurately predict how much costs will rise next year, they still make money. They just need to know how much premiums will go up.
Healthcare is full of great ideas and ways to make things better, but they often just don’t get implemented because the whole system is so poorly set up. I don’t see any evidence that Gawande for all his talents has a good approach or the expertise to break through all that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’d say hire that person as the COO. This will be a big organization. I think the person at the top needs to have a strong ideals about the direction of the organization
Healthcare/biotech companies typically have a CMO position (chief medical officer) which carries a lot of weight. I'm surprised that's not the way they went with a surgeon.