by Jill Clendening
Innovative health care design centered on patients and their families was the focus of StrategyShare19, a half-day event attended by several hundred members of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center community, as well as patients.
During Tuesday’s event, a diverse group of presenters from many specialties and roles shared their knowledge and unique perspectives during TED talk-styled, lightning-quick pitches, insightful panel discussions and posters. The presentations were intended to inspire action to intelligently transform how the Medical Center collaboratively approaches patient care, training and research.
“Implementing an integrated strategic vision requires the community coming together and sharing their ideas and initiatives,” said Shari Barkin, MD, division chief of General Pediatrics, who served as the event emcee. “This year’s StrategyShare sets designing health care for patients and families as our true north.”
In 2016, following the reorganization of VUMC and Vanderbilt University as legally and financially independent entities, Medical Center leaders defined a Strategic Compass to guide future growth and initiatives. The four points of the compass are Design for Patients and Families; Making Diversity and Inclusion Intentional; Discover, Learn and Share; and Amplify Innovation. The Medical Center has held a strategic retreat for the past four years to foster collaboration, learning and sharing. This year’s event emphasized the strategic direction for Design for Patients and Families, with patients and their families joining panel discussions to share how they perceive the care they received.
“At StrategyShare19, we were able to make the connection between the work we do within the walls of VUMC and outside our walls to enhance patient experience,” said Elisa Friedman, MS, assistant vice president for Community and Population Health Improvement in the Office of Health Equity. “One of the many things StrategyShare underscored is how, if we continue to innovate in those two arenas, we can make a profound difference for our patients and improve the health and well-being of communities.”
A sampling of presentations included:
- Patient Yolanda Vaughn shared how a multidisciplinary team provided critical support leading up to and following her heart transplant.
- A panel discussion highlighting whole-patient care and services for the LGBTQ community through the Program for LGBTQ Health and the Clinic for Transgender Health.
- A presentation by a Meharry Medical College faculty member charging attendees to be cognizant of implicit bias and its impact on diagnosis, treatment and overall care of patients.
- Susan Waggoner shared the value of family-centered care at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt following the birth of her son Dalton, who has a heart defect.
- A proposal to better connect patients to care, including adding a live-chat feature to online appointment scheduling and adding more multispecialty clinics such as VUMC’s Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) clinic.
- A proposal to incorporate VUMC’s telemedicine services from the ground up at new facilities to broaden service to the community.
- A discussion about making health care more transparent by sharing clinicians’ notes with patients through OpenNotes. The concept will be piloted at a pediatric and an adult clinic in September.
- A call to action to transform lung cancer screening by offering both mammograms and low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) chest scans to women during a single visit (www.vanderbiltlungscreening.com).
- An update on PredictionHealth, software that automates documentation for clinicians. Developed by a VUMC medical scientist training program team, PredictionHealth will be piloted by Vanderbilt Urology later this year.
- A panel discussion with Vanderbilt Center for Undiagnosed Diseases patients who shared how the center unraveled the mystery behind their rare diseases.
“The creativity and passion of the talent showcased in StrategyShare19 proves that systems can be designed to listen, adapt, communicate and activate not just the patients, their families and the Medical Center, but the communities at large,” said Madan Jagasia, MD, MS, MMHC, chief medical officer of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. “I am confident that VUMC can provide not just excellent patient- and family-centered care, but lead the field to carve new models of care, always keeping patients as our true north on the compass of health care.”
Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for VUMC, called the event “incredibly uplifting and inspirational.”
“What we do is amazing, but the more we can reach out to our neighborhoods and communities to make it easy for people to access what it is we’re capable of doing, the more we can contribute,” Pinson said. “We have to be innovative, and we need to embrace these new ideas.”
Jeff Balser, MD, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of VUMC and Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, announced the focus of next year’s event, StrategyShare20, will be Defining Personalized Care, an ongoing Medical Center service initiative drawing on all four strategic directions.
“Some of what you saw here today we can uniquely do, not just in this region, but nationally, and that supports defining personalized care,” Balser said.
“The experience of StrategyShare 19 is a great reminder of the transformational power within VUMC and the focus on our patients,” said Jenny Slayton, MSN, RN, executive director, Quality Improvement, Vanderbilt Quality, Safety and Risk Prevention (QSRP). “Our speakers presented inspiring pitches and strategy talks to challenge us all on how we can engage. It was great to see the diversity of the participants and meet so many new colleagues during the breakout sessions.”
Individuals acknowledged for their work on StrategyShare19 were Megan Youngblood, MBA, director of Strategic Programs, Strategy and Innovation Office; Herschel Pollard, MSIS, Strategy and Innovation Consultant; and Krystyna Barnard, MPS, communications consultant, Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences.
Visit www.vumc.org/strategy for more information about StrategyShare19 and for updates on strategic initiatives at the Medical Center.
