Peter Weissberg serves as Vice President of Market Access for Intouch Solutions.
On October 11th, Peter will serve on the panel "Population Health - What is Health IT"s Impact?" 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 Peter's session, click here.
Question: As a leader, how do you stay connected to the actual work that is being done – and not just by watching others execute, but by executing yourself? If so, how do you balance between leading and executing personally?
Peter Weissberg: The responsibilities placed on today’s leaders have been fundamentally transformed by the increased velocity of our current business environment. Results are now expected in the next quarter versus historical norms of year-over-year, incremental progress. In order to keep pace, effective leaders must accept the responsibility of more active participation in the “upfront, heavy lifting phases” to ensure they are connected to the work before it has already been completed. Think “Lead + 2” with actual contributions to foundational steps such as project phasing and gathering of stakeholder input. Leaders who are present and visible during these initial times demonstrate a commitment to the project and their teammates. This will inspire others to truly lean in and deliver their best work throughout the balance of rapid project execution. These efforts will be rewarded with an exceptional work product and the development of a teams who feel respected, empowered and ready to take on the next challenge which can present itself at any time.
Q: What does healthcare need more of? Less of?
PW: Healthcare needs “more positivity” to reflect the truly monumental progress that is happing every day and “less negativity” that has led to excessive finger-pointing and blame. Yes, there may be a few bad actors whose greed and malfeasance are worthy of public and Congressional shaming. However, press coverage and conference small-talk seems to be overly concentrated on the shortcomings of our drug pricing framework or the lack of comity among our legislators. This widespread pessimism draws undue attention away from the more incontrovertible contributions of life-extending treatments, technological advance and household wealth creation which the healthcare industry delivers every day.
Q: What is one topic or issue you've been investing time in to better understand as of late?
PW: Predictive Modeling. While predictive modeling is not new, both its reach and degree of accuracy have recently undergone quantum advances. For many years, the healthcare industry generated vast quantities of data which it kept behind protective corporate and technological firewalls. As data has been democratized, we are now able to leverage techniques once strictly the domain of Google, Facebook and Amazon. I have seen the results firsthand and truly believe that predictive modeling is now fundamental to the way healthcare is delivered and financed.