When two leaders at a Maryland health system teamed up to write a book, they set out to provide a "how to" playbook for physician leaders, by leaders.
Maulik Joshi, DrPH, president and CEO of Hagerstown-based Meritus Health, and Aaron George, DO, associate dean of the proposed Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine, co-authored the second edition of "Leading Health Care Transformation: A Primer for Physician Leaders" which was published this week.
The book focuses on contemporary evidence, pragmatic case studies, lessons learned and action steps for physician leaders, who the authors say are key to healthcare transformation. The new edition includes innovations for tackling healthcare challenges like health equity and data management.
"What we always hear from physician leaders and other clinical leaders is people want the 'why' and the 'what,' but they really want the 'how to' as well," Dr. Joshi told Becker's. "And so that's why we really tailored this book so that we hit key topics with evidence and case studies, but really practical action steps as well."
He views these steps as especially important in today's healthcare environment and given the rate of change in the industry.
"We believe that as physicians, you're effectively change agents. … So we crafted this book, not to just talk about leadership, but to demonstrate a playbook on how to effectively lead and transform clinical environments as physicians regardless of where you're serving," Dr. Joshi said.
The first edition of "Leading Health Care Transformation: A Primer for Physician Leaders" was published seven years ago, and Drs. Joshi and George worked together on the second edition for about six months at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023.
The latest edition addresses topics such as patient safety and how to use data when working with colleagues.
"But we really wanted to update this because there's a lot of new topics that physician leaders are facing. Health equity, population health and others. We wanted to provide both the time-tested tools but also updated innovations to help address each of these," said Dr. Joshi.
Dr. George said throughout the process of writing the book, the co-authors have observed many different areas that are challenging to master, for any physician leader in an executive position.
There are "new [challenges] that we face every year. And so a lesson that we took from this was that you really have to be able to address each of these at a systemic level and in a practical way," he said. "Breaking down problems and not looking at them as a large summary or a large overarching issue, but rather breaking it down and then approaching it in segments, is an easier way to tackle that."
He said the co-authors also learned that now more than ever, physician leaders must be able to work with their team members and colleagues and be able to foster and develop teams and respond and adapt rapidly to change.
"I think using lived experiences of physician leaders like Aaron, especially through COVID and everything that's going on [in the industry] goes a long way," Dr. Joshi said.
"I think one of the big lessons is the 'how' matters as much as the 'what.' And so, when physician leaders say health equity and disparities, it's one thing. But the idea of the book is that we give you examples and case studies and what as a leader do you actually need to do? How do you gather the data? How do you work with your executives? How do you work with your team? How do you analyze it? What types of issues might there be? How do you address it? So these are just ideas and steps for them to use in their journey."
For example, the co-authors in the book walk through the practical approach Meritus took to addressing overutilization in a hospital. While that was a local lesson, the book also includes studies from colleagues and leaders across the country.
Read more about the book here.