Prior to last year, I bought my last bowling ball in 1973. Entering a late-life crisis, I thought it was time to buy another one as I had rekindled interest in the sport. Like a modern-day Rip Van Winkle, I awoke to the fact that doing so ain’t that simple anymore.

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I watched more than a few YouTube videos, watching pro bowlers throwing orbs in ways I had never imagined. I learned about something called Specto, a computer-based system that measures precisely your ball’s rate of revolution, speed, break points for when the ball hooks, amount of react when the ball hits the pins, ad infinitum. I walked into the local pro shop, saw nearly 100 different balls displayed on a wall and was asked which one I wanted (as if I knew anything … I dunno, the pretty one that’s on sale?). 

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But while the world had come a long way from my 1973 Manhattan Rubber, one truism still exists … none of the data or equipment matters until you put your fingers into a ball and try to direct it down the lane. You, as the human interface, bear the direct correlation to your success. 

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The same is true in healthcare. Technology, research and care delivery have advanced by leaps and bounds, but the human clinicians that use them make all the difference. Valuing those humans as they interface with patients has grown in significance, as many individuals have suffered from heavy workloads, the PTSD of the coronavirus pandemic and downstream effects of cost pressures facing their organizations.  

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Many key healthcare leaders are increasingly realizing the importance of their role in shepherding their most valuable resources – the care and expertise that lies in their clinicians and other support staff. This month, we look at the various aspects of the human interface of care, the pressures they’re facing and what healthcare organizations are doing to encourage and empower them. Even with all the digital accoutrements surrounding modern healthcare, nothing matters more than that.

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For this COVERstory package, we’ve enlisted the help of several insightful Fellows of the American College of Health Data Management, who have contributed their thoughts and helped organize them into these articles. We see ACHDM as a forum in which top leaders can express their personal professional experiences and then have those insights synthesized into key learnings that can benefit the entire industry. 

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• Fred Bazzoli, Editor in Chief

As you read the stories in this package, we hope it will help you: 

 

• 1. Assess your own staff, the pressures they have faced and continue to encounter in daily care delivery. 
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• 2. See the thoughts of other leaders who are grappling with the importance of caring for and feeding their staff.
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• 3. Flesh out ways that technology can provide valuable support for clinical staff as they navigate increasingly complicated care delivery.  
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• 4. Identify insights that you will be able to incorporate into your organization.  

What are industry leaders doing to lead their teams and organizations through the coming waves of digital transformation?

Submit your articles here.