The Many Avenues of Health Management – EHMA Workshop Series

From January 2022 to May 2022, EHMA hosted a series of
executive workshops on four key topics in health management

The series ‘Many Avenues of Health Management’ included 4 online workshops that looked at why and how to empower clinicians as leaders, using physicians as an example; how to design services and connect providers and industry to enhance the patient experience; how to practically assess and implement actions for health organisations and systems resilience; as well as the what, why, and how of the journey toward value-based health care.

  • Physicians as Leaders, took place on 18 January
  • Building a Healthcare System One Individual, took place on 8 February
  • What Managing Resilient Health Systems Looks Like, took place on 8 March
  • Everybody’s Business: Value-Based Healthcare, took place on 10 May

The main trainer in the series was Prof Federico Lega, PhD, Full Professor of Health Administration at the Public Health Department at Milan University. In each workshop, Prof Lega was joined by leading experts on the topic as guest keynotes and trainers.

Each workshop ran for about 4 hours. In a perfect EHMA style, all the sessions were highly interactive, with presentations, Q&As, breaks, and networking moments allowing participants to connect, share and learn from the experiences of an international group of peers.

Trainer

Prof Federico Lega, PhD, is a Full Professor of Health Administration at the Public Health Department at Milan University, where he runs all courses in healthcare management and policy for medical students and leads the Research Centre in Health Administration (HEAD).

He is also a Professor at SDA Bocconi School of Management (SDA) where he teaches courses in Public Management and Health Services Management. He leads the research in strategy and organisational development in healthcare at the Bocconi Research Center on Health Policy and Management (CERGAS). From 2007 to 2014 he has been the Head of executive education for health managers, clinicians and medical industry leaders at the Bocconi School of Management (SDA).

Since 2015, he is acting as Editor in Chief of the journal Health Services Management Research, Associate Editor of BMC Health Services Research and Medical Care Research Review. He has published eight books and over 150 articles in journals.

As a consultant, he has advised health systems on health policy matters and governance issues, several hospitals and networks in re-organisations, strategy-making processes, value-based approaches, economic evaluations, and process management, both at the national and international level.

In the last ten years, he has advised several companies in the medical industry on their transformation toward value-based models and on the development of effective market-access initiatives. Since 2002 he has coordinated over fifteen initiatives of duality or study tours, involving the exchange of managers and senior clinicians between countries (Italy, UK, USA, Germany and France). He currently sits on the boards of hospitals and local health authorities, advises health departments of regions, national health agencies and insurances, and works as a consultant for WHO.

Who should attend?

The workshop series was targeted at multiple healthcare professionals wherein the common denominator is the search for competencies, skills, and managerial tools to understand and address some of the most pressing challenges in health management: leadership, person-centred care, health systems resilience, and value-based healthcare. The expected participants were:

  • health managers and leaders;
  • clinicians and nurses;
  • academia members and researchers;
  • policy-makers;
  • industry representatives.

What did workshops offer to participants?

During the workshops, the participants:

  • were exposed to new perspectives on value-based care and approaches;
  • shared perspectives with other professionals;
  • learned from the experiences of an international group of peers;
  • analysed current significant managerial issues by discussing cases from different countries and different legal and cultural settings;
  • created new contacts and joined an international network of professionals sharing an interest in health management.

Topics addressed in the series

Date: Tuesday, 18 January 2022
Time: 14:00 – 18:00 CET

Governance and leadership of health systems involve researching and setting up strategic objectives, making policies, and developing laws and regulations while securing and deploying the necessary resources, skills and competencies to accomplish strategic goals. In this context, engaging physicians as leaders is essential in bringing on the changes that can transform healthcare.

The first module of the executive workshop series looked at what and how we can do it. It discussed corporatisation processes beyond the ‘doctor-manager’ paradigm.

  • How can we develop hybrid roles in committed organisational leaders?
  • Why do clinicians often seem to be reluctant leaders?
  • How can we sustain their transition toward higher level managerial capabilities?
 

Date: Tuesday, 8 February 2022
Time: 14:00 – 18:00 CET

With changes in healthcare and populations, the search continues for the best ways to improve patient health and well-being. Personalised healthcare describes a model that tailors medical care to individuals and enables patients to pivot healthcare to meet their specific needs, often helping to diagnose and treat conditions they could not before. As a result, patients are increasingly in charge of their decisions as they become aware of the better outcomes that follow.

The second module of the executive workshop series looked at how to design the service to enhance the patient experience, analysing business modelling logic and tools applied to health services. It looked at:

  • segmentation;
  • new service models;
  • case management vs patient management;
  • and explores how to connect providers and industry around the ‘patient journey’.
 

Date: Tuesday, 8 March 2022
Time: 14:00 – 18:00 CET

As health systems are progressing towards managing the pandemic and creating their recovery plans, they are also thinking about how to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of their resources in an ever-changing context.

The third module of the executive workshop series provided an in-depth look at:

  • assessing health systems resiliency;
  • actions and directions to avoid the next storm;
  • KPA and KPIs to assess and drive the development of resilient health organisations and systems;
  • planning the roadmap and step-by-step actions.
 

Date: Tuesday, 10 May 2022
Time: 14:00 – 18:00 CET

In recent years, value-based healthcare (VBHC) has been seen to provide an effective vehicle to improve health service efficiency with an outcome-based focus. It is a delivery model in which providers are paid based on patient health outcomes. Providers are rewarded when their patients’ health is improved; the effects and incidence of chronic disease decrease; and patients are able to live healthier lives. Such an approach has been creating incentives for healthcare providers to offer the best care at the lowest cost, resulting in savings in healthcare costs; patients receiving more value for money and increased patient quality of care and satisfaction. However, much more remains to be done in terms of large-scale implementation of VBHC and health managers can play a key role in making it happen.

The fourth module of the executive workshop series looked at what VBHC is and how health authorities and industry can contribute to making it happen.

  • Why should health systems and organisations drive the value-based revolution
  • What should they do to make it a reality?
  • How to frame the VBHC agenda and steer the cultural shift towards it?