In our new series, we ask our key thought leaders to share a more personal perspective on their career journey and current position. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kicking off the series is our Chief Medical Officer, Dr Chris Hobson. Now based in our Toronto office, Dr Hobson has over 20 years\u2019 experience as a physician working in primary and secondary care, including 10 years in family medicine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While working as a primary care practitioner, he was instrumental in establishing the largest primary care network in New Zealand, where he helped develop and use one of the first electronic health records (EHRs) and pioneered the first implementations of value-based care. Dr Hobson then worked in senior management at South Auckland Health focused on care integration between the hospital and community before he joined us at Orion Health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since joining us he has been involved in most areas of healthcare IT with an emphasis on the clinical and functional perspective, showing how technology can make a significant difference to a patient\u2019s experience with the healthcare system. He is particularly attracted to the use of Orion Health\u2019s software to drive the evolution of healthcare towards both population health and patient empowerment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One<\/strong> Two Three<\/strong> Four<\/strong> Five<\/strong> Interested in learning more about what we do?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you share with us five things you wish you knew before you started out?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t be afraid to speak up, especially and not only when you know a bad decision is in the making. Do it nicely, but clearly. I\u2019ve personally found that when I do speak up on a difficult point, many others follow suit. Others in the meeting were just afraid to speak first! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Listen first and tell the truth with love (or tell the truth with great care.) It\u2019s vitally important to always speak the truth as you see it, even though sometimes the message must be conveyed sensitively. Admittedly, some of this comes from experiences practicing medicine. I\u2019ve had to tell many people their diagnosis is cancer and the likely prognosis is poor, even though we will of course do everything in our power to try and beat the odds. I always found that with appropriate thought and due care, there are always ways to convey even painful truths accurately and with empathy for the patient\u2019s situation. The usual response is something like \u201cThat\u2019s okay, it\u2019s best I know what I\u2019m facing even when it\u2019s not pleasant.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Invest the effort to work with people, especially those with diverse backgrounds or those who don\u2019t think in the way you do or don\u2019t agree with you. It\u2019s been well shown that diversity of inputs is the key to making better decisions. One of my mentors told me several times that if we have a meeting with ten people and they all agree, that\u2019s nine more people than we needed to be in that meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be sure to understand exactly what your client needs and strive to meet that; and don\u2019t be afraid to say if you can\u2019t deliver it. Clients appreciate genuine answers. I remember repeatedly telling a client that we didn\u2019t have a feature they wanted and yes, I could easily believe that one of our competitors did have that feature. Despite that discussion which felt quite difficult, the client chose to buy from us. I am sure they appreciated I was being genuine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Know, understand and follow Robert’s rules of parliamentary procedure.<\/em> They are an excellent example of how to use a group of people to make better decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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