📍 Today questioning the status quo.

 My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and create, or this week health, a set of channels dedicated to keeping health it staff current. And engaged. We want to thank our show sponsors. We're investing in developing the next generation of health leaders, short test and artist site two great companies. Check them out at this week. health.com/today. Having a child with cancer is one of the most painful and difficult situations a family can face.

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All right. I was reading through the wall street journal this morning and found this article and it got me to thinking, how do we think outside of the box? How do we question the. Status quo, which is going to be so important as we go into this new. , I don't want to say phase or era. I'm not sure what the word is, but this new reality that we're living in, in healthcare. All right. Here's the story. Medical schools at Stanford and Columbia pull out of us news ranking university of Pennsylvania and Mount Sinai medical schools also withdrew their cooperation.

Let me tell you their rationale here. So the medical schools at Stanford, Columbia universities, university of Penn, Mount Sinai are withdrawing their cooperation with us news world report rankings pulling out less than a week after Harvard medical school said it would no longer provide data. To the publication.

The moves by Stanford medical school. Columbia's college of physicians, surgeons, pens, Perlman, school of medicine and Icahn school of medicine at Mount Sinai suggests. A prolonged cascading effect after Yale law school said in November. It wouldn't provide data for us news law school rankings. More than a dozen other top ranked schools, including Stanford law school followed suit.

Harvard medical school, Dean George Q Daley said the law school's decision compelled him to act. The rankings provided a flawed and misleading assessment of medical schools, lack accuracy, validity, and relevance, and undermine the school's core commitments to compassionate care unrivaled education, cutting edge research.

A commitment to anti-racism and outreach to diverse communities. Icon. Dean Dennis Charney and medical education. Dean David Mueller wrote in a letter to the school community on Tuesday, Stanford medical school, Dean Lloyd minor said in a message one day that the school's leaders held extensive deliberations on the issue. Ultimately, we believed that the methodology, as it stands does not capture the full extent of what makes for an exceptional learning environment.

He said, Colombia notified it's medical school students and faculty of its decisions on Friday. Dean Katrina Armstrong said the rankings focused too much on standardized test scores, reputation and institutional wealth. And it goes on and on when asked about us, the response, the other schools decisions.

A U S news spokes. Woman. Pointed to a comment. Chief executive error Gertler made after Harvard's withdrawal. He said, When. , he said then that the publication provides prospective students with valuable data and that rankings. Should just be one component in the decision making process. Stanford medicine, school medical school was ranked number eight.

For best medical schools focused on research and number 30, and it goes through and talks about the rest of them. Dr. Minor said the school will begin reporting data about us performance beginning in March, including the details about faculty accomplishments, access to patient care and research opportunities and diversity.

He said the metrics will be verifiable and transparent and have yet to be completed. We believe that our decision along with those of a growing number of peer institutions is necessary. To lead a long overdue examination of how medical education quality. Is evaluated and presented to aspiring students.

, I, you know, I was reading this story and you might say. W what does this have to do? Because our show's really about the tech, the intersection of technology and healthcare. , this is really a leadership story. And it's one in which the status quo. For these medical schools and these institutions has been get the highest ranking in us news as you possibly can.

Because there was a belief that people, this mattered this matter to incoming students. This is how they determined. You know, which school was going to be the best one for them to be a part of. And these schools just up and pulled out. It wasn't done. You know, capriciously, it was done in a way that said luck.

First of all, we don't, we don't believe that the rankings reflect what we do as an institution. , and one of the reasons I choose this example, by the way, We live in, die on us news ranking of our hospital systems. And perhaps we need to step back and say, is that. Is that the best metric is that the best way to get the information out? And does it really matter at the end of the day when you put up our hospital is ranked blah, blah, blah, by us news and world report.

Am I do I as a patient really care. I mean, ask yourself that question. Do I really care? Do you really care? Oh, they're ranked this and us news and world report. , if they're ranked five, are you thinking, well, maybe I should consider the other four if they're ranked 10 or is it more of a, just a pride thing in the institution? That's part of your local community.

Is it more of a, an employee morale thing to say, Hey, we ranked this. And if it is my question is how much work did you put into it? Like how much work did you put into getting them the information? , making sure that you are, , you know, Optimizing the metrics that they're measuring to make sure that you again have one of the highest rankings.

And, , in their rankings. And I think in the new reality that we live in, in healthcare, we're going to have to question. Almost everything. I mean, not the way we deliver. , well, no, almost everything. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going to pull back from that. And say, does this add value to the patient? Does this add value to quality? Does this add value to the clinician? Does this add value to the institution? Does this add value to our community?

And are we spending the right. Amount of time on these things. We have limited resources. , financially we have limited resources. , with clinical staff, we have limited resources from it, staff. What are the things that we were doing that we shouldn't be doing anymore. Or that there's a better way of doing that. Doesn't require as much resource. I mean, there's, there's a whole host of ways you can go in this, but you have to start by questioning the status quo.

This is the way we've always done it, or this is the way we've done it in the last couple of years. Or we feel like this is the most efficient way of doing it. Is it. Have you questioned that? Have you looked beyond that and said, is there a way of automating that even further? Is there a reason you're not looking down that path. This is a leadership article, and this is about leadership and leaders will question the status quo from time to time. I will also note that the communication from these institutions was really well done. They communicated with the staff.

They communicated with everyone impacted, , they are looking for alternatives to getting this information out. And, , the communication is really key. The case is really key as well. If you were going to make a move like this, you have to gather the data. You have to build the case around why you're making these kinds of moves.

And that's going to be important from a leadership perspective as well, bake the case. , build the burning platform, whatever that happens to be. I'm sorry, I'm going into Cotter stuff now, but essentially. Build the case and then communicate effectively. , rally the resources around the decision.

Ahead of time, get your champions on board ahead of time so that they understand what's going on and what's at stake. So, anyway, that is the story for today. Again, as leaders, we have to question the status quo, we should be questioning and the new reality that is healthcare question, everything.

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