cover story one
Physicians and Adaptive Change
The little med school on the prairie
BY CINDY FIRKINS-SMITH, MD, MHCI, FAAD
Like many physician-leaders, I did not choose the path of leadership with any deliberate intent. But as physicians we are leaders, whether we think we are or not. We lead care-delivery teams, we lead patients in shared decision-making, and we lead at home and in our communities. My daughter, a user-experience designer who works for a medical device company, reminded me of this recently, saying, “Mom, the doctor has the largest voice in the room, even when they’re not talking.”
cover story two
Anatomy of a Cyberattack: The Change Healthcare incident
By Tenbit Emiru, MD, PhD, MBA
Long after the crisis has passed, February 21, 2024, will be remembered as a wake-up call for the health care industry. Early that day, a cyberattack on Change Healthcare sent tremors throughout the health care universe, preventing providers, pharmacies and health plans from completing many core business transactions as customers struggled to get needed prescriptions. The Washington Post reported, “The hack severed a key link between medical providers and their patients’ insurance companies in the worst health care hack ever reported.”
Research
Diversity in Clinical Trial Research: Best practices for outcome equity
By Maya Palmer and Courtney Jordan Baechler, MD, MS
Many of us took basic statistics classes in our premedical training and medical school. One of the foundational principles we all learned was that an effective research study should contain a sample representative of the larger population. This concept appeared repetitively, so much so that most of us considered a question on this as “free points.” In 2020, the FDA released “Enhancing the Diversity of Clinical Trial Populations- Eligibility Criteria, Enrollment Practices, and Trial Designs Guidance for Industry,” which sparked conversations
Interview
A Community Safety Net — A State-wide Asset
Trevor Sawallish, CEO, North Memorial Health
Long-term Care
Long-Term Care and Mental Health: Inadequate mental health care access
by Anna Mowry
When it comes to providing care for the senior population, one element that is often overlooked is their mental health. Seniors have many unique concerns around mental health and there are unique methods of addressing those concerns. There are also unique concerns around the mental health of those who work providing care for those seniors. LeadingAge Minnesota is a membership-based organization that represents the long-term care sector of health care delivery. Through the LeadingAge Minnesota Foundation (LAMF), it has engaged in a groundbreaking initiative to establish a comprehensive mental health safety net for its member facilities and for those who provide care for them.
