FORUM ON EMERGING ISSUES

At the close of the Spring Session, ELAM hosts its annual Forum on Emerging Issues, when graduating fellows and their deans come together to explore a timely, substantive issue facing leaders of academic health centers. 

Each year the Forum focuses on a new, innovative concept or methodology intended to enhance participants’ knowledge and add value to their leadership. The Forum’s interactive format facilitates open communication and provides an opportunity for fellows and their deans to gain a better appreciation of each others’ goals and leadership styles.

The 1½ days set aside for the Forum also provide time for deans and fellows to meet privately to review the fellows’ professional goals and explore opportunities for addressing the needs of their home institution. During their stay, deans also have an opportunity to learn more about ELAM and to share ideas on mentoring.

Past Forum Topics
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Building Diverse and Inclusive Communities in Academic Health Centers (2008)
Faculty in academic health centers must participate in solving the problem of disparities in health and health care because these institutions are the training ground for future scientists, clinicians, and educators who must grapple with these challenges. If future professionals value and prioritize problems and issues only from a reductionistic molecular perspective, they will only research those aspects of problems and will skirt the key interface between biological, psychosocial, and environmental questions.  There is a need for academic health centers to become more "culturally competent" and to partner with communities in improving the quality of care provided to our nation's increasingly diverse population. Led by Jeannette South-Paul, Harry Gibbs, and Robert C. Like. Underwritten by the University of California Irvine and the University of Colorado Denver.

“Positive Deviance” (2007)
Positive Deviance differs from traditional “needs based” or problem-solving approaches in that it does not focus primarily on the identification of needs and external inputs necessary to meet those needs or to solve problems.  Rather, it seeks to mobilize the organizational community to identify and amplify positive problem-solving practices that already exist.  Jerry and Monique Sternin, who first developed the approach 10 years ago to address the problem of malnutrition in Vietnam, have seen their community-oriented action model replicated in 41 countries.   Underwritten by the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and West Virginia University School of Medicine.

“Tapping the Full Power of the Alpha Leader” (2006)
Working from the belief that the greatest leadership influence is leveraged through openness to feedback and commitment to transparent communication, facilitators Kate Ludeman and Eddie Erlandson of Worth Ethic offered techniques for moving the “Sludge” out of interactions and communications in order to move to “Results.”  Underwritten by the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/New Jersey Medical School, and the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine.

“Transformational Philanthropy” (2005)
Participants explored effective ways for attracting and cultivating individual donors to support their institutional mission and vision and help transform their organizations. Led by fundraising expert Karen E.. Osborne, President of The Osborne Group, Inc. Underwritten by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
 
“Uncovering and Overturning the ‘Immunity to Change’: Personal Learning and Professional Development” (2004)
Looking first at themselves and then at their organizations, participants Identified “Core Contradictions” that impede work commitments or aspirations. Led by Harvard’s Meehan Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development, Robert Kegan, an award-winning psychologist, teacher, and co-author of How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work.  Underwritten by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

“Energizing Change in Organizations: An Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry” (2003)
Participants learned how to improve their own leadership and facilitate change within their institutions using the methods of Appreciative Inquiry.  Led by Penelope R. Williamson, Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Anthony L. Suchman, Practicing Internist and Organizational Consultant, participants will explore strategies for building more relationship-centered, inclusive, collaborative organizational systems that focus on institutional strengths rather than problems.  Underwritten by the University of Utah School of Medicine.

“Building the Leadership Engine for Academic Health Centers” (2002)
Led by Noel M. Tichy, Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Michigan Business School and Director of its Global Leadership Program.  Dr. Tichy and participants explored how to develop effective leaders and winning organizations.  is a world-renowned teacher and consultant whose scholarship and research focus on global leadership, strategic human resource management, organizational change and career development. He led participants through a series of exercises and reflections on how to develop effective leaders and winning organizations. Underwritten by the University of Michigan’s Medical School, School of Dentistry, and Office of the Provost.

“Innovative Thinking and Creativity Tools to Improve Academic Health Centers” (2001)
At the 2001 Forum, Paul Plsek, an internationally recognized consultant on improvement and innovation for today’s complex organizations and developer of the concept of DirectedCreativityTM, introduced participants to a variety of creativity tools to promote innovative thinking and problem solving at AHCs.  Underwritten by the University of Michigan’s Medical School, School of Dentistry, and Office of the Provost.

“The Balanced Scorecard: Strategy and Performance for Academic Health Centers” (2000)
The 2000 Forum applied the tool of the Balanced Scorecard for strategy and performance measurement efforts in the academic health center setting.  Led by Stephen Rimar, a recognized leader in the application of the Balanced Scorecard approach to academic medicine and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Medical Director of the Faculty Practice Plan at the Yale University School of Medicine.  Underwritten by the Colgate-Palmolive Company.

“Exploring Complex AHC Systems Using Computer Simulation” (1999)
Using an innovative model specially designed for ELAM that focused on academic health centers, participants built on the scenario-planning concepts explored in the 1998 Forum.  Guided by Bruce Gresh, Ph.D., who designed the simulation, participants played out the effects of implementing management decisions in a complex system. Underwritten by the Colgate-Palmolive Company.

“Planning, Learning and Rehearsing the Future for Academic Health Centers:  Success in the Face of…” (1998)
Introduced scenario planning methodology.  Led by Paul Batalden, M.D., Director, Health Care Improvement Leadership Development, Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Dartmouth Medical School.  Underwritten by a grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

“Creating A Learning Organization: For Renewal of Academic Medicine” (1997)
Peter Senge’s Five Disciplines was applied to academic health center systems.

 “Academic Medical Centers 2010: An Organizational Odyssey” (1996)
Using future search methodology, this Forum explored the optimal governance structures and leadership styles that will be essential for the future.

ELAM is a core program of the Institute for Women's Health and Leadership at Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pa. The Institute continues the legacy of advancing women in medicine that began in 1850 with the founding of the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, the nation's first women's medical school and a predecessor of today's Drexel University College of Medicine.