What We Learned from the AUPHA Annual Meeting in Kansas City
I trust those who attended the AUPHA Annual Meeting enjoyed the experience of our keynote speakers, practitioner panelists, 2016 prize winners, and workshop and poster presenters. Here are some highlights:
Kevin Alexander, OD, Ph.D, FAAO, Southern California College of Optometry (SCCO), the Pattullo Lecturer, discussed the importance of interprofessional education and the importance of bringing healthcare specialties together to collaborate. He discussed the difficulty of putting the correct disciplines together, particularly when starting a university which he had the opportunity to do at SCCO. The prospect of getting various faculty to collaborate when a university has a history of operating in siloes is a daunting task. There was a great deal of corridor conversation on the role of health management in multidisciplinary education and its value in training management students to address collaboration and action planning.
John Glaser, Ph.D., Senior Vice-President at Cerner Corporation, the AUPHA Forum Speaker gave us insights on what challenges are ahead in information technology and the companies that will ultimately succeed are those that look to transform information management of the future and are not satisfied with their current business model. While he commutes from Boston to Kansas City and travels the world, he answered the question: why did he leave Partners HealthCare System and Brigham & Women’s as CIO after 22-years. The answer: he wanted a new challenge and he got it with running Siemens as its president before the company merged with Cerner.
The Practitioner Panel with Marshaun Butler, MHSA, Vice-President, Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas and Regional Medical Practices; Robert Bonney, MBA, MHA, JD, FACHE, Senior Vice President, Saint Luke’s Health System and CAHME member, and Bobby Olm-Shipman, MHSA, President/CEO, Saint Luke’s South Hospital answered a range of questions from moderator Ellen Averett, Ph.D., MHSA, University of Kansas Medical Center on engaging practitioners in the learning process. This was a session we should have taped because the words of wisdom went well beyond the classroom. The practitioners advised faculty to give the students real-world instruction about getting to work on time, doing what it takes to get the job done, being honest and straightforward, building trust on teams, and not to expect concessions for late work products and work-life balance needs. A chuckle ran through the audience on these suggestions. And then the controversy on ranking the importance of public policy was a hot potato. The panel had mixed reviews on its importance, but did think health care executives needed to appreciate how the legislative and regulatory processes impacted the states in which the provider organizations operated.
Our 2016 prize recipients could not have been more deserving. John Iglehart, Founding Editor of Health Affairs and the Graham Prize for Health Services Research recipient, reminded us of the importance of the written word and how critical solid writing is to any field. Brad Wright, Ph.D., University of Iowa, the Thompson Prize for Young Investigators recipient showed his humility in accepting the award and wanting to live up to the research promise and expectations of prior award recipients. Finally, Peter Butler, MHSA, President/COO of Rush University and Chairman of the Health Systems Management at Rush University reflected on the importance of being smart and resilient, but most importantly living your values.
The meeting had over 35 workshops, ignite, in-the-round, and think-tank sessions designed to give the audience variety; 40 poster presentations, which was up by 20 from prior years to give exposure to the excellence in research, teaching, and community service; and 16 Faculty Forums where members were able to dialog on the past and future activities of their respective forums.
Congratulations to our poster awardees Third place goes to “Predicting Intention to Use Evidence-based Management among U.S. Healthcare Administrators.” Authors: Ruiling Guo, Idaho State University, Steven Berkshire, Central Michigan University, Patrick Hermanson, Idaho State University, and Lawrence Fulton, Texas Tech University.
In second place, “Case-based Learning: A Population Health Strategy for Bay City.” Author: Zachary Pruitt, University of South Florida. First Place: “Reading Leadership: Opportunities to Increase Discussion among Students in an Introduction to Health Informatics Course.” Authors: Iris Zachary, University of Missouri, Sue Boren, University of Missouri, and Win Phillips, University of Missouri.
Congrats, also, to Rosemary Caron, Ph.D., University of New Hampshire for winning the iPAD Air 2 at the AUPHA Forum, the meeting’s closing event. The iPAD was generously donated by Tulane University.
We offered two new features – ice cream sundaes during the poster sessions and an opportunity to see the World Series Champion Kansas City Royals play the Houston Astros at Kauffman Stadium. It was a fun night with AUPHA members wandering the stadium checking in on each other throughout the night.
We were fortunate to have the opportunity to say farewell to Margaret Schulte, DBA, President and CEO of the Commission on the Accreditation of Health Management Education and welcome Anthony Stanowski, DHA, FACHE as the incoming CAHME President/CEO. We look forward to working with Anthony in the years to come.
While the AUPHA office has sent out an electronic evaluation tool for those in attendance, the two recommendations we heard for meeting enhancement were providing more vegan and vegetarian meals and video or audiotaping the keynote lectures. As soon as we get the evaluations collated, we will be sending this out to the membership.
Special thanks goes to the Annual Meeting Planning Committee for their hard work in making the annual meeting a success! We know we could have never had the success we did without the leadership of the AUPHA staff. So, thank you Jerry, Jaime, Kristi, Chris, Liza, and Jason for all you do for AUPHA.
Have a great July!
Diane Howard, Ph.D., MPH, FACHE