A perspective on digital leadership in the GCC healthcare sector
Digital Leadership in the GCC Healthcare Sector
As I travel to the Middle East this weekend, I am struck by the centrality of digital transformation to the region’s healthcare ambitions. Healthcare organisations across the Middle East are setting bold goals for digital, and our partners here are increasingly focussed on recruiting leaders with the skills to deliver it.
Health infrastructure investment across the Gulf Cooperation Council countries of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE is expected to hit $89 billion this year, and digital technology is a key part of that. In Saudi Arabia, healthcare transformation is being driven by its Vision 2030 strategy for diversifying the economy and developing public services, with aims including a greater focus on prevention of lifestyle diseases and better integration of services.
Innovative partnerships with overseas institutions – notably from the UK – are being matched by a determination to develop home-grown talent, while long-term partnerships between the public and private sectors are key to healthcare growth.
“Innovative partnerships with overseas institutions – notably from the UK – are being matched by a determination to develop home-grown talent, while long-term partnerships between the public and private sectors are key to healthcare growth. ”
To build belief in digital transformation and the organisation’s ability to deliver it, healthcare leaders need to tell compelling stories to help clinical and non-clinical leaders and teams reimagine the way they deliver services, defining the benefits with patients and data at the centre.
Digital transformation is made or broken by the quality and depth of staff engagement. Learning the lessons from the pandemic, leaders need to build connections right across their organisations. This includes putting clinicians at the heart of the transformation process from the start, using their insights to focus on what matters to staff and patients and to ensure technology is joined up and intuitive to use. Change champions need to be identified and nurtured across the organisation, making the case for new ways of thinking and working in spotting adoption and implementation barriers.
Setting clear objectives is vital, defined in terms of clinical outcomes and operational improvements. Engineering early wins which demonstrate potential and secure by-in are important steps on the road to successful implementation.
Building the right data strategy is just as important as the technology itself. Leaders need a clear vision of how data insights will drive change across organisations, from the management of critically ill patients to administrative systems. Clear mechanisms need to be in place to enable clinical teams to use data to drive continual improvements in patient care and outcomes as well as manage out risk.
The ability to establish governance for transformation programmes which is both rigorous and agile is essential. As always, one of the key leadership challenges is knowing when to dive down into detail and grip an area where you sense problems are emerging. Does the proof-of-concept prototype meet our requirements? Is the training programme meeting staff needs? How are we measuring success in the testing phase? How are we surfacing and resolving problems? Have we learned the right lessons from the mock go-live exercises?
Once the new system is up and running, communications and performance monitoring must be redoubled. Staff need to see evidence of the benefits of the change and trust the management to recognise and address problems quickly.
The Middle East is undoubtedly one of the most exciting places currently in healthcare globally at this moment in time. While the advances in technology and infrastructure are impressive, the biggest wins will come from developing the rich talent pools that exist there to make it all happen.
If you are interested in discussing the challenges around talent management and leadership in your organisation in the first instance please contact us.
Frank McKenna
Global Managing Director, Healthcare and Academia
E-mail
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