Physician Leadership Development Programs Research Articles

The impact of physician leadership development on behaviour and work-related changes.

In this article, we present findings from a retrospective survey of 117 physician leadership development program graduates at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The survey was designed to assess how the program contributed to graduates' leadership development, specifically in terms of behaviour change and work-related changes. The themes resulting from the analysis of the open-ended questions reflected that the program led to changes in graduates' leadership behaviour and their ability to lead change in their respective organizations. The study highlighted the benefits of investment in training for physician leaders to advance transformation and improvement initiatives in a changing world.

Lessons Learned after Implementing an Academic Faculty Leadership Program Over Seven Years

Facing challenges in quality, patient safety, and cost, the healthcare industry is striving to transform and embrace the leadership practices of successful business organizations. Achieving this transformation requires physician leaders. However, equipping emerging leaders with the necessary skills to drive change and develop transformative policies calls for systemic, cohesive, sustained, and data-driven educational efforts. The authors share their experience with training physicians in their academic faculty leadership program over seven years. Participant feedback and observations by the educational team resulted in changes in their application process, session topics, format, facilitators, project teams, assessments, and post-program development or follow-up. The authors share lessons learned and possible solutions, which may assist similar programs in improving their physician leadership development programs.

We have a great idea, now what? Using the Canadian Healthcare Lean Canvas for implementing innovation

The Canadian Healthcare Lean Canvas has successfully provided a manageable and actionable innovation framework with which to capture the key aspects of proposed health care innovation projects as used by participants in a physician leadership development program to address large-scale complex issues in health care.

Personality Predicts the Efficacy of a Physician Leadership Development Program.

It is imperative for health care organizations to foster leadership skills in their workforce. Leadership development programs offer a potential mechanism to achieve this goal. These development programs are likely not equally effective for all participants. This study evaluates the efficacy of one such program and determines personality predictors of its efficacy. Before and after a 12-month leadership development program, 28 physicians from various disciplines completed self-reported measures of leadership knowledge across 3 domains. At baseline, participants also provided personality data across the Big-5 factors of personality as well as 2 narrow facets (learning-goal orientation and preference for collaboration). Results suggest that leadership development programs can increase knowledge across leadership domains. Extraversion and conscientiousness predict changes in knowledge. Learning-goal-orientation and preference for collaboration personality facets provide incremental predictive power. Leadership development programs can improve self-rated knowledge across a range of leadership domains and is differentially effective for people based on their personalities.

Designing a physician leadership development program based on effective models of physician education.

Because of modern challenges in quality, safety, patient centeredness, and cost, health care is evolving to adopt leadership practices of highly effective organizations. Traditional physician training includes little focus on developing leadership skills, which necessitates further training to achieve the potential of collaborative management. The aim of this study was to design a leadership program using established models for continuing medical education and to assess its impact on participants' knowledge, skills, attitudes, and performance. The program, delivered over 9 months, addressed leadership topics and was designed around a framework based on how physicians learn new clinical skills, using multiple experiential learning methods, including a leadership active learning project. The program was evaluated using Kirkpatrick's assessment levels: reaction to the program, learning, changes in behavior, and results. Four cohorts are evaluated (2008-2011). Reaction: The program was rated highly by participants (mean = 4.5 of 5). Learning: Significant improvements were reported in knowledge, skills, and attitudes surrounding leadership competencies. Behavior: The majority (80%-100%) of participants reported plans to use learned leadership skills in their work. Improved team leadership behaviors were shown by increased engagement of project team members. All participants completed a team project during the program, adding value to the institution. Results support the hypothesis that learning approaches known to be effective for other types of physician education are successful when applied to leadership development training. Across all four assessment levels, the program was effective in improving leadership competencies essential to meeting the complex needs of the changing health care system. Developing in-house programs that fit the framework established for continuing medical education can increase physician leadership competencies and add value to health care institutions. Active learning projects provide opportunities to practice leadership skills addressing real word problems.

Evaluating a physician leadership development program - a mixed methods approach.

Purpose - With the extent of change in healthcare today, organizations need strong physician leaders. To compensate for the lack of physician leadership education, many organizations are sending physicians to external leadership programs or developing in-house leadership programs targeted specifically to physicians. The purpose of this paper is to outline the evaluation strategy and outcomes of the inaugural year of a Physician Leadership Academy (PLA) developed and implemented at a Michigan-based regional healthcare system. Design/methodology/approach - The authors applied the theoretical framework of Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation and used surveys, observations, activity tracking, and interviews to evaluate the program outcomes. The authors applied grounded theory techniques to the interview data. Findings - The program met targeted outcomes across all four levels of evaluation. Interview themes focused on the significance of increasing self-awareness, building relationships, applying new skills, and building confidence. Research limitations/implications - While only one example, this study illustrates the importance of developing the evaluation strategy as part of the program design. Qualitative research methods, often lacking from learning evaluation design, uncover rich themes of impact. The study supports how a PLA program can enhance physician learning, engagement, and relationship building throughout and after the program. Physician leaders' partnership with organization development and learning professionals yield results with impact to individuals, groups, and the organization. Originality/value - Few studies provide an in-depth review of evaluation methods and outcomes of physician leadership development programs. Healthcare organizations seeking to develop similar in-house programs may benefit applying the evaluation strategy outlined in this study.

Residents as Leaders: A Comprehensive Guide to Establishing a Leadership Development Program for Postgraduate Trainees

Abstract Introduction This document is written for teachers and organizers of physician leadership development programs, specifically those programs aimed at residents or fellows in training. It de...

Leadership development programs for physicians: a systematic review.

BackgroundPhysician leadership development programs typically aim to strengthen physicians’ leadership competencies and improve organizational performance. We conducted a systematic review of medical literature on physician leadership development programs in order to characterize the setting, educational content, teaching methods, and learning outcomes achieved.MethodsArticles were identified through a search in Ovid MEDLINE from 1950 through November 2013. We included articles that described programs designed to expose physicians to leadership concepts, outlined teaching methods, and reported evaluation outcomes. A thematic analysis was conducted using a structured data entry form with categories for setting/target group, educational content, format, type of evaluation and outcomes.ResultsWe identified 45 studies that met eligibility criteria, of which 35 reported on programs exclusively targeting physicians. The majority of programs focused on skills training and technical and conceptual knowledge, while fewer programs focused on personal growth and awareness. Half of the studies used pre/post intervention designs, and four studies used a comparison group. Positive outcomes were reported in all studies, although the majority of studies relied on learner satisfaction scores and self-assessed knowledge or behavioral change. Only six studies documented favorable organizational outcomes, such as improvement in quality indicators for disease management. The leadership programs examined in these studies were characterized by the use of multiple learning methods, including lectures, seminars, group work, and action learning projects in multidisciplinary teams.DiscussionPhysician leadership development programs are associated with increased self-assessed knowledge and expertise; however, few studies have examined outcomes at a system level. Our synthesis of the literature suggests important gaps, including a lack of programs that integrate non-physician and physician professionals, limited use of more interactive learning and feedback to develop greater self-awareness, and an overly narrow focus on individual-level rather than system-level outcomes.

Lessons of Experience: Key Events and Lessons Learned of Effective Chief Medical Officers at Freestanding Childrenʼs Hospitals

As the healthcare environment changes, physician executives who are effective leaders and agents of change are needed. Healthcare organizations that are successful at developing effective physician leaders will be at an advantage. This article examines how physician leaders develop on the job. Such knowledge and insight can be useful to healthcare systems looking to develop a new physician leadership development program or improve an existing one. This study identified that learning from other people (e.g., mentors, role models, bosses) and key events involving hardships are valuable means in developing leadership acumen for chief medical officers (CMOs) at freestanding children's hospitals. Most of the hardships CMOs reported were a result of mistakes made when they were trying to institute change. CMOs reported a disproportionately low number of learning events from developmental job assignments. This finding may indicate a lost opportunity on the part of healthcare organizations in developing leaders. The most frequent lessons learned pertained to handling relationships, interpersonal skills, and executive temperament. Skills in handling relationships and interpersonal skills were best learned through business mistakes made in dealing with others. Lessons in executive temperament, self confidence, and handling adversity were most often learned from role models and bosses. These findings indicate that physician leadership development initiatives should intentionally and systematically incorporate job assignments, role models, and mentors.

A Physician Leadership Development Program at an Academic Medical Center

To achieve care integration required for efficient high-quality care, physicians are increasingly organized into large multispecialty groups. The success of these groups depends in large part on the ability of leadership to successfully navigate the shifting reimbursement, regulatory, and quality and safety terrain, while simultaneously providing their physicians with a rewarding practice environment. The knowledge and management tools required for such leadership are not taught in medical school or residency and are rarely acquired as a product of day-to-day physician activities. In an effort to meet these challenges, the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization created a leadership development program. This article details the development, implementation, and experience of the program.

Developing Physician-Leaders: A Call to Action

The many challenges in health care today create a special need for great leadership. However, traditional criteria for physicians' advancement to leadership positions often regard academic and/or clinical accomplishments rather than the distinctive competencies needed to lead. Furthermore, physicians' training can handicap their developing leadership skills. In this context, an emerging trend is for health-care institutions to offer physician-leadership programs. This paper reviews the rationale for developing physician-leaders. Factors that underscore this need include: (1) physicians may lack inclinations to collaborate and to follow, (2) health-care organizations pose challenging environments in which to lead (e.g., because of silo-based structures, etc.), (3) traditional criteria for advancement in medicine regard clinical and/or academic skills rather than leadership competencies, and (4) little attention is currently given to training physicians regarding leadership competencies. Definition of these competencies of ideal physician-leaders will inform the curricula and format of emerging physician leadership development programs.

Beyond the Dual Degree: Development of a Five-Year Program in Leadership for Medical Undergraduates

The current state of physician leadership education consists mainly of executive degree programs designed for midcareer physicians. In 2004, the authors proposed that, by educating medical students in physician leadership and integrating this with a business management or public health degree program, graduates, health care organizations, and communities would benefit sooner. Given the lack of program models to guide program integration and development, the authors began a one-year inquiry to build a model leadership curriculum and integrate leadership education across degree programs. The qualitative inquiry resulted in several linked tasks. First, the authors identified a feasible method for concurrently delivering all three program components (MD degree, Leadership Curriculum, and MBA or MPH degree) during a five-year plan. Second, the authors chose a competency-based educational framework for leadership and then identified, adapted, and validated existing leadership competencies to their context. Third, the authors performed an extensive program alignment to identify existing overlaps and opportunities for integration within and across program components. Fourth, the authors performed a needs analysis to identify educational gaps, subsequently leading to redesigning two courses and to designing three new courses. A description of the Leadership Curriculum is also provided. This inquiry has led to the development of the Boonshoft Physician Leadership Development Program, which provides physician leadership education integrated with medical education and education in business management or public heath. Future program initiatives include developing leadership student assessment tools and testing the link between program activities and short- and long-term outcome measures of program success.