On Thursday we had a very enjoyable and educational day. I say “we” because there were eleven of us learning together.
There was Declan, Chris, Lesley, Imran, Phil, Pete, Mike, Kate, Samar and Ellen and me (behind the camera). Some are holding their long-overdue HCSE Level-1 Certificates and Badges that were awarded just before the photo was taken.
The theme for the day was System Dynamics which is a tried-and-tested approach for developing a deep understanding of how a complex adaptive system (CAS) actually works. A health care system is a complex adaptive system.
The originator of system dynamics is Jay Wright Forrester who developed it around the end of WW2 (i.e. about 80 years ago) and who later moved to MIT. Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline was part of the same group as was Donella Meadows who wrote Limits to Growth. Their dream was much bigger – global health – i.e. the whole planet not just the human passengers! It is still a hot topic [pun intended].
The purpose of the day was to introduce the team of apprentice health care system engineers (HCSEs) to the principles of system dynamics and to some of its amazing visualisation and prediction techniques and tools.
The tangible output we wanted was an Excel-based simulation model that we could use to solve a notoriously persistent health care service management problem …
“How to plan the number of new and review appointment slots needed to deliver a safe, efficient, effective and affordable chronic disease service?“
So, with our purpose in mind, the problem clearly stated, and a blank design canvas we got stuck in; and we used the HCSE improvement-by-design framework that everyone was already familiar with.
We made lots of progress, learned lots of cool stuff, and had lots of fun.
We didn’t quite get to the final product but that was OK because it was a very tough design assignment. We got 80% of the way there though which is pretty good in one day from a standing start. The last 20% can now be done by the HCSEs themselves.
We were all exhausted at the end. We had worked hard. It was a good day.
And I am already looking forward to the next HCSE Masterclass that will be in about six weeks time. This one will address another chronic, endemic, systemic health care system “disease” called carveoutosis multiforme fulminans.