Insights

Insights

Insights

Will I.T. make the boat go faster?

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London 2012 already feels like an age away. But for me the memories are not so distant. In common with many who were touched by the events of that glorious sporting summer, I still search for key learnings that I might usefully deploy in both my personal and professional life.

To this end I have just finished reading a book called ‘Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?’ (Olympic Winning Strategies for Everyday Success)1. The principal author is Ben Hunt- Davis. Ben was part of the Olympic Gold medal winning rowing eight at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. It charts the team’s journey from ‘failure’ in Atlanta 1996 (8th) to Gold in 2000. It is a riveting read on many different levels, but for me the most striking message is captured in the books title. Read More…

Inspire a generation

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Friday 27th July 2012 is a date that is likely to live long in the memory. That evening – along with millions of others across the nation – my senses were assailed by the spectacle that was the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.

For me the show was of particular significance as it fused two great passions in my life; sport and the NHS. I was particularly delighted that the good people at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) took centre stage as it was only a few months ago that my six year old daughter was under their care. And what care it was; pretty much faultless in every regard. Read More…

Let me take you by the hand…

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Last Friday – 29th July – I was invited to speak at an event hosted and organised by a Social Enterprise called The Hope Street Centre. The conference in question was a ‘Platform’ event focused on the topic of “How to create commissioning systems that create good outcomes for homeless people”. Chaired by Professor David Colin-Thomé and hosted by Alison Holbourn, Chief Executive Hope Street Centre, I had been invited to present a vision for how actionable data could be turned into commissioning intelligence to support better health outcomes. Read More…

Money money money

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The original working title of this blog was ‘It’s the patients stupid’. Close followers of politics – and American presidential elections in particular – will be familiar with the now famous phrase coined by Bill Clinton’s strategist James Carville, who in 1992 stated…“It’s the economy stupid”.

So some months ago when I was first preparing this blog – and with a nod to James Carville – I had developed a nice line of reasoning, I thought, which spoke loudly about “It’s the patients stupid”.

Then John Appleby – Chief Economist, Health Policy at the Kings Fund – beat me to it when back in February of this year – in the Health Service Journal (23.02.2012) – he wrote a piece called ‘It’s the money stupid’. Read More…