At the Intersection of Leading and Happiness

Of the many things I enjoy about my work as a physician leader, the broad content areas with which I can wrestle intellectually and the ability to help influence and improve patients’ lives rank most highly in my job satisfaction.

I often hear from other physician leaders in a variety of roles that “no two days are the same.” As shown in the range of topics in this month’s issue, understanding regulations such as EMTALA, value-based care and compensation models are three areas among many that need the attention and input of physician leaders to assure we appropriately care for those we serve.

As we go about our work, it becomes important not only to have a broad understanding about the content elements that underlie our work, but also the methods we can use to engage our teams and assure that the work gets done as efficiently as possible. This is why I am always excited to learn about ways to lead more efficiently and with the highest impact for those on my team. If done successfully, leadership can provide us with a method to achieve better outcomes for patients and assure that our teams are satisfied in their work.

In this issue, we learn how one health system infused innovation into its physician leadership program on its journey toward excellence. We also attempt to continue to improve with time and add new opportunities for readers to learn, so we include “expert perspectives” with two of the peer-reviewed submissions in this issue, written by established physician leaders on our editorial board to provide us with a broader context of the literature.

What remains clear from inside physician leadership circles is that our work only will continue to grow in size and scope, regardless of the job titles we might have. To effectively contribute and sustain those contributions over time, we have to be creative and thoughtful about how we approach our work in both content and methods. I hope this issue brings you some important insights that can inform your leadership approaches and those leaders on your team.

We welcome your papers for publication. To request author guidelines or to submit a completed manuscript, email editor@physicianleaders.org.