A New Vocabulary and a Longer View

Having been immersed for nearly 20 years in internal medicine, critical care medicine, and pulmonary disease, Dr. Christine Blaski has built a foundation for a solid career of clinical work. She’s been thinking creatively, though, about that longer view of her work. “This is such a dynamic time in our industry,” she says. “I’m wondering how I can add constructive and meaningful input across disciplines.”

For Blaski, a step toward that longer view included the leadership development she was exposed to in Dartmouth’s MHCDS program. “Physicians are often consumed by their daily clinical work,” she says. “They don’t have a chance to develop the broader vocabulary of administration, operations, and strategy; to learn how to cross disciplines within a complex organization. Those were the most valuable things I learned in the program.

Her experience at Dartmouth coincides with a new initiative at the Massachusetts-based North Shore Medical Center, which is aimed at innovation and improvements in all areas of health care delivery. According to Robert Norton, the medical center’s president and CEO, “Improvement is now the core business strategy at NSMC.” Blaski is already contributing the strategy. She was recently asked to serve as a faculty member for the new initiative.