“As clinicians, we speak a different language to our colleagues in business and management. While there is a strong emerging focus on the use of human, non‑technical skills in a clinical environment, it struck me as odd that this would be our boundary limit. I was lucky enough to be accepted as a scholar on to a value‑based healthcare delivery course run by Harvard Business School’s (HBS) Michael Porter when I was completing a fellowship in Toronto. This opened my eyes as to how ignorant I was to the non-clinical environment around me. At the end of that course, I emailed Gerardine Doyle, a professor and director at the UCD Smurfit School, to ask how one would go about applying for an MBA. “I knew we, as a family, would be returning to Ireland and I wanted to find somewhere close to home. I also knew a couple of people who had attended and enjoyed the UCD Smurfit School experience. Plus, the HBS faculty had personally endorsed it as a highly regarded executive MBA programme with an excellent reputation. That was good enough for me.” What was your favourite part of the programme? “I loved being in a class with such a huge variety of experience from different industries and backgrounds. I enjoyed the fact that no one thought the same way as I did and being able to lean on a variety of perspectives, especially for group work, was refreshing. The faculty were hugely engaging and my favourite modules were those on leadership, marketing, strategy, operations/supply chain management, negotiation and executive decision-making. These were also the subjects that were most likely going to be directly beneficial in my day-to-day job.” How has what you have learnt during your EMBA helped you in your career projects? “I had initially hoped that undertaking an EMBA would enhance my own professional learning, be used as an adjunct for research and perhaps be useful in trying to further enhance clinical outcomes for the children and
adolescents who I have the privilege to look after. I never expected it to be so beneficial in terms of engaging with management and taking a leadership role. “It is not even a year since I completed the EMBA and I have already used it to create a new public/private partnership that allows access to specialist clinics and surgery for children in the northwest, west and southwest of Ireland, without any costs to parents. “I’m now also trying to establish a new national public adolescent and transitional urology programme in Ireland. This has never existed before and, as you can imagine, requires a lot of skills relating to leadership, decision-making, negotiation, finance and human resources management just to bring stakeholders to the table. Leading change is no joke.” How did you find balancing work and study while completing your EMBA? “I have a very understanding wife who has been unwaveringly supportive of me since the day I met her. She has helped me juggle a clinical and family life and, if I’m being honest, this award has to be dedicated to her. I was also slightly fortunate in that I had just returned home from Canada when I started my EMBA and my clinical workload was nowhere near capacity. Although this changed rapidly, it allowed me a period of transition to get used to the rigours of the programme. The balance is really difficult to achieve; you have some good weeks and some not so good weeks, but you just have to keep powering through.” You’ve spoken about the importance of business skills in surgery to postgraduate surgical students at the RCSI. Could you tell us a bit more about this? “It would be hugely hypocritical of me to highlight a deficit in postgraduate training, go to the effort of finding out how to ameliorate this and then keep it to myself. I think one of the most important things we do in whatever industry we work in is to pass on knowledge
There is massive potential for research collaboration looking at value-based healthcare delivery, determinants of health inequity and access to healthcare
30 | Ambition | JUNE 2023
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