Accelerated Healthcare Leadership Programme (AHLP) – 2019, from Voice of Healthcare concluded on 28^th July 2019 after 3 days of intense learning of modern Healthcare Leadership principle and practices through a  congregation of Top National and International Healthcare Leaders, who assembled to Mentor the Future Leaders of Healthcare from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Belgium and The United Kingdom, held at Pride Plaza Hotel, The Aerocity New Delhi from 26^th to 28^th July 2019.  

This unique Leadership Programme, designed and developed by Dr Naveen Nishchal and Md Afzal Kamal, the chairman and secretary General of Voice of Healthcare respectively, with an objective to enhance and strengthen leadership capabilities and core decision-making abilities of senior healthcare managers to ensure that they have the skills, knowledge, and resources to effectively lead, engage and develop their team. This 3-day residential programme focused on improving the productivity and efficiency of health systems through effective leaders at the helm.

Spread over 11 sessions of 70 to 90 min duration each, every session were steered by some of the most idolized Global Industry Legends and  remarkable dignitaries like  (Hony) Brig. Dr. Arvind  Lal – Chairman, Health Services Committee FICCI &  Chairman and Managing Director,  Dr. Lal PathLabs Ltd  CMD, Dr. Naveen Nishchal– Co-Founder Cygnus Hospitals and Meddo- Network of Clinics, Prof Jan Gutermuth, University of Brussels, Belgium, Healthcare Delivery Specialist (HBS)  , Ed Rose – Healthcare specialist and Former chief adviser to CEO of NHS England, Md. Afzal Kamal– Secretary-General Voice of Healthcare and   Editor-in-Chief Medgate Today Magazine,  Mr. Sanjay Jha – Co-Founder Collateral Medical Pvt Ltd, Mr. Prabal Chakraborty– Healthcare Consultant and former VP and MD, Boston Scientific (I) Ltd,  Mr. Davesh Manocha– Co-Founder and CEO Juno Clinic, Partner- Sabre Capital, Mumbai Dr. Dharminder Nagar – Chairman & Managing Director of Paras Healthcare, Mr. Rohit MA – Co-Founder – Cloudnine Group of Hospitals, Mr Vikram Anand- Founder and Director,  CapBuild Clinical Skills Pvt. Ltd.  & Ellen Van den Steen- Manager Pharmacy, University Hospital Brussels, Belgium 

Besides the Mentors/speakers, all the 40 participants were handpicked through CV shortlisting from more than 500 registrations. It was a good cohort of  mid-level and Top-level managers from different verticals of Healthcare Industry.

Day 1 started with a power-packed and interactive introductory session “Leadership Quality- Do You Have it in You?”– by Dr Naveen Nishchal, a Healthcare Delivery Specialist from Harvard Business School, Boston. He had his own way of steering the session using his calm composure but involving each participant through group activity and brainstorming tools. Taking cues from Hollywood Movie Apollo 13, video snippets of speech of DR APJ Abdul Kalam, real-life case studies, Role playing- he used the simple yet powerful methodology to get his message across. 

(Hony) Brig. Dr Arvind Lal addressed the participants by sharing Future Roadmap of Healthcare in India. The pioneer and trendsetter he is, participants used the rare opportunity of having him among them and flooded him with their questions which he answered to their satisfaction. He explained through his own example of how a Leader needs to respond to the call of social needs and should not shy away from using the latest technology to improve efficiency, reduce human efforts and minimize errors.

Knowledge Sharing and Discussion Session – An AHLP unique methodology,  designed especially for interactive learning for participants in smaller groups of 4 to 5 was staged in the evening. The best part of this session was that participant could pick their choice from available guest faculties, which whom they preferred to spend an hour of exquisite learning, based on their domain expertise and participants own interest. They had their experience of lifetime interacting with renowned leaders, Professors, scientists, medical practitioners, entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, Industrialists and Healthcare Leaders like Dr. B. K. Rana, Founding CEO of Quality & Accreditation Institute (QAI) and former Director & CEO-In-charge of NABH, Quality Council of India, Dr. Sunil Khetarpal, COO, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital and Research Center, Dr. Sachin Gupta, Founder, Salus Healthcare Resources, Md. Afzal kamal- Editor-in-Chief Medgate Today Magazine, Mr. Sumeet Aggarwal- Managing Director, Midmark (India) Pvt. Ltd, Mr Vikram Anand- Founder and CEO, CapBuild Clinical skills private Ltd, Dr. Somender Shukla- Co-Founder and CEO India IVF fertility and Mr. Vishal Gandhi– Founder and CEO- BIORx Venture Advisors Pvt. Ltd. Matching to the expectation and eagerness of participants, the stalwarts gave useful Leadership Mantra for over 2 hours to various participants sitting in clusters and discussing in a free flow manner without any particular topic constraint. The concept was equally appreciated by the mentors and the mentees for its unique approach.

The 2^nd day at AHLP 2019 was “Leadership and Strategy Day” as all the esteemed Mentors lined up for the day had their topics woven around Strategic Decision Making- the most important characteristic that differentiates a good leader from a great leader. Mr.Ed Rose- a seasoned Artificial Intelligence super specialist from UK led the pack with the most trending topic of recent time- “Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare”. The former chief advisor to CEO of NHS England and the present chief of AI, Indo -UK Govt collaboration, Mr. Rose shared his expertise on ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – a factor which is going to change the complete healthcare scenario next decade. He discussed the role of AI in Diagnostics, Non-Clinical Activities and preventive Health, the benefits-challenges and potential risks of AI. He emphasized upon considering AI as a clinical tool rather the replacement of clinicians, understanding a product’s clinical evidence base and regulatory approval and validation before deployment and understanding data security and privacy implications.

Session 3 was steered by Mr. Prabal Chakraborty- a legend with 3 decades of experience in MedTech industry,  who enlightened AHLP participants on “How Leaders Handle and Incorporate the Advancements and Innovations of Healthcare Industry”. All his messages and points were beautifully enforced with his own life experience- comprising of successes and failures- which helped carve his career growth to the level where it is today. He successfully engraved his message deep into the psyche of participants in a most exquisite and absorbing manner. His persona and voice modulation was really a cut above others. The theory of 4A Framework of Innovation (Awareness, Adoption, Accessibility and Affordability) and its application to achieve a sustained market development was most practical and highlighted part of his session. He concluded his speech with a strong message to all healthcare leaders- “keep up-grading yourself with constant learning, be digital Savvy and develop learning organizations to stay abreast in a tough competitive world”

The 4^th session was steered by Media Guru Md. Afzal Kamal – a man on a constant pursuit of Integrated Global Healthcare Mission by bringing all stakeholders of healthcare together through constructive healthcare journalism. His topic was “Media Management in Healthcare Organization”. He explained the importance of media management, a factor often ignored by healthcare leaders. He described how Healthcare Leaders should handle PR management, modern media tools like print-electronic-social media, the importance of advertising and promotions, medico-legal communications, client-specific media usage, and media strategy. In his own words- “Healthcare media has assumed a very crucial role in these days of information flood and comprehensive media coverage. Sound media management has capabilities of minimizing the risk of perceptual distortion on one hand and projecting the positive image of the hospital on the other hand. As there is lack of correct & timely Public Communication among healthcare facilities, there is an urgent communication need to bridge between public & healthcare facilities. This perennial vacuum needs to be filled in to ensure correct connections between public and healthcare facilities”. The participants showed great interest in learning the nuances of media management from him.

 Mr. Rohit MA  Mentored the participants of AHLP Session 5 on Day 2 and shared the innovative approaches for engaging consumers in Healthcare and explained the role of the leader in customer engagement protocols in his topic “Technology that engages consumers in Healthcare”. Through his real-life case study, designed around his own hospital app, he beautifully demonstrated how a basic aspect called Customer Experience can be enhanced to its highest level by understanding human behavioural pattern, consumer expectation and dissatisfaction and then thinking of innovative ideas to address them- even by the smallest margin of improvement- which can snowball into bigger and better results.

The next session helmed by Dr. Dharminder Nagar was quite interesting for the way he conducted his part without relying upon PPTs, rather adopting an open house discussion to drive the points of his topic “Strategic Decision Making”. Participants flooded him with their question on decision making which he tackled wisely while conveying the basic fundaments of Strategic Decision Making and the value it brings to the growth of an organization.

Prof. Dr. Jan Gutermuth and Ellen Van den Steen , the healthcare specialists from Brussels, Belgium combined took the last session for the day. Through their case study, they discussed how the theory of Strategy Development and its practical implementation led to the revival of Dermatology Department of University Hospital Brussels. With strong shreds of evidence, facts and figures, theory to practical implementation and measurable results, they demonstrated the scientific approach of strategy making for favourable outcomes. Their topic, a case study,  “How to Steer Departments with Strategic Masterplans”, has been accepted as a part of curriculum at Harward Business School this year.

Knowledge Sharing and Group Discussion session on Day 2 of AHLP 2019 was as successful as the previous day.  Eminent Dignitaries like Mr Rajiv Nath– Managing Director of Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd, Col. Dr M M Singh– Hospital and Healthcare Leader and National policymaker, Joint Director Medical Services at Government of India, Commanding Officer Military Hospital Meerut, Mr. Anoop Mohan Arora– CEO, ITDOSE Infosystems Pvt Ltd, Mr. Devesh Manocha– Partner of Sabre Capitals, Mumbai, Co-Founder & CEO Juno Clinics, Mumbai and Mr. Rahul Garg– Business Unit Director, Boston Scientific (India) Limited  made their presence felt and enriched the participants with their insights on Leadership qualities and Modern Leadership Principles.

Day 3 of AHLP 2019 took off with an energetic session of Mr. Davesh Manocha, who simplified a complex subject of Potential Investment And Allocation Strategies In Healthcare for our AHLP participants and make them aware of the potential investment prospects in various healthcare landscape like healthcare provision in Tier II and Tier III cities, single-specialty clinics, Health Technology, home healthcare, telemedicine, wearables and biosciences, e-pharma and e-medical devices platforms, diagnostics and the like. He emphasized upon developing entrepreneurial approach among healthcare Leaders to generate more employment opportunities and contribute towards improving health economics of their respective countries. 

 Mr. Vikram Anand Mentored the 9^th session at AHLP as he covered an important aspect of leadership quality which deals with Data Analytics in improving performance of a Healthcare Organization. He beautifully demonstrated the benefits of generating and utilizing data for favourable strategic decision making at any healthcare organization. He described the importance of capturing quality data through modern technology and then practical application of information derived from the data such acquired.  

Mr. Sanjay Jha led the last session of the programme which turned out to be a highly interactive and enlightening. Mr Sanjay has a wealth of knowledge and experience of mentoring and shaping future leaders which he shared with the participants through his speech on “Coaching Quality for Leaders”. He described in detail about personal coaching styles of various leaders and defined the line of difference between a coach and a mentor. At the end, a certificate of participation was distributed among all attendees.  Participants from various countries congratulated the organisers for the seamless spread of the event and an excellent selection of topics, mentors and guest faculty. The group discussion and knowledge sharing session was appreciated and applauded by all. They were hopeful of learning more life lessons from similar events moderated by  Voice of healthcare in the future . They profusely thanked the organisers for designing such an event which helped shape them into better versions of themselves.