Kaiser Permanente - Thrive

Disclaimer: As a reminder, the postings on this site are my own and do not represent Kaiser Permanente positions, strategies, or opinions.

I am happy to announce that early this fall (September), I accepted a role to help support Kaiser Permanente’s technology investment strategy.   This support will come mainly in the form of business and technology planning process development (but I may also sneak-in some of my technology management philosophies when appropriate).

Joining the health care industry, in many ways, is a departure from my technology industry experience.  I anticipate there will be many cultural differences.   While I have worked at large companies before, my support network (with some folks in the know) cation me that there are likely many  business style and etiquette differences between working at Kaiser Permanente and other large high-tech organizations (Sun or Cisco).

At the values level however, I have a found some refreshing similarities:

1. An organization wide commitment to a common vision: Providing the best health care to members at the most affordable price.
2. A value to leverage technology as competitive differentiators: KP HealthConnect; KP.org; Tele-Health; etc.
   
3. A passion for data and fact based decision making.
4. An entrepreneur’s instinct to rewrite old rules, listen to customers, and improve: Kaiser’s integrated Health Care model.
   

The health care crisis in America is profound.   It will take collaboration from many communities to reorganize the industry to meet our shared challenges.   I believe Kaiser’s successes (and failures) in leveraging technology within care delivery, patient engagement, and knowledge organization contexts, will be invaluable contributions towards building a next generation health care system in America.   I look forward to contributing to Kaiser’s ability to thrive as an organization.