Rethinking Healthcare
International healthcare strategist Karen Conway challenges us to rethink our shared journey to a better healthcare system.
Karen offers a fresh approach to building a more resilient and responsive healthcare system—one that brings stakeholders together to co-create a system that delivers value to patients and to the organizations and individuals upon which their health depends. She shows us how to let go of old ways of thinking and develop deeper connections that elevate healthcare for families, communities, businesses, and the planet.
Karen believes our greatest opportunities for success are found in the interconnections, between people, processes and systems, whether that is in the boardroom or in nature. That’s why, when she is not directly supporting leaders seeking to improve healthcare, you will find her connecting with nature on the hiking trail, aboard her sailboat Merlin, or on adventures to witness wildlife in their natural habitats. Last year, Karen fulfilled two lifelong dreams inspired by her study of evolutionary biology, visiting the Galapagos Islands and the Masai Mara and Serengeti Plain in East Africa.
While in Africa, Karen also participated in a healthcare mission, studying how best to allocate what are essentially finite resources in a manner that supports the health of people and communities, from the most rural villages to bustling urban centers. In addition to continuing to support work on the African continent, Karen is also researching how those same approaches can be applied to address the growing rural healthcare crisis in America.
Karen’s is bringing people together to build deep connections that lead to more collaborative relationships and opportunities to find new and innovative solutions to problems that we cannot solve on our own. Together, we can elevate healthcare for all.
“One of my proudest moments was when my father, a few years before his passing, came to hear me speak in Baltimore. The topic was continual improvement to optimize costs and quality in healthcare, by incorporating systems thinking and standardization.
My father was not only an inspiration to me; he was also responsible for bringing the quality movement to Proctor & Gamble and for transforming the relationship between the consumer packaged goods company and Walmart, through his direct work with Sam Walton and Dr. W. Edwards Deming.
My father taught me the principles behind continual quality improvement, but more importantly, the desire to leave this world a better place. To do so, I have learned to broaden my focus (and that of others) to understand why systems perform the way they do, which is a prerequisite for improvement. In fact, it was my father who inspired the use of the phrase ‘Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets’ in healthcare from sharing a similar quote by a P&G organizational expert.”
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Unlock the keys to strategies that can elevate your personal and organizational success and the overall viability of the healthcare system as a whole. Whether through keynote speaking, facilitation, research, or consulting, Karen tailors every program to meet your unique needs. Ready to turn challenges into opportunities? Let’s collaborate and create a solution that works for you.
