Alex Cheng’s Post

Reflecting on a pivotal moment at Stanford Healthcare. When faced with a complex challenge, I chose a path of collective growth. Instead of dictating solutions, we learned and developed together. The outcome exceeded expectations. Have you experienced the power of collective learning in your career? Share your story below! 👇

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of my graduation day. And I thought the best way to celebrate that was to give away the most important teachings I got from medical school and my working environment, and how they helped shape my personality and the way I now see things. What were some of your happiest memories in university (not necessarily med-school)? What things did you learn the hard way(so others don't have to)? Here's the link to the full article: https://wp.me/pevyMY-5s I'll be glad to hear your feedback and your suggestions for future posts

When I joined California Life Sciences (CLS) in late 2022, I had 18 months to make the case to turn a 3-year DEI initiative into a sustained organizational imperative. This was one of the most meaningful challenges of my career and a unique opportunity to make an industry level impact. Last week when I parted ways with CLS, I did so with a deep sense of accomplishment and pride having had the opportunity to have frank and honest discussions with industry leaders about the state of inclusion within the life sciences, and the risks this work faces as the political, legislative, and cultural headwinds continue coming our way.  I was also able to create space for the unheard voices and stories from the communities CLS serves allowing CLS leaders to learn firsthand that: ·       Acts of kindness and sympathy do not equate to making the sacrifices needed to truly do the work, ·       Underserved communities want organizations to move beyond performing transactions to building relationships, ·       Their organizations must shift from tracking programs to integrating equity and inclusion into their strategy and culture, and ·       The true measure of success lies in how it feels to be a part of the environments they lead. The important work of making life sciences more welcoming and equitable for all is under attack, and DEI leaders and their sponsors are on the front lines of helping organizations navigate these uncharted waters. As this landscape continues to shift, I’m honored to have had this moment to influence the thinking of life sciences leaders and to make the case that while support for DEI may be entering an unclear season, what remains unquestionably clear is that the need for this work persists.  Though my time at CLS has drawn to a close, the CLS journey of equity and inclusion for all is just beginning. I wish this impactful organization every success. 

Meet Elliott Asarch! In this blog, the clinical research conduct and management graduate shares how what he was learning could be applied to the positions he'd held. "My work experience really helped me to make the most out of the class." Read more ➡️ https://bit.ly/4dtGxRz #StudentStories

The drivers of health care that also drive education, economic, and societal outcomes are a SOCIETAL concern. More focus on what is popular or the usual bandwagon assumptions, will only distract from what is essential for true reform in America. What Inequities Must We Address as Health Care Leaders... 1. Inequities in health care payments, access, and workforce for most Americans most behind and where Americans are increasing fastest in numbers, demand, and complexity with worsening practice environments for what remains of their health care delivery team members. 2. Worst quality health care insurance worst among developed nations and failing for 62% of Americans, and not helped by expansions of the worst quality health insurance plans. Where we have concentrations of elderly, poor, disabled, and worst employers - we kill access, practices, and Americans by designs that concentrated the worse paying most abusive health plans 3. Toxic practice environments are concerns for all health professionals and delivery team members and those who hope to represent them or lead them. This pandemic has been caused by designs such as DRG worsened by profit focus that was first seen in nurses in the 1980s but has spread across basic health access and up the pecking order of specialties and subspecialties. DRG, RBRVS, and all the way to value based has been about more for delivery team members to do in less time despite team members who are fewer and lesser (particularly in experience) with little real hope for improvement. Replacing the health care leadership is essential to end the reign of bandwagon assumptions that have so harmed health care delivery. The sad state of affairs in health care has been shaped by the financial design, abusive simplistic spread sheet cost cutting, the failure to cut the costs of those biggest doing best and in bed with the designers, profit focus, and meaningless micromanagement. There will be more to come unless our thought leaders, advocates, associations, and foundations change how health care leaders are influenced, trained, developed, and selected. Harm caused to those delivering the care must be addressed. Medicare and Medicaid was supportive for the care of most Americans most behind for the first decade. This brief initial time period and Hill Burton are the only time that that most Americans have had investments in their workforce, team members, hospitals, and practices. Since then hundreds of their hospitals and even more carnage to their practices hurt this majority of Americans. Forty years of wrong assumptions must end. If you value leadership in health care, witness the termination of locally focused health care leadership due to 400 hospital closures plus more practice closures and compromises taking out those who used to lead - hospital administrators, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, clinicians, AND THEIR SPOUSES who also were leaders in health care and in communities most behind.

If data is important to your business get this 👇 👇 👇

Can't make it to the sample class with Professor Luke Froeb on November 4? No worries! You can still dive into the world of managerial economics by checking out his book: https://lnkd.in/dJt2pU5q Economics has never been so fascinating!

Graduation is on the horizon!!

Fun time gathering MD/MBA friends at the Harvard Business School alumni reunion! When we graduated, I was the only one who did not enter into a full residency program. So, 10 years after graduation - where are folks now?! Among the 9 MD/MBAs pictured: 🏥 2 are full-time clinicians 🏥 5 are in primarily non-clinical roles in VC, start-ups, government etc. but practice medicine on the side 🏥 1 is not clinically active but remains in healthcare 🏥 1 has left healthcare completely ⚡ 100% did some sort of post-graduate training, with multiple additional fellowships beyond residency ⚡ 33% had a stint at McKinsey & Company, what I like to call "residency training" for business Pictured: Uchechi Iweala | Tariq Ali, MD MBA | Emmanuel Mensah | Neil R. Parikh, MD MBA | Eva Luo | Michael Kwame Poku, MD, MBA, FACP | Peter Truszkowski | C. Lee Cohen | Alice Zheng Missing (let's get together at the next reunion!): Rena Xu | David Mou MD MBA | Sri Lekha Tummalapalli | David Mattos | Linda Wang | Jacob Bassiri | Jack Varon MD, MBA | Alex Harding #HBSReunions

Postdoctoral research fellow roles, by their grant-based and fixed-term nature, are considered non-permanent employment at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine and many medical schools and universities worldwide. Such roles can be challenging, especially for early-career scientists with family responsibilities. Limited job security and institutional support, the illusion of career progression, financial instability, insufficient pro-family benefits and perks, work-life balance and relocation issues are but some of the more widely known challenges. Motivated by their pursuit of science and genuine desire to contribute to human knowledge, PhD graduates often find themselves blindsided. That few postdoctoral research fellows receive long service and other annual awards that are given out at various levels in the university is not surprising, given the short tenure of their employment. Despite the odds, many postdocs, intrinsically motivated by a passion for science, still give their best to science and to other colleagues, beyond the paycheck. These are the researchers who deserve the Dean's Award that I had the honour to receive in November 2023. Postdoctoral research fellows at Nanyang Technological University Singapore and a small number of universities are fortunate to have an available progression to senior research fellow and principal research fellow. But how else could a university recognise, reward and retain the invaluable scientific contributions of postdoctoral research fellows? This is the challenge I posed to the Administration when I received the Dean's Award for Administration. Here is my video-recorded response to receiving the award.