By Ann McGee-Cooper, Ed.D.
In June, Dr. Ruben Amarasingham spoke at the International Servant Leadership/Greenleaf Conference in Dallas and told an amazing story. Although Ruben was born in New York, his parents come from a tiny country outside India, Sri Lanka. He counts himself and his family lucky for being able to come to the U.S. He then shared a fascinating story of how he came to be the Director of the Center for Clinical Innovation at Parkland and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.In 1996, as a second year medical student I wrote to Dr. Ron Anderson, CEO of Parkland, requesting his advice. He spent the next 2 years advising me on a study on homelessness and won my deep respect and loyalty. Many years later I went on to John’s Hopkins for a three-year fellowship. In 2005, when I was weighing staying at Hopkins Ron Anderson called me to say, “Hopkins is amazing. But Ruben, we love you down here!” Of course I came back to Parkland.
Then Dr. Amarasingham went on to share some of the amazing work being done in the Center for Clinical Innovation at Parkland. They are developing an information exchange portal that would electronically connect Parkland to several non-profits such as the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities. They are also building new software programs that help identify highest risk patients in real-time in collaboration with several non-profit hospitals from the area. From this they are helping each other reach organizational goals and better serve those in great need in our community. For example, he told a story of a homeless patient suffering from hypothyroidism for whom his medical team and the Salvation Army worked together to reduce repeated hospitalizations. Everyone is better served through a creative, collaborative effort.
He spoke of moving from paternalistic health care to shared ownership, empowering the patients to take ownership of their health issues and operating in support teams. DFW has more than 400 community-based organizations doing some form of health care. “By building flexible technical membranes of information sharing and collaboration, everyone can be better served. We are on a four-year path to reach this goal by 2014.” Ruben told us.
Ruben shared this in closing. “I have a favorite quote from Dr. Margaret Mead, a world respected anthropologist. ‘One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.’ For the homeless, this is a critical gap in their lives and we hope to be there for them during this gap.”
* Picture Courtesy of Parkland Health & Hospital System, Corporate Communications