From Breakdown to Breakthrough: The Future of Healthcare Starts Now

I never intended to write a book. And honestly, the idea seemed a little daunting. I wrote, but books seemed like something ‘different’. Yet, here I am in a place I never really considered, writing a book that will be coming out early next year.

That’s the power of authentic collaboration. I am by no means an expert on book publishing, and the process is still very new, exciting, and revealing. The journey to writing this book is a culmination of the things I have learned over my career, advise on, and write about. The process also demonstrates how collaboration -- from research, to writing, editing, and publishing -- requires self-belief, trust in others, and the willingness to learn.

My intention for the book is to be a conversation about the new health care paradigm: initiated by Boomers, fueled by Gen X, and ignited by the Digital Generations (Y and Z). It’s a story of the failure of the traditional system almost from its inception in the 1940s; the economic, technological, and societal shifts that made room for a new era; and why all of us are responsible for supporting the new healthcare model.

So, how did I even get here?

At first, it was just a collection of ideas from a career in research. That collection of ideas became a presentation. Then, a workshop. And the more I connected those ideas, the more feedback and questions I received. This unexpected series of events ultimately laid the foundation for the book.

Exposing the Cracks in the Health System

The journey started with a research career focused on understanding how the healthcare system contributed to variations in care.

Variation in healthcare, simplified, is when two people present the same symptoms, but one ends up with a diagnosis of depression and the other with cardiovascular disease. Our research explored how the same presentation can lead down different diagnostic pathways and found, perhaps not surprisingly, it was more than just about medicine. The drivers were far more personal to who the patient is, who the provider is, and the structure of the system, which all shape the outcome. And that, multiplied across individuals and communities, is a core factor that creates real disparities in health and disease rates.

This profoundly informed my interest in the health system as a function of creating disparities in diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes.

It was particularly striking that providers were often constrained by the system they worked in to provide health care. Research began to disentangle how financial pressures, rigid reimbursement models, and persistent demand for productivity could impact the ability to make effective clinical judgements. This experience changed my understanding of healthcare and the way it was delivered. It began the exploration of healthcare as a constraint, versus caring for health as a personalized journey.

And exploring this difference raised questions about whether the system was even built to prioritize patient outcomes when time, support, and incentives didn’t align with patient needs or provider expertise. Ultimately, this research illuminated how the health system itself was a determinant of health from inception, instead of a protector of health.

Who’s Really Changing Healthcare? Meet the Rule Rewriters.

What I didn’t expect during this journey was that the process of writing about the disparities and variations created by the system would become its own lens.

And another pattern began to emerge. Societal changes driven by economic turmoil, a change in the workforce, and the rapid expansion of technology were changing the way healthcare was perceived and consumed, which fell across generational strata. The healthcare journey was emerging in a new way, driven by frustrations of a failing system. The technological revolutions initiated by the Boomers, expanded by Gen X, and amplified by the Digital Generations (Y and Z) were creating a whole new health paradigm.

There are roughly 140 million members of the Digital Generation in the U.S. Generation Y (72m), or Millennials, are bigger than the ‘biggest’ generation – Boomers (71m). Gen Z follows closely behind (69m). Combined, Gen Y and Z are the first generations to know technology from birth. These generations differ within generational strata but share similar macro trends for areas such as healthcare.

The oldest members of the digital generations are in their early 40s. Nearly 50% identify as a race or ethnicity other than White, over 50% are female, and approximately one-third identify as something other than heterosexual. And, while every generation has experienced trauma and economic turmoil, these generations have experienced multiple, significant recessions through the experiences of their parents, and then as adults themselves. They have lived traumatic events in real time on social media, virtually without relief. This is not to argue whether technology has been a value add or a net negative – it is to recognize that it is here, love it or hate it, and it has changed their relationship to work, life and … health.

This became the second part of the book. We didn’t need another retrospective on the system’s failures or calls for reform. The digital generations were clear: the current model didn’t work for them, and they had the tools to create one that did.

A Book is Just Your Story in Chapters

My book, Breaking the System, is about why the model has been failing us for years, almost since it started. But it’s also a story of hope and opportunity. It explores how digital innovators are shaping the future of health.

A new paradigm is emerging, and it's being driven by new generations of thinkers, doers, builders, and healers. These are generations who, through frustration and determination, refused to accept outdated structures. They didn’t just want a better way to run a broken system. They started building a new one. An innovative ecosystem that challenges the status quo.

As these ideas formed, I wrote…and wrote…and then wrote some more until I had pages upon pages that seemed to sort themselves into chapters and sections that told a story – not of reform, but of paradigmatic change.

But a pile of pages is not a book. Collaboration throughout my career has created opportunities to explore out-of-the-box ideas on healthcare. Collaboration was also the catalyst for moving a pile of pages into an organized set of thoughts that became a manuscript. I sheepishly decided to send my pile of pages to my sister – a fabulous English teacher, voracious reader, and honest reviewer. She was the first to say there was something there, with thoughtful edits that both encouraged and overwhelmed me.

It inspired me to move from “Can I really write a book?” to “How do I actually write a book?” With self-doubt and empowerment swimming circles in my head, I continued with the process.

Another round of edits occurred just before the 2023 Women President’s Organization Entrepreneurial Executive Forum. There, I met the founder of WiseInk, Amy Quale, a female founder and independent publisher. I chatted with her and connected with her passion and spirit…but I purposely didn’t mention my book idea in that first meeting. She was a ‘real publisher’, and I was just a person with a bunch of pages and an idea.

There’s no magic moment that caused me to shift my thinking from“I can’t” to "I will.” Perhaps it was a day of frustration at the health system’s flaws, or a conversation with my ‘digital generation’ kids about emerging health technologies. Whatever the reason was, it nudged me to email the draft manuscript to Amy. My email read: “Is this something that is viable? It needs work, but I looked at it tonight and realized I will never send it if I don't just send it.”

And Amy’s answer was yes. This yes was enlightening and encouraging. It started a two-year journey to write a book that challenges the belief that the current system needs to be fixed. It shows through history how it came to be in the first place and why it has already failed. The book also defines how societal shifts and generational influences have impacted the definition of health. Most importantly, it defines the new healthcare paradigm as replacing what exists and the opportunity we all have to shape it.

It is important to note that during this process all of those to whom I shared my thoughts and pages with didn’t simply say “yes” to my ideas. They challenged me to refine them, connect the dots, and answer the tough questions. They told me what they didn’t understand and what they learned. Like most worthy processes, collaboration forced me to be more focused and clear. Engaging the thoughts and opinions of others made the work better.

Writing out my ideas on paper is one thing.  Learning the process to write and publish a book is another. Right now, I’m learning how to put the pen down. And THIS is the hardest part of writing. There is always another story to tell. And perhaps another book in the future? But there comes a point at which you have to stop. And that point is now. I am thrilled to be moving on to the next step in the process - copy editing, design, and ultimately publishing.

Those who supported me in writing this book also encouraged me to write an article about the process. Because we too often only hear about the outcome without understanding the hurdles and effort that created the outcome. The squiggly line from research, to curiosity, to pages that became a manuscript was a powerful reminder that we all have a story within us, and we can share that story however creativity shows up in us. This process is slow, but it has value.

Time has helped refine ideas, but it has also created opportunities to share parts of this story along the way. This was another important thing I learned about writing a book: It’s not just about the book you hold in your hand at the end - it’s a tool to help organize and share the story along the way.

Over the two years of the writing process, so much has continued to change in our healthcare system and in the way we experience health and illness. These changes were constant reminders that now is not the time to stop telling our stories. If you have a story of change, growth, passion, or impact – use your own creativity to put it out into the world. We can all learn and grow from sharing our knowledge.

More to come soon from the inside pages. But for now, remember: we’re not waiting for the future of healthcare. We’re writing it.