Hopkins Radiology Department Sponsors Conversation Series Featuring Non-medical Experts to Promote New Thinking about Patient Engagement

A newly developed series of lectures, recently launched by the Patient Experience Advisory Team and sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Radiology Department, is bringing in non-medical experts to talk to hospital staff, according to a report by Johns Hopkins. The unique idea behind this series is that all of the speakers are “people experts”. From hotel executives to chefs, to the president of Disney Studios, these people offer expertise in making people happy. Elliot Fishman, a professor of radiology and oncology, planned the series of seven lectures in an attempt to get members of the Hopkins community thinking differently about patient care and patient engagement.

"These people are experts on people," he says. Noting recent trends in social media and healthcare, Fishman adds, "engagement with patients is changing. And this is an opportunity for us."

Fishman says the best healthcare workers are those who recognize these changes and respond to them accordingly, and he believes the healthcare community has much to learn from other industries: "The goal is to bring in these people, listen to how they do things in their world, and bring that into our world."

Each lecture will be about 40 minutes long, followed by a 20 minute Q&A. The lectures are free and open to the Johns Hopkins community. Two lectures in the series have been completed.

The remaining lectures are:

·        March 3: Cindy Wolf, executive chef and Baltimore restaurateur

·        March 24: Eric Becker, senior managing director, Sterling Partners

·        March 31: Whitney Fishman, senior director innovation and consumer technology, MEC

·        April 24: Ed Catmull, president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios

·        May 21: Horst Schulze, chairman and CEO, Capella Hotel Group