AAPL LAUNCHES FREE COMMUNITY: PHYSICIAN LEADERSHIP CONNECT

The Physician Leadership Journal (PLJ) recently interviewed Jessica Chase, director of member services for the American Association for Physician Leadership, about the new online community, Physician Leadership Connect.

Congratulations, Jessica, on the launch of Physician Leadership Connect. Please tell us about the objective of the online community and some details of the launch.

In April, we launched Physician Leadership Connect, an online community for physician leaders to share ideas and challenges, ask questions, lend expertise, and network with peers in real time.

Currently, there are two communities that physicians can join:

Leadership for COVID-19 is a special open forum for physician leaders to share their experiences related to COVID-19. This is a free resource open to all physicians, but they must “join” the group to participate. If they have an account with the AAPL they can log in and navigate to community in the platform. If they do not have an account, they can sign up for one at no charge. (https://app.physicianleaders.org/community)

AAPL Membership Community is a group for AAPL members only to discuss everyday physician leadership topics. All AAPL members can join this group by navigating to the community and selecting this group. (https://app.physicianleaders.org/community)

How are the communities structured and what types of features are included in the groups?

The communities are very convenient and easy to use. Each community allows you to communicate on your own schedule and engage with your peers on topics of interest to you. The platform is intuitive too — it flags posts that you haven’t read so you can pick up where you left off without having to scroll back through messages that you’ve already read.

Some of the features are a chat module, the ability to post a message and/or an attachment, and the ability to participate by replying to a thread or post.

Community subscribers can select to receive real-time email notifications each time a new post is made or receive a daily digest summary that highlights the most recent posts from the previous day. Subscribers can also opt out of receiving email notifications.

To encourage even greater collaboration and networking, we’ve integrated the peer directory with the community so the subscriber can click on profile images to view the profiles of other group members, send an email, direct message, or visit social networking sites with a click from the profile page. The ability to send a 1:1 message to colleagues through the messaging feature is terrific, especially if you want to have private side conversation with a group member or colleague.

What feedback have you gotten and what is the nature of the discussions that are ongoing with the members?

I’ve been reading narratives from our physicians around the future of healthcare, how Covid-19 will change healthcare, restarting services, and how departments are planning to ramp up again. Those are some of the latest topics. There are some very supportive conversations around those working on the front lines of COVID-19 and discussions of guilt that some physicians are feeling for not being able to help on the front line. There is a very solid sounding board and it appears that physicians are using the community to bounce ideas off other members and get answers to some of their more vexing questions.

The feedback we’ve been getting is strong. There are very interesting discussions happening within the groups.

Value in Participating

As an association dedicated to physician leadership, we are encouraging all physicians to take part in this free resource. Here are some of the reasons physicians should participate:

• Strengthen your connections. Helping one another builds trust and trust builds relationships. Peers can be the best cheerleaders.

• Get fresh ideas. It’s an excellent source of new perspectives and ideas. Users can exchange information on challenges, experiences, and goals.

• Advance your career. Get noticed for your thought leadership. Build your reputation in the community.

• Gain knowledge. Exchange best practice knowledge and stay on top of latest industry developments.

• Gain perspective. Gain insights that come only from viewing a situation with fresh eyes. Asking opinions from your peers and contacts can help you see situations in a new light.

• Get answers. The communities provide a solid sounding board to bounce ideas off and/or get answers to your toughest questions.

Jessica Chase, CAEDirector of Member Services

AAPL President and CEO Peter Angood, MD, FRCS(C), FACS, MCCM, FAAPL(Hon), states: “For AAPL, it ultimately is all about the sense of community that provides the strongest sense of value for being a part of AAPL’s leadership efforts in healthcare. We definitely plan to further grow the online community and to add additional groups in the future, but will start with these groups for now. Helping our constituents better tap into the mindshare of the collective group of physician leaders …. there’s clearly value/power in that. This is an exciting initiative and I look forward to learning how it all evolves.”

LINKS:

AAPL Membership Community is a group for AAPL members only to discuss everyday physician leadership topics. All AAPL members can join this group by navigating to the community and selecting this group. https://app.physicianleaders.org/community.

Leadership for COVID-19 is a special open forum for physician leaders to share their experiences related to COVID-19. This is a free resource open to all physicians, but they must “join” the group to participate. If they have an account with the AAPL they can log in and navigate to community in the platform. If they do not have an account, they can sign up for one at no charge. https://app.physicianleaders.org/community.