Graduates of the class of 2019, proud parents and families, honored guests, friends, esteemed faculty and staff, honorable Dean Williams, and distinguished commencement speaker Cecile Richards:
As president of our Alumni Association, I am honored be here today and to formally welcome my fellow graduates of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as new members of the Association. I congratulate you on your achievements and salute you for your commitment to public health.
What you have learned at the Harvard Chan School has equipped you with the knowledge and skills you will need to confidently navigate the ever-evolving landscape of public health. The School has prepared you to continually learn and to tackle the challenges that will come your way as you work to improve lives wherever your passion takes you. The world needs you and all of your innovative thinking, your methods, and your leadership.
Years ago, I stood in your place feeling armed with the best knowledge and skills, ready to embark on a new and fascinating adventure. I had the confidence and conviction to take on any challenge. And there were many.
One of them came when I worked as a physician in a primary care setting. In this role, I received about a hundred patients a day. Waiting times were long, and frustration was high. Every physician in that system faced a similar workload.
Equipped with the methods of data analysis, process redesign, and teamwork I had learned at the Harvard Chan School, I got to work solving the problem. I set up an improvement team and started categorizing the reasons for patient visits.
The data showed me that some patients didn’t really need to see a doctor. Many patients came for lab referrals, or for repeat prescriptions for an otherwise stable condition. In assessing the patients’ reasons for coming in to see a doctor, we were able to redesign the clinic process, eliminating unnecessary physician visits.
Both patients and staff were happy! Patients went out of their way to thank us for these changes. We managed these categories of patient visits one at a time, testing changes incrementally, monitoring the results, and instituting the changes that worked. The changes made a difference not only for patients but also for the doctors. Over time, we reduced the number of patient visits to a physician from about 100 to about 15 a day.
I was proud of this accomplishment. I wrote up the work and the results and provided the data to support the redesign. I sent this documentation to the system leadership and recommended scaling the new program up to all the health centers in that system.
I eagerly awaited the response. When it came, it wasn’t quite what I had hoped. In fact, it was just the opposite. The leadership instructed me to immediately return everything back to how it was before—and told me that I should operate in accordance with the policies and procedures of the system. This was a huge, unexpected disappointment, but I did not give up. In my work, I had created multiple improvements—which in fact had attracted a lot of attention in the medical community.
A short time later, I accepted an offer from an emerging health authority in Palestine to lead improvements throughout the country similar to those I had been working on in my health center. I became the head of improvement—taking improvement to scale way beyond one health center or even one health system. Several years, and many improvements later, I joined the company and project I am with today, working on improving health care globally. To date, I have instituted health care improvements in 102 countries.
So, why am I telling you this story? My message is simple: never give up! I know the excitement and passion with which you are graduating. I know that each and every one of you will make a huge difference! But it may not be a walk in the park. There may be many obstacles, and you will encounter many disappintments along the way. I certainly did! But do not let that take you off-track or reduce your ambition. Never give up on what you believe in.
Finally, as you graduate, you become an important member of our vibrant, 14,000-strong global alumni network. You will find Harvard Chan School colleagues, peers, and mentors all over the world. This is a network of some of the world’s most extraordinary public health scientists and practitioners. I invite you to join the Alumni Association’s activities, committees, and council as well, so you can become even more deeply involved in our global public health efforts. Your worldwide Harvard Chan community is waiting for you!
Once again, congratulations!
Photo: Josh Levine