On 26 September, the Barcelona Campus hosted the "Leading Change" course, which was attended by the heads of several UIC Barcelona faculties and departments, executives and senior managers from institutions and companies in the healthcare sector, as well as recognised clinical leaders from various hospitals, primary care centres and social-health centres.

 

Dr Xavier Corbella, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Director of the Hestia Chair, together with Dr Erin Sullivan, lecturer at the Harvard Medical School’s Centre for Primary Care, led the work session using the innovative case study method. The aim of the course was to assess the types of changes organisations are facing and the reasons for their success or failure, as well as compare, contrast and apply models of change management to deal successfully with the critical aspects of this type of leadership.

 

Under the title "Leading Change", attendees had the opportunity to study two University of Harvard case studies, one of them based on the career of Dr Corbella, as a common thread to study the changes that have taken place over the past 15 years in the health system in Catalonia. After breakout group work, during which participants shared views and defended ideas to reach joint decisions, participants shared their findings, "noting how the changes and transformations have affected every organisation. To lead them successfully, there are a number of key points that have to be very, very carefully defined, such as what is the problem to be solved and its urgency, the vision that you want to project and possible obstacles to achieving this, the need for motivation, or the involvement of the organisation in the implementation of actions that involve short-term successes and ensure the change is achieved over in time,” Dr Corbella explains.

 

The course was the first event arising from the new cooperation between the Faculty of Medicine, the Chair Hestia and Harvard Medical School, and the participants gave very positive feedback.