Introverts and Extroverts and How to Deal with them

In a great piece on FastCompany titled: Are you an Introvert or an Extrovert? What it Means for your Career, Beth Belle Cooper explores what she considered a binary position or bucket to put people in but discovers this is really a continuum and one that we as individuals don't sit at one spot all of the time

As she describes - it is an Ambivert Personality Scale Continuum

An important aspect to healthcare in our interaction with the ever expanding teams that contain wide variations of individuals

But in thinking about work, health acre and interactions the 12 tips for dealing with the different groups seemed like great advice all round

12 Tips for Dealign with Introvert

• Respect their need for privacy
• Never embarrass them in public
• Let them observe first in new situations
• Give them time to think don't demand instant answers
• Give them advanced notice of expected changes in their lives
• Give them 15 minute warning to finish what they are doing
• Reprimand them privately
• Teach them new skills privately
• Enable them to find one best friend who has similar interests and abilities
• Don't push them to make lots of friends
• Respect their introversion and don't try and make them into extroverts

10 Tips for Dealing with Extrovert

• Respect their independance
• Compliment them in hte company of others
• Accept or encourage their enthusiasm
• Allow them to explore and talk things out
• Thoughtfully surprise them
• Understand when they are Busy
• Let them Dive Right in
• Offer them Options
• Make physical and verbal gestures of Affection
• Let them Shine

I think what's interesting is most of us are in both camps at different times - the two lists seem like great advice all round

Technology as an Aid vs Hinderance to Doctors

A recent article in Becker Hospital Review:  Technology Should Aid Human Interaction: Q&A with Dr. Nick Terheyden, CMIO of Nuance featured some important points to make

Health IT needs to fade into the background. It needs to become part of the fabric of the office rather than the focal point, and then the interaction will change

• Using the tools to allow the clinician to focus on the patient not the technology
• Human beings deal in narrative and stories, patients want to tell their story and clinicians need the richness of the narrative to help guide medical decision making
• Remove the Physical Barriers to the clinicians patient interaction
• Healthcare is not the focus - the patient is
  

The key to our future and to the successful use of health IT will be turning the focus back on patient and the physician.

Interview with HealthTech Vision

I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Welz of Health Tech Vision last week and he posted the interview here - or you can listen to it below

The importance of bringing intelligent voice interactions to Health IT especially as medical technology moves to into the Mobile world. It is an exciting time with technology offering real hope