Editorial

Citation

Bowerman, J. (2014), "Editorial", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 27 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS-08-2014-0062

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Leadership in Health Services, Volume 27, Issue 4

We have been privileged to have two exceptional individuals who volunteered to be the editors for this special issue of Leadership in Health Services, dealing with medical leadership. They are Graham Dickson from Canada, and Karen Owen from Australia. Truly, this issue represents a real global achievement. Jo Lamb – my Co-editor from her location in Italy, took on the responsibility of being the direct administrative assist to Graham and Karen, keeping track of submissions and reviews and ensuring all the timing deadlines were met. My job was to encourage from the sidelines and help out with some of the reviewing. Thanks to all of you for making this happen. A special issue is never an easy project to complete. And of course – none of it would be possible without the ongoing support from the folks at Emerald Publishing, who we rely on whenever a major problem occurs.

My own viewpoint is that all too often medical leadership is seen as synonymous with health leadership, whereas in fact the two are quite distinct from each other. Health is a much broader concept than medicine. The medical aspect is but one component of health but it is perhaps the main one within the dominant paradigm of modern medicine. Most of the expenses incurred via health service are incurred via the medical setting – hence the emphasis on medical leadership to bring about medical effectiveness and efficiency. Better medical leadership we hope will bring about better medical outcomes and thus translate into healthier populations.

How can we achieve better medical leadership? What is happening in our world to develop the kind of leadership we want to see? This special issue explores some of the experiments and developments that are happening across the globe. It represents knowledge sharing at its best, describing some of the exciting initiatives that are happening in medical settings to develop new and different types of leadership.

Thanks to everyone who helped to make this issue possible – from the contributors to the peer reviewers, and especially once again thanks to Graham, Karen and Jo for their leadership in bringing this issue to fruition.

Jennifer Bowerman