When health care professionals share knowledge and best practices through international collaboration, they create lasting improvements on the practice of medicine, in both the short term and the long term. Through collaboration health care professionals can revolutionize the delivery of care while improving the lives of their patients and communities, said Irma Purisch, M.B.A. managing director, Global Services, Johns Hopkins Medicine International.

Through high-impact, mission-driven collaborations with leading health providers, governments and educational institutions around the world, Johns Hopkins Medicine International works hand-in-hand with local collaborators in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Latin America. Currently, JHI has relationships with organizations in Bermuda, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Peru, and is using those relationships to raise the standard of health care while customizing care to meet the local vision and Johns Hopkins’ mission.

“We are always looking for opportunities to extend the mission of Johns Hopkins Medicine throughout the region and seek to collaborate with leading institutions in education, research and clinical care,” Purisch said.

A Long Tradition Of Collaboration

When Johns Hopkins laid out his ambitious plan to integrate patient care with the best in medical education and research more than a century ago, he recognized that advancements in health care hinged on collaboration. To this day, JHI continues its founder’s desire to lead the industry in developing collaborative platforms for improving health care delivery around the world by tailoring its consulting and education solutions to meet the distinct needs and objectives of the individuals, organizations and communities in which it works. JHI offers customized training, education and consulting services in a range of areas like:

•  Clinical Program Development

•  Clinician Development

•  Corporate and Executive Health

•  Hospital Operations and Facilities Management Development

•  Health Care Leadership Development

•  Population Health

•  Quality and Safety

•  Research and Innovation

•  Provision of Clinical Care

“JHI serves as the liaison between our international partners and the faculty and staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine,” Purisch said. “Staffed by dedicated experts and experienced project management professionals, the team works closely with our collaborators to develop innovative approaches that incorporate best practices into the realities and contexts of the local environment. We use a variety of modalities to customize consulting and educational services, including observership programs,” she said.

JHI’s obervership programs typically last one-week. Participants in the programs meet with experts in their field and observe clinical and/or administrative operations at Johns Hopkins. “The client shares strategic learning objectives in advance, which are used to create the comprehensive observership program agenda,” Purisch said.

Johns Hopkins Meet Monterrey Tec

In 2005, the Instituto Technologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico, commonly known as Monterrey Tec, was interested in expanding the clinical, educational and research components within its school of medicine and health delivery sites. To get a handle on its governance and leadership, Monterrey Tec, which has 15 liaison offices worldwide, 95,000 students and 7,600 professors, turned to JHI for consultation and technical support. Soon the two institutions entered into an academic agreement to collaborate internationally. “Monterrey Tec had identified the corporate governance structure and the leadership directives at Johns Hopkins Medicine as a model and a benchmark to help guide the reorganization, structure, implementation and measurement of its newly designed organizational structure,” Purisch said.

From the onset JHI focused its consulting efforts on strategic planning, organization and human resources and business plan development. Together leaders from JHI and Monterrey Tec developed the governance structure and operations for the hospital and medical school and the Center for Knowledge Transfer and Technology in Health, know as the CITES Project.

This fruitful relationship allowed JHI and Monterrey Tec to provide training, education and consulting services in hospital safety and quality and develop and implement a line of Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation programs. They also participated in leadership symposiums to promote practical elements of quality and safety to medical settings within Mexico, Latin America and the Spanish Speaking Caribbean. ”Ongoing remote support and a three-day onsite assessment by key leadership from Johns Hopkins Medicine resulted in the delivery of a formal report of findings and recommendations to support Monterrey Tec in refining their organizational structure,” Purisch said.

As part of the JCI, Johns Hopkins assembled a highly trained team of experts that provides consulting and support to organizations as they review and implement standards and offer mock assessment services to help identify needs leading up to the accreditation survey.

Student Rotations And A Focal Point

Since 2006, more than 75 Monterrey Tec medical students have participated in clinical and research rotations at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) in Baltimore and Johns Hopkins Singapore International Medical Centre. Currently, eight students participate in a nine-week rotation program at JHUSOM each year. Half of those students rotate through clinical programs with the departments of oncology and otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. The other half rotate through research programs with the department of neurosurgery and the division of cardiac surgery.

In addition to individual student rotation programs, JHI also facilitates observational rotation programs for groups of residents. “For example, residents from Hospital Moinhos de Vento in Brazil have participated in month-long residency rotations at Hopkins in internal medicine, critical care, cardiology, neurology and pediatrics,” Purisch said.

To keep health care professionals informed about their field, regardless of which side of the border they practice, each year since 2015 JHI and Monterrey Tec have convened leadership from some of the top health care institutions in Mexico at the International Forum on Health Care Leadership (FILS). This forum serves as a hub for health care professionals, offering them the opportunity to discuss trends, challenges and the private sector’s role in the national health agenda.

FILS 2017, which took place in Mexico City, sought to connect the ground-breaking ideas, trends and practices that were being employed to address current health care challenges in the field and transform education, research and patient care. “Industry leaders highlighted clinical and technological advances and shared the innovative ways in which they were shaping future leaders, fostering teamwork and creating institutional value. This exciting, co-sponsored event continues to grow and promote thoughtful discussion among key thought leaders in the Mexican health sector and has become a focal point of JHI’s collaboration with Monterrey Tec,” Purisch said.

Over the years, JHI’s relationship with Monterrey Tec has evolved to address the dynamic needs of the health care environment. “Our continued focus has been on expanding medical education throughout Mexico and helping to form future leaders in health care. The reciprocal learning showcased in FILS each year is an example of how we will take our relationship into the future and create a dialogue for change among health care leaders in both Mexico and the United States,” Purisch said. •