Becker's connected with Michael Loftus, MD, senior vice president, chief medical and quality officer at Livingston, N.J.-based Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center, part of West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health, to discuss the effects of the growing focus on physician well-being in healthcare.
Note: Response has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What healthcare trend are you most excited about?
Dr. Michael Loftus: The area that I've kind of gotten really excited about is the more systematized focus on well-being; the idea that there's a ton of change in medicine, and for our workforce to really embrace that and make it real, we have to make sure that they're healthy, that they're happy and that they're finding joy and passion in their work. It's something that we've been really focused on at RWJBarnabas. And to me, that's definitely exciting.
I love that this is something that's being embraced. I think it's meaningful, and I think it's important. The dialog around mental health and the way we manage people's joy and work is crucial. Other things the industry is excited about, like personalized medicine, digitization of medicine, and other really exciting stuff — hinges on having an engaged workforce that can actually implement it.