Syndicom

Collaboration vs. Partnership — Works well with others?

Recently we were introduced to a very fine blog by Dr Kenneth Cohn, www.healthcarecollaboration.com, and after reading through a series of his posts, were inspired to consider our understandings of collaboration vs. partnership. As healthcare moves more towards this notion of ‘partnering’ be it between physicians and hospitals as Dr Cohn discusses, or between physicians and patients as hordes of scholars and physicians discuss, and as Ray Miles described in his book on collaborative entrepreneurship, can we collaborate without being partners?

Perhaps a few definitions would help….

Collaboration — to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor; to cooperate with an agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected.

Partnership — a legal relation existing between two or more persons contractually associated as joint principals in a business; one that shares; one associated with another especially in an action.

Hmm…. so maybe partnering and partnership are really a deepening of collaborative efforts? In which case, it may be possible to collaborate without partnering with someone, just as it maybe that you may be in partnership with someone but you do not work with them in a collaborative manner.

Here at Syndicom, through SpineConnect and TraumaConnect, we provide collaborative online platforms for surgeons to conduct research with their peers and also with medical device companies. We are willing to bet that everyone of these joint efforts or endeavors could be placed on a scale between collaborative work and true partnership. We would like to offer a few suggestions or reflections for our readers as we work with engaging clinical practices to become more partnership oriented both with each other and also with their patients and clients.

1. Consider the people you work with in your practice – do you collaborate or work jointly with any of them on research and design? What opportunities exist for you to begin to do just this?

2. Consider the people you collaborate with outside your practice, such as those in SpineConnect — would you consider them your partners? How could you transform your collaborative efforts into some form of partnering? Would you?

3. Consider your patients and clients — do you collaborate with them in terms of their health? Would you consider them partners in health? What characteristics suggest such an interpretation to you?

Please feel free to comment on this blog post – we would love to hear your thoughts and experiences!

With many thanks to Dr.Me for the great image!

Kirsten Broadfoot