Breaking down the barriers and making care accessible with Dr. Daniel Pepe

Healthcare Change Makers

Dr. Daniel Pepe did his medical training at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University. He did a surgery residency before moving into family medicine. His wife is also a family physician and together they run the London Lambeth Medical Clinic.

Dr. Pepe is truly a different kind of family physician - he loves the give and take of social media, he questions the status quo, and admits he’s often working on the fringe. Long before the pandemic Dr. Pepe was using an array of digital tools to improve his interactions with patients. The beauty of these tools he says is that they create more options for patients and they give care providers a fuller and more accurate picture of what’s happening with patients over time.

Digital tools are just one way of approaching patient care. Dr. Pepe says he’s constantly learning from his patients and listening their stories – those stories are his inspiration for tackling the bigger challenges in our healthcare system.

Dr. Pepe has no interest in labelling patients as non-compliant. It merely means that the physician hasn’t taken the time to explain in plain language the details of what the patient needs to know. It requires a bit of quick thinking on his part, but the resourceful physician uses analogies – stories that connect a patient’s health with their real life – as a way of building trust.

Quotables

“It’s Dr. Mike Ryan from the WHO who says you have to move fast, you don’t have to be perfect, but you need to move fast. And that was really the mentality that we took early on.” – DP

“I’m not sure I’ve ever going to see something that moves at that pace and speed again. I actually saw what was possible when people put aside that organizational lens and say, ‘What is the right thing for the patients right now?’ It was pretty cool.” – DP

“Fundamentally if you think about the special sauce of primary care, it’s a relationship.” – DP

“The risk of technology is that sometimes we say, everything is going to be virtual and the answer to that is no. Things that should be virtual can be virtual, but it should also create capacity for us to care for the most vulnerable in-person and look at how it frees up our time and energy to do a good job for those patients.” – DP

“If you take the time to explain something as an analogy, it makes you really understand the concepts. You can no longer just hide behind medical jargon and lingo.” – DP

“By allowing the patient to tell their story and not defining the patient’s narrative, it allows us to really understand that story at a depth that we don’t traditionally do.” – DP

“I do think patients should actually own their own record and be the steward of it, and that’s one of the things I’m trying to push forward with some of the leadership work I’m doing.” - DP

“What you see when you look at the healthcare space, it’s a much more level playing field. It’s more real because it’s what people are saying and feeling in the moment. It’s more visceral and that visceral sharing allows us to drive more change and helps us scale.” – DP

“That knowledge sharing and scaling is critical and what we at HIROC value – to make change, you have to get it out there.” – PDS

“The technologies to dramatically change how we deliver care exist. It’s just the will and leadership to say, ‘Ok, let’s go make it happen’. And if we fail, fine – learn from it and go on to the next thing.” - DP

Mentioned in this Episode:

Drs. Puneet Seth and Damon Ramsey (InputHealth Systems)

Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO Health Emergencies Programme

The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen

London Middlesex Primary Care Alliance

Janet Dang, Primary Care Transformation Lead, London Middlesex

Access More Interviews with Healthcare Leaders at HIROC.com/podcast

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