Anything is Possible

Dr. Jodi Abbott on vision, values, and transforming healthcare

Dr. Jodi Abbott, president and CEO of the University Hospital Foundation, started her career in community-based organizations where she discovered she had a strong emotional connection to people in need. Advancing into more senior healthcare roles and through a shift to post-secondary education, it made perfect sense for her to land at the intersection of health care and health academia with the University Hospital Foundation. Nowadays, her position plays a key role in understanding the healthcare needs of our society and discovering innovative ways to bring better outcomes to our healthcare system.

What values or experiences have most influenced your leadership style?  

There are two things that are incredibly important to me. The first is respect. I believe that respect should be granted and given, not earned. As a leader, I need to recognize that we are all human beings and we all deserve respect. If someone does something to dwindle that respect, they lose credits in the bank, but those credits can always be renewed. It’s about being a good human and being able to grant that to any person, whether I know them or not. The other core value I lead with is the belief that anything is possible. I was told in junior high that I wouldn’t go to college, I wasn’t smart enough and I should stay and work in the family business. I remember going home devastated because I had big aspirations as a young kid. Thankfully, I had an incredibly strong mother who said, “You can do anything. You might just have to work harder to get where you need to go.” This instilled in me the value that anything’s possible. It might take some luck and talking to the right people, but never think you “can’t.” 

What motivates you every day to do the work that you do? 

What motivates me is that I think our world can be better, and when I look around at the strife in the world, the way we treat one another as human beings, the way so many things in our society are broken, I know I want to be a person that can contribute to making it better. I think we’ve become so focused on ourselves and what we want, that we have totally lost sight of the real question: What do we need in society?

If we raise caring people and we support each other and we uplift those who need it, we can help our future generations. I believe there’s a way to do that and balance the business and financial needs we have as a society to be successful without leaving people behind. 

How do you sustain momentum and optimism during particularly tough periods like a health care crisis or funding shortfall? 

When there is a crisis, I see an opportunity, because I think we like consistency, and change is really hard for people. When you’re in a place of a crisis, this is the time to understand our role in creating something better and making sure that we stick to our vision. I read something recently about “being a giraffe,” indicating that when all that noise is happening, the giraffe’s neck is long so their vision is forward and they’re looking ahead. When there’s a crisis, when there are funding cuts, we need to keep focused on our role as this catalyst for health system transformation. Be the giraffe. Get out of that noise, look ahead, and look at the bigger strategy to see where we’re going.

How do you define success in the context of your role?

For me, success is about results. We can always talk, but it has to be about actions. Right now, we’re funding the development of an Alzheimer’s medication that would essentially reverse memory loss. Sadly, Alzheimer’s is impacting more and more people and it’s going to add to the burden, not just on costs and the health system, but the burden on families and those who provide support. There are direct impacts that our foundation has made, and that really doesn’t happen without the generosity of a community and of people who work hard to earn their income, and understand the value of hope. We often talk about being agents of hope. When you’re out asking a donor for money, what you’re doing is trying to instill hope in the future of everyone in our society. 

What vision do you have for the future of the University Hospital Foundation? 

We are on a journey to be a catalyst for health system transformation. I’ve spent lots of time working in health systems and I know that transformation is not going to happen within the walls of a hospital. We’re starting to move into prevention and primary care, because the reality is, people want to be served close to home. Nobody wants to be in a hospital. Nobody wants to be in an acute care setting. You’re getting the best care you possibly can, but wouldn’t it be better if we didn’t have to go there? 

We say we want to be “what if-ologists.” Being a what if-ologist isn’t following others, it’s about knocking down the path and doing things differently. That takes courage and boldness and it means you have to take risks. I believe there’s a huge amount of opportunity because I believe our health system across Canada and North America is in crisis. What better time to emerge and do something amazing?