Martin Curley, Director, Digital Transformation and Open Innovation at Health Service Executive and Professor of Innovation, Maynooth Uuniversity, is a dynamic Digital, Health and  innovation leader with a proven track record of developing high-performing innovation teams and delivering a strong pipeline of appealing ideas and commercial value. He has been described as the Kung Fu Panda of Digital Healthcare, leading a fantastic ecosystem of devoted physicians, executives, corporations, and organizations committed to radical transformation of healthcare in Ireland and beyond using digital technology and achieving quick progress. He says, “My and our sole motivation is to save and improve as many lives as possible using digital technology.”

The Beginning of his Journey

As a newly graduated electronics engineer, Martin was thrilled to start work at Philips Labs in Eindhoven, The Netherlands (The Manchester United of electronics research). After three years, he left Philip to join GE, where he was inspired by their mantra ‘act with humility, lead with transparency, and deliver with focus—always with unyielding integrity. This has remained his modus operandi. He then joined Intel in Phoenix, Arizona, and had a remarkable global odyssey with Intel as it accelerated the world into the information age. As a committed Intel Vice President of Intel Labs Europe, Martin loved his job and was spearheading a Digital Europe Innovation agenda which equally promoted profit, people, purpose, and progress. Using the Open Innovation 2.0 (OI2) methodology, he founded and grew Intel Labs Europe into one of the largest and most dynamic industrial research networks in Europe, with 5500 employees in 55 labs in 20 countries. He recalls, “I was inspired by CEO Paul Otellini’s vision of creating and extending computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of everyone on the planet.” A new CEO then came on board who did away with the social and charitable aspects of the Intel strategy, and Martin departed on principle to become a senior vice president at Mastercard to oversee their worldwide digital consulting practice, where CEO Ajay Banga preached ‘Do well and Do Good.’ Martin departed to become Chief Information Officer of the Irish Health Service (HSE), aiming to apply principles pioneered and described in his book Managing Information Technology for Business Value to assist reform of the IT organization which had been described as struggling. However, things were even worse than he had anticipated, and after three days on the job, he believed he had died and gone to hell.

After a short time as CIO,  Martin believed that the IT transformation challenge in the HSE was unachievable owing to culture, limited investment, and technological and skill debt. He persuaded the HSE CEO that he could instead potentially alter and transform the whole health service via the use of digital technology and the exponential innovation approach OI2, which he had outlined in his book on Open Innovation 2.0 (OI2). Recognizing that education and awareness are the first steps in any transition, Martin established the HSE Digital Academy and developed a Masters in Digital Transformation in collaboration with all eight Irish universities. He also established an Innovation Pipeline and a network of Digital Living Labs around the country to iterate, refine, and implement digital solutions. He recalls, “Some people got excited when they heard my ambition of transforming Ireland into a European digital health leader by 2025. I quoted JFK saying, ‘We choose to transform Irish healthcare, not because it is easy but because it is hard’. Two and a half years later and using Covid 19 as a catalyst for big bang disruption, Ireland is on an aggressive improvement trajectory with remote respiratory monitoring, automated respiration rate monitoring, vital signs automation, electronic prescribing and other solutions that place Ireland as a world leader in several focus areas.”

With a motivated and intelligent open collaborative ecosystem, Ireland is well positioned to achieve the vision of being a European digital health leader by 2025. There is much work to be done but incredible collective commitment and energy exist to see this mission through.

An Expertise in the Field

After assisting in the design of automation systems for Philips, GE, and Intel facilities, Martin is introducing Digital Manufacturing ideas and solutions to the healthcare system. The healthcare business is nearly a decade behind other industries in terms of digitalization, which is both a contradiction and a crime in such an information-intensive economy. Additionally Healthcare is far behind many industries in the application of systems of production (Deming et al) and even principles of Scientific Management (Taylor) which leads to significant variability, quality and efficiencies issues. According to renowned cardiologist Erik Topol, medicine is remarkably resistant to change, but with increasing adoption of internet of things and digital tools he suggests that creative destruction of the healthcare industry will occur. Curley has created a digital innovation strategy called Stay Left, Shift Left- 10 X which aims to drive that creative destruction in a cohesive and coordinated manner. The result is an integrated portfolio of digital solutions which create compounding value that is delivering compelling 10X benefits. In the face of clearly demonstrated 10X benefits the walls of resistance are collapsing, save for a few strongholds of Neanderthal thinking and practice.

He shares that Stay Left is about keeping well people well, or if you happen to have a chronic condition or need rehab, you can be managed best of all from home. Shift Left is about moving patients as quickly as possible from an acute to a community to a home setting. He says, Health Service Executive seeks to find digital interventions that deliver 10X improvements in the quintuple aim.

• Quality of Life

• Improved care and outcomes
• Reduced cost or better value
• Improved clinician and patient experience
• Improved quality of life for citizens, patients and staff
• Improved accessibility and affordability of solutions

10X or (10 times) is the notion that Digital Technologies applied to an information intensive but Information poor healthcare industry using an exponential innovation methodology(OI2) can deliver multiple 10X benefits and supranormal returns. This observation has been coined ‘Curley’s Law’ by InsightsCare magazine. Consequently the Health Service Executive is witnessing rapid adoption of digital solutions that fulfill all five components of the quintuple purpose by focusing on solutions that meet all five aspects of the quadruple target. Martin is attempting to transform many paradigms in Ireland and beyond, including moving the focus from an illness system to a wellness system, transferring the focus from the physician to the patient, and, when feasible, shifting the site of treatment from the acute hospital to the home. This enables the team to provide better treatment at a cheaper cost. He shares, “Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger once spoke at an innovation conference for me and he said, ‘Intel can do anything it wants, it just can’t do everything’ and the criticality of prioritization has stuck with me and, accordingly, I have defined and got agreement on 10 clinical priorities, including focusing on heart failure, respiratory diseases, diabetes, cancers, and Falls which allows us to move the dial quickly in areas that really matter.”

Creating Culture infuse with Values

‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast,’ remarked Peter Drucker, and when Martin joined the HSE, he discovered a culture that was far from optimum for innovation and could be defined as ‘unmindful’ which is level one on a culture maturity model for high reliability healthcare organizations . To be effective, he had to establish a new ‘generative’ subculture in which relationships were defined as the cornerstone of all achievement, showing up was 50% of success, transparency and co-creation were key to success, and clinician and patient co-design were critical to success. He argues that in an industry where opposition to change was often the norm, resilience, relentlessness, respect, and outcome emphasis are vital.  While there are many world class and motivated clinicians in the HSE, a Theory X culture of motivation as defined by McGregor existed where command and control dominated and a feudal system of individual fiefdoms existed. Martin was more accustomed to a Theory Y culture in which “empower and encourage” is the norm, where staff are valued for both their extrinsic and intrinsic work.

In the face of some strong internal resistance, Martin had to create that culture outside of the HSE and created the Irish Digital Health Leadership Steering Group with a network of senior leaders in Ireland and beyond who despite Trojan efforts from clinicians, could no longer accept the appalling performance of the Irish healthcare system. Despite Ireland’s being the 12^th most prosperous nation in the world and ranking fifth for digital maturity, the country’s healthcare system ranks at number 80 in the world, below countries such as Iran, Algeria, Albania, Serbia and Romania.

Passion for Innovation

Martin has always been driven by innovation as a means of doing things better, and he was also born with a strong sense of social purpose, believing that working for the general good was extremely vital. He understood that healthcare was in desperate need of reform, and after recovering from a significant illness, he saw many things that might be and indeed should be done better. Martin learned and co-developed cutting-edge innovation practices as chair of the European Commission’s Open Innovation Strategy and Policy Group and as a tech industry leader. He recalls, “I was able to synthesize and organize these techniques into a new practice for structurally changing an industry using digital.” He felt he had a responsibility to apply this knowledge and also was excited by the opportunity to drive a remarkable transformation of an industry that could save lives. Martin took a significant drop in salary and despite pockets of very strong resistance  he found many fellow travellers and he persevered as he believed the destination would be worth it. He asserts, “One life saved would make a difference, but already many lives have been saved, and many, many more lives will be saved, and life’s extended.”

Responsibilities as a Leader

While Martin tries to be humble and acts with unyielding integrity, he recognized that he had a vision, knowledge, and experience that could genuinely transform an industry. At Intel, he had learnt the power of ‘Assumed Responsibility’ so he has taken responsibility. He says, “I knew I could not do this on my own, so I have created a network of like minded leaders, playing at the top of their game, nice and also purpose motivated. It is my privilege to work with leaders such as Prof Richard Costello, Dr John Sheehan, Dr Donal Bailey, Ronan Hurley, Declan Kirrane, Karen Kelly, Gary Boyle. Prof Michael Sugrue, John Joyce, Dr Mike O’Connor and many others.” To paraphrase Michael Collins, an Irish revolutionary hero, “with knowledge comes responsibilities” so Martin and his fellow travellers have decided to take responsibility, and they see the opportunity to drive a global transition to better health using digital technologies.  Working with the United Nations General Assembly Science summit and global health luminaries such as Prof Elizabeth Teisberg, Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite, Prof George Crooks, and Brian O’Connor, Curley and colleagues hope to drive a global initiative based on ‘Stay Left, Shift Left-10X’ to radically improve global health and health care.

Recognition as a Professional

Martin was thrilled when he was named co-European Chief Technology Officer of the Year in 2015. He was also honoured to be named by various major publications as a top ten worldwide inspirational educator and influential health leader. He says, “If, with colleagues, I have and can make a difference in the lives of Irish and global population, that will be by far my biggest accomplishment.” 

Future Roadmap

Martin wishes to see himself continuing to help catalyse and lead a revolution in global health together with a network of similarly minded leaders and friends. He sees that the health sector will be unrecognizable in the future. He states, “We should speak about ‘health’ not ‘healthcare’ and the focus in the industry will be on wellness, not illness.” He also considers that data will be the most important tool in fighting disease and that humans will be able to add years of quality life to the average life expectancy. More people will be able to and be inspired to live to the best of their potential. He says, but there is still much, much work that needs to be done. Let’s do this! Win and have fun!

Leader’s View

Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace.

I am a loving and proud father of four amazing children. I try to make the most of every day and try to squeeze every last drop out of it. I can best be described by the George Bernard Shaw quote —‘Ask where a man’s glory begins and ends and say my glory is I have such friends’.

I am a passionate European but also see the opportunity to drive global change. I believe we have all been given certain gifts and talents by the man above, and we must use them to advance the common good.

At work, I am relentless and resilient and strive to create a compelling vision and an empowered ecosystem that can work with me to drive radical change for the good. I am open and collaborative and like to ‘Win and have fun’ (My favourite Intel Value).

I believe that movement is medicine and love to be involved in sport whether that be golf, tennis, swimming, skiing or cricket.

I am lucky to have a great team with colleagues such as Jim McGrane, Des O’Toole, Nora Heavey, Annette Lynam, and Michael Scott. I would go onto any battlefield with these guys. Semper Fidelis!

What advice would you give to emerging leaders and enthusiasts considering a career in the healthcare sector?

1. Follow your Dream -Dream, Dare, Do!
2. Relationships are the foundation of all accomplishment
3. Just do it!
4. Keep showing up!
5. Never give up, Good will prevail in the end, the spoofers  always get exposed in the end
6. Treat everyone with respect

Website: www.hsedigitaltransformation.ie