Digital Leadership: Attributes to modern healthcare leaders (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Living in this digital era requires widespread adoption of information technology in modern health care industry. OBJECTIVE The aim of the current research was to study key attributes and behaviors related to successful leaders need to achieve vision and successful IT adoption. METHODS A Delphi technique with three rounds was held and guided by structured questions. Part of the study conducted online due to COVID-19 guidelines on distancing norms and lockdown in some areas. The answers of the participants were evaluated on the five- point Likert scale. A semi structured questions guided the conducted sessions with members of senior leaders and directors of health information technology departments across key hospitals three cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from February 2020 to September 2020. RESULTS The findings showed that leadership qualities in health care sector resemble those required in other sectors. For digital innovations in rapidly changing healthcare space, leaders need to play more proactive role, be visionary, more dynamic, and lead by example to take the organization to the next level. Some digital leadership attributes required from today’s digital leaders expect them to be turnaround leaders, have strategic management capabilities, and outstanding interpersonal skills. CONCLUSIONS Leaders need to come out of their ivory towers, understand the fast-evolving scenario where the outstanding leadership qualities are essential to prove one’s mettle; outshine others; and create strong foundation for adoption of modern efficient customized digital technology in the fast growing health care sectors.