HealthCert Blog

Welcome to this podcast series, Conversations with Professor David Wilkinson! In this episode, Professor David Wilkinson (Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Macquarie University) speaks with Paul Elmslie (Founder and CEO of HealthCert Education and the National Skin Cancer Centres) about a key part of a successful medical business: people.

Listen to the full podcast now:

Paul speaks about how medical clinics are essentially in the ‘people business’: Operating a clinic involves doctors and staff interacting, listening and empathising with patients, effectively selling time and human connection.

Staff are the most important asset in a business as well as the most expensive. Therefore, it’s important for clinic owners to prioritise this aspect of business management to best serve their patients.

This podcast looks at how doctors and medical business owners can optimise their staff to foster the best possible work environment and deliver a high-quality medical service for patients.

This doesn’t just include patient and doctor interactions. Patients interact with staff from the time they pick up the phone to book an appointment through to processing their Medicare rebate.

Paul speaks about how it’s important to avoid a strict hierarchical structure among staff, and how listening to your staff and seeing them as people with their own career goals, aspirations, needs and challenges can greatly improve the work culture.

Hear all this and much more in the full podcast above.

Professor David Wilkinson is Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Macquarie University. He is a registered general practitioner and public health medicine specialist. Since 2004, Professor Wilkinson’s clinical work has focused on skin cancer medicine in primary care. He has published research papers on the topic, designed and led development of the only Master of Medicine degree in skin cancer, and helped develop and present a suite of skin cancer short courses delivered by HealthCert Education.

Paul Elmslie is the Founder and CEO of HealthCert Education and the National Skin Cancer Centres. Paul is a pioneer of the subspecialised skin cancer clinic model and has built a network of dedicated skin cancer referral centres and training facilities across Australia. Paul has owned or operated about 28 skin cancer clinics in his 20+ years of experience.

Learn more in HealthCert’s primary care certificate courses!

Listen to another podcast.