When you explore publications and resources on the Internet about the main silos in healthcare, you might encounter slightly different interpretations. In this section, I will clarify what I mean when discussing the different silos in healthcare.

The silos I refer to involve the primary stakeholder categories: patients, providers, and researchers.

Clinical Care Silos: This silo encompasses the direct provision of healthcare services by clinicians, including doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. It involves diagnosis, treatment, and patient management in various settings such as hospitals, clinics, and private practices. The focus is on patient care and clinical outcomes.

Research and Innovation Silos: This silo is where researchers and innovators operate. They may conduct evidence-based or clinical research based on the system's needs or available grants. Innovators in this silo develop new ideas, devices, redesign services, and contribute to product development.

Quality of Care Silos: This silo is where patients can be found, focusing on the quality of care and patient experiences. Quality improvement (QI) in healthcare refers to the systematic use of data and feedback to enhance processes, outcomes, and patient satisfaction. This often involves assessment and improvement of healthcare practices, mainly through patient experience surveys, outcome surveys, and similar channels.

These silos often do not communicate or interact as much as they should. Each group operates within its own silo, governed by distinct values, behaviors, and cultural norms. While they all share the overarching goal of improving health for all, they are each designed in ways that can inadvertently hinder achieving this goal. They all aim to achieve the triple aim of healthcare (improving the health of populations, enhancing the patient experience, and reducing costs), but their isolated priorities compromise the overall function of the system, leading to suboptimal outcomes, higher costs, and lower quality.

Many issues arise within each silo because they do not connect, learn, and grow together. For example, on the research side, my findings show that researchers may not always address the most relevant questions or involve patients as much as they should. As a result, their findings may not effectively help or impact people and/or may lead to redundant research. 

Providers, on the other hand, may not fully understand patient needs. Despite their best efforts, they often fail to deliver care in the way patients need and desire. Additionally, providers have questions that remain unanswered, as they must wait for research to be conducted and not always with their input.

Patients, in turn, do not always receive the care they need and deserve. Simple survey questions cannot solve their problems, and there is often no one to listen deeply to their concerns and needs.

With this introduction, I invite you to look at the map below. Imagine if patients, providers, and researchers were willing to collaborate and connect—consider how much they could benefit from each other.