Where they work with heart

Thirteen years ago, my daughter Anna was born. We had an hour to fully rejoice in her unborn baby, during which time it became clear that incubators and ventilators were not helping. At the Gottsegen György Institute of Cardiology, we were told that our baby had transposition of the great arteries, the strange heart condition used to describe the inverted connection of the great arteries to the heart. He was saved twice in two weeks. It was magic. Magic is performed with pure gestures. I thought about that day a thousand times, and then as the years passed, the tiny body wrapped in a blanket, the figure of the doctor waiting for surgery, and the hospital cot became more and more distant.

A year ago, Integral Vision was chosen to revamp the institution's website. I had the opportunity to get to know the team behind the magic. The memory has unfolded again from a new perspective, but I am no closer to the mystery of healing.

Last week, we launched the official website of the institution. It was months in the making, with several meetings with the institution's management, communications staff, and doctors. Sometimes they took time between two operations, but they persevered, saw the process through, and put in what they needed to renew their web presence. More than a dozen people from GOKI were involved in the content and organization of the development. 

I expected that there would be discussion, that the leader would decide, that he would tell us what good design was and how to do it. I thought that where lives were being saved, there should be a military order, a command structure that socializes the team to react quickly. 

In contrast, I experienced teamwork that I had not seen before in either the government or the competitive sector. Leaders participated as part of the team in the discussions and based their positions on constructive dialogue. In addition to their daily work, the surgeons and cardiologists devoted their time writing long texts to ensure that credible sources informed patients and their relatives. Between two surgeries, they gave themselves over to discussing the website in a matter of minutes. Why should the "An Atlas of a Healthy Heart" section be called "An Atlas of a Healthy Heart"? How can we provide parents who are concerned about their child with information that is accessible and credible? In what form should and can report about risks be published? At one such meeting, there is no doubt that all aspects of the heart are essential—everyones.

The project has produced hundreds of content pages, mostly illustrated with photos, providing comprehensive information about the institute's departments, the procedures and tests carried out here, and the diseases treated. This content was written by doctors working at GOKVI, mostly at night, but in constant consultation. They discussed professional aspects and reviewed the clarity and expressiveness of the text. Specific graphics were created to help interpretation of the workings and diseases of the heart. The language used is an integral part of the design of the web presence. We work with heart is not an empty slogan: I have experienced time and time again what this means in our collaboration and in the way we approach our visitors. 

At Integral Vision, I have been working for years to ensure that we carry out our daily tasks according to a clear set of values that we have agreed to share. Time and again, I ask why we do this or that. Why do we commit to the work, why do we value what we are working on? 

I can't think of a more precise answer to the WHY question than the one that brings GOKI staff together. On the introduction page, four statements were made detailing what is essential at the institutional level:

1. We treat our patients as we would our family members.

2. We treat our colleagues as our teammates.

3. We are committed to the society we serve.

4. We treat the Institute as our home.

It's a great experience to work with an organization with such a culture! We are delighted to have had the opportunity to give a little something back to this incredibly dedicated team and help them better showcase the dedication, humanity, and competence they provide daily.

More about the project here.

Special thanks go to Andi Fulmer for her stewardship of the project and her help with this blog post!

Photos source: gokvi.hu