About Donal Bailey

‘Don’t forget the markers’ – that’s the advice Care-Connect CEO Donal Bailey has carried with him throughout his career and it’s much more meaningful than it might seem on the surface.

When he was a Junior Doctor, a Senior Consultant told him to leave every role better than he found it, in any small way he could. That meant something as simple as making sure the morning’s patient handover board always had markers with it. 

“It was such a transformative thing to be told,” Donal recalls. “It wasn’t some clinical teaching about how to treat a particular problem better. It was about a state of mind. It was about broadening your horizon of what you actually think of as your job.”

Taking a broader view

Given how much that resonated, it’s not surprising Donal took his next step and undertook an MBA at UCD Smurfit School.

“Early in my medical career, I saw how much of healthcare’s potential is influenced not just by clinical options, but by how services are organised or led. I did the MBA because I wanted to have a wider view of the world — to understand the dynamics at play more deeply and be equipped to contribute beyond the consultation room.

“It felt like the right step to bridge my medical training with a broader systems view. Professionally, I’ve always learned a lot from people who are systems thinkers—whether in healthcare, business or philosophy. I’m especially interested in ethics and moral philosophy as it comes back to first principles, and try to make as much time as possible for reading broadly.”

To illustrate how studying at the Smurfit School broadened his perspective, Donal draws an analogy using the transport modes offered in Google Maps.

“When you’re a specialist, you only see one of those options – the car or the bus or walking – but an MBA gives you four or five or 10 different ways and routes to improve things. There’s richness in that complexity. You see the scale of the challenge more, but also that there are lots of different approaches you can take.”

Working to empower patients

Systems thinking is invaluable to him now in his role at the helm of telemedicine firm Care-Connect. It aims to empower and support patients with heart failure and with chronic respiratory conditions to take control of their own healthcare journey through innovative, data-driven, primary healthcare services.

“Care Connect emerged from a shared vision between Centric Health and Irish Life Health to support patients in managing chronic disease outside the hospital, in a way that was structured, measurable, and person-centred,” says Donal.

“Given I had been working at the intersection of clinical care and system design this felt like a natural step—a chance to create something purpose-driven, scalable, and grounded in evidence and patient empowerment.

He leads Care-Connect in conjunction with his role as Director of Clinical Innovation at Centric Health, which provides GP care and remote heart monitoring services across Ireland. As he’s also a dad to four children, he is a busy man.

“It’s definitely a full schedule,” he agrees, “but the roles are deeply complementary. Both give me a broad view of clinical trends, operational realities, unmet needs and strategic opportunities across primary care and the health service.”

He points out that as a Doctor, his work tended to be quite immediate. For any given patient, he would have to assess the situation, put a plan in place to improve it and see that plan through. His work now involves much longer time scales.

“When you move to the innovation and change side of healthcare, the timelines are long and you don’t get that day-to-day feedback and sense of reward. On the other hand, you can make an impact by really driving scalable change. I tried to translate that feeling of making a difference for one person and remember that feeling, as we try to work out what we can do in the system that could reach far more people and make a difference for them.”

Seeking to better patient outcomes

He is dedicated to ensuring Care-Connect and Centric Health are part of the shift toward outcome-based care models in Ireland—where value is defined by patient outcomes. That tends to mean harnessing that systems thinking approach.

For patients with heart disease, for example, he says a minor, short-term tweak to their medications at an early stage could offer a disproportionate benefit in terms of reducing emergency department admissions over time.

“We could also look at education, rehab or exercise options – it all becomes tiered and multidisciplinary – but we start by asking where we can we have the biggest disproportionate benefit with a relatively minor intervention,” he explains.

“We have achieved a lot of groundwork in almost 10 years and I’m quite excited about what the future holds. The pace of change in healthcare is accelerating, not just in Ireland but globally, as new technologies come on stream. There is an awful lot of room for continued improvement but I think people should be optimistic.

Healthcare, in particular, is a field that can invoke strong emotions in anyone who has to work in it or interact with it, and Donal is keenly aware of that.

“It’s a complex area and the stakes are high, so you really have to think carefully through any possible unintended consequences. I spend a lot of time up-front trying to align everyone and get clarity, so that people can see we are going in the right direction and making progress, even if it’s gradual.”

Gaining the skills to lead

Donal was still working as a Doctor when he began studying at the Smurfit School in 2015, so he did the executive MBA over two years. Looking back at that time, Donal remembers finding strategy fascinating, along with organisational behaviour, decision-making and negotiation.

“These subjects challenged a lot of assumptions I had about how we think, what we’re aiming for, and how to get there in a range of contexts. I learned how to think through complex problems and articulate them more simply, and to recognise that people face similar problems across industries and you can borrow a lot from how they have solved them.”

Beyond the subjects on the curriculum, he also prized the intangible benefits of completing an MBA, such as gaining an invaluable peer network.

He also points out that an MBA can help cure your imposter syndrome. “It takes aways that sense of intimidation,” he says. “You understand topics like strategy and finance enough to frame your views and be able to discuss them in multiple contexts.”

As CEO, Donal must naturally be able to take a broad view. “It is a mix,” he says, “—setting the direction, clearing obstacles, and ensuring the team is supported and aligned. It’s easy to go into problem-solving mode but the right questions need to be carefully articulated first, that’s an iterative process. I try to spend time thinking both upstream and downstream: making sure we have a clear strategic purpose, and that we’re delivering positive outcomes for patients.

“I’m also very aware that change happens through people—and that takes trust and shared purpose, I try to foster an environment of psychological safety and teamwork where everyone contributes. I see leadership as creating the appropriate space for the right answers to emerge from a group of talented people working together.”

Panel

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

Don’t confuse being right with being effective. That stuck with me. We all set off in a direction with our own beliefs and theories, but as you get new evidence and new signals emerge I try to remember that I’m not here to prove myself or anyone else right, we’re working to improve outcomes for patients. Sometimes the hardest part of leadership is holding your principles while staying flexible enough to bring others along with you and evolve with the journey.

What tips would you give others at the start of their leadership journey?

Start with purpose. It’s what will sustain you. Then surround yourself with people who challenge and complement you. And don’t underestimate the emotional side of leadership—resilience, self-awareness, and reflection are as important as any strategic framework.

Personally, losing my father very young made me deeply aware of time, legacy, and what matters most. I think that shaped both my drive and my values.

What has been your biggest success or failure in business?

One success I’m proud of is seeing a model of care go from idea to real impact for patients. That’s incredibly motivating. As for failure—early on, I underestimated how long it takes to foster change, especially in complex systems. I’ve learned to listen more, slow down sometimes, and invest energy in alignment.

What gets you up in the morning?

The sense that there’s meaningful work to be done—that we can build something better, and that the effort matters.

What keeps you awake at night?

Knowing there are people falling through the cracks in our system and wanting to do more, faster. And recognising that real change takes time.

April 2025