When disease strikes, we always forget the fate that lies within people’s hands. Throughout this pandemic, hands have become dangerous, almost destructive weapons, needing to be disinfected and gloved at all times. Healing hands must regain their place in care.

The hand itself is an instrument of every moment, it is used for everything: eating, grasping things, pushing yourself up, feeling textures or changes in temperature. Right there, at arm’s length, it performs a task, expresses an emotion, shields you from harm. When you exhibit a belligerent behaviour, it becomes a fist, when you take part in an illicit activity, you can be caught red-handed, when confused, your left hand may not know what your right hand is doing.

An instrument of many talents, a hand can paint, write, play music. Without hands, neither culture, art, nor poetry would exist. Hands preserve beauty, they shape materials into forms, they move to the music. They make signs with their fingers either to greet or say goodbye; in fact, they can deliver an infinity of messages.

Hands work and ache, they bleed, twitch, tear and pluck. You knead bread with your hands. You bring your hands together to applaud, to defend yourself, to seize someone in an embrace. You can be openhanded, reach your hand out or lend a helping hand. Couples hold hands. Hands bring people together. They become a point of junction between beings.

The safe and gentle hands of your mother and father, of your friends or loved ones, reassure and comfort. Hands also heal, for without them there is no surgery nor care. With spoken words, hands become a necessary instrument, a tool of action. Through spontaneous gestures, hands soothe and heal.

This is a true story, one of a patient who waits to know the extent of his injuries after an accident. The situation is critical, for he may die. A nurse is by his side and remains unimposing. She knows her role and knows what is coming: distress. She is simply present, speaking only needed words and holding his hand so ever gently. Her patient is already inexpressibly touched. He feels the caress of a finger, a soft touch on his hand. This act of compassion, which is both an expression of tenderness and a source of strength, is an indication that he must fight. Turning itself into the equivalent of an injection of courage, the connection with this feeling of humanity signals the beginning of his healing.

If technology can do great things, I think it needs to give hands their power back. We all look forward to the day when we no longer need to see nurses and doctors dressed like astronauts. Hands are the extension of the soul and of the heart, and this patient survived thanks to these healing hands.

A doctor giving an interview just outside the hospital where she works is worried. Will we be able to care for everyone?, she asks. We will have to make choices, some heart-wrenching choices, she adds. Who shall receive care? Which patients should be prioritized? That question has been answered since we have given priority of care to patients suffering from Covid-19 over so many other ill people. A forced choice as we faced the unknown, but would have it been better to prioritize the people who were ill instead of a sickness? The reality is that all types of care were affected and that the consequences of that choice remain unknown.

Jacques Gagnon, the CEO of Imagem, a firm that specializes in the development of healthcare technologies, says that from the moment we start categorizing human lives, we loose a bit of our own humanity. History has shown us many times that we have valued some people over others to varying degrees based on their skin colour, their race or their social status. Are we, today, such a long way off from that reality? When we accept to let our elderly die in residential and long-term care centres stripped of their dignity and establish mental disabilities as a criterion to not prioritize, we dehumanize. Do we know the value of having these people with disabling conditions with us?, asks Gagnon.

In other words, what is a life worth and how do we justify prioritizing some lives over others? Last summer, the French Canadian magazine “L’actualité” examined the issue and concluded that life, in effect, had a book value. In the article published June 1, 2020, the journalist, François Delorme, wrote that [following the 9/11 terrorist attacks] the families of single, poor or elderly victims received less money, proportionally speaking, than the families of victims who were young or rich or who had children.

During the pandemic, this given book value was prioritized. We chose to care for Covid cases in order to revive the economy as fast as possible. However, life has a value of another nature. Don’t we say that some human works have an inestimable worth? When the time to care for or to protect others arrives, what factors should we consider to guide our actions? In a setting of artificial intelligence, one would find an algorithm to use. Should a person’s age, material wealth, health status and profession be part of the equation? We know however that, as the American mathematician Cathy O’Neil puts it, “algorithms are opinions embedded in code”. In short, we can’t hide behind an equation; we must tackle the question.

Gagnon suggests that we be first and foremost empathetic. Our moral – and quite human – values lead us to regard with esteem all life despite what this life provides. No life is worth more than another. The only thing that should matter, says Gagnon, is that we should always save as many lives as we can.

As a businessman, Jacques Gagnon draws a parallel with the world of business. Within an organization, the value of an employee isn’t measured on the sole basis of his or her economic profitability. Their autonomy, sense of responsibility, creativity, teamwork skills and personal and professional experience, among other things, are all factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Consequently, thruth can perhaps be found in a life, in a life that has a beginning and and end, in a life that can only be assessed in its entirety, in its essentiality, in the greatness of its modesty. Who are we to choose between one or another?

We must be first and foremost empathetic. Our moral – and quite human – values lead us to regard with esteem all life despite what this life provides. No life is worth more than another. The only thing that should matter is that we should always save as many lives as we can.

Jacques Gagnon, Engineer

CEO of Imagem

We often say that fear marks the beginning of wisdom. Under other circumstances, fear can also be the result of ignorance, of disengagement and sometimes of closed mindedness. Like any kind of upheaval or event of major importance, the COVID-19 pandemic will have enfeebled our convictions. From this day forward, humans have a perception of risk and are aware of the limits of their own existence.

If, before COVID, our health system displayed some weaknesses, its functions remained operational. However, the last year will have shown us that this system is fragile and hanging by a thread, a thread that is held with difficulty by humans who even through the roaring of the storm, and although thoroughly exhausted, have demonstrated unbelievable strength and courage.

Jacques Gagnon, the president of Imagem, a firm that specializes in the development of technologies in the healthcare sector, doesn’t hide the fact that he is worried. How will the healthcare system manage to stand the ravages in a post-COVID era?

Gagnon believes that no one has really ever thought that one day, working in a hospital would be dangerous. Janitors, nurses, doctors, receptionists, lab technicians, respiratory therapists, all of them have been exposed to this COVID-19 virus, a virus that is difficult to contain. And they are still exposed to it. Inevitably, it changes our perception of the field.

The Need to Lay New Markers

For many months, hospital parking lots have been largely deserted. Are people less sick than before the pandemic or is the population afraid to go to the hospital? Does fear have something to do with this situation?

Gagnon, who knows the hospital environment well for having set foot there very often, says that if people are afraid to go to the hospital, to receive treatment or worse to go and work there … it’s just unthinkable.

According to him, fear is at the root of many of our ills. Before, we used to pray God; today, the new god is technology. We believe that technology can remedy all our shortcomings and correct our destructive behaviours. Instead of reducing our carbon footprint, we seek technological developments to sequester carbon. Instead of taking charge ourselves of our health, we wait for a pill or a miracle treatment.

Jacques Gagnon talks about last week’s commemoration ceremony of the tragedy of Saint-Jean-Vianney and how this tragic event had impacted on urban development policies and how precautions are now exercised. The Saguenay flood had the same effect. And now COVID.

What lessons will we learn from this worldwide pandemic? It’s still too early to know. All the same, we will need to rapidly determine up to what point we will allow ourselves to be guided by fear.

Fallen Angels

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have collectively portrayed healthcare workers as angels. We have applauded their courage and their resilience and have expressed our admiration. However, have we sufficiently taken care of our angels?

They chose a career to be at the service of the sick, caring for the ill, and helping others without realizing that one day they would be putting their own life on the line at work.

Jacques Gagnon reminds us that at church, we were told that we all had a guardian angel. Truer words have never been spoken! When we are suffering, in a state of disarray and helplessness, we need to be comforted, we need the kindness of an angel. However, the angels we are talking about, we don’t want them in heaven, we want them at our bedside. And to have them there, we need to take care of them. From now on, our angels are very much aware of the risks of their profession, says Gagnon.

This fear, the same one that today torments police officers who are afraid of being filmed while they carry out their duties, the fear that keeps social workers awake at night as they ask themselves if they properly assessed the severity of a case, the one that thwarts desires and subdues passions, let’s hope that this fear will not deprive Québec of the service of these precious angels.

Regardless of global warming sceptics, planet Earth is talking to us and what she has to say is not at all reassuring. Slowly, and yet still too rapidly, the planet is suffocating under the pressure of human activity. Is the glass full? No. The pandemic has given us an eye-opening look on a new threat: viruses can mute faster than the vaccines produced to fight them. In a world where its end has been prophesied since the beginning of time, how are we to survive if not together by working hand in hand on problems that unite us.

On a small scale, business owners experience it on a daily basis. To move forward, to successfully complete their projects and to make their business grow, they must count on their employees, people of all races and religions, people with different orientations and interests. The responsibility of uniting these people in a common purpose lies with business leaders.

Jacques Gagnon, the CEO of Imagem, a firm that specializes in the development of technologies in the healthcare sector knows a thing or two on the subject. For more than 25 years, he has built on the know-how of his team and utilized their expertise to support the healthcare network and its professionals through two software suites, Postscriptum and Interview, fully developed by Imagem. 

According to him, this way of doing things, of uniting and pulling forces together, should also be put into practice in the world of politics.

Gagnon says that one cannot impose his or her way of thinking, but some form of leadership must be exercised to show that we are more efficient when we work together. It is possible for people to talk and to stand united; you just need to find the right words to do so. What we need right now is global leadership. We need to unite and build on our similarities, and Gagnon believes there are many. We need to stop talking about our sources of conflict. We need to find a meeting point.

Day after day, business people use diplomacy, assume leadership, show open-mindedness and manifest an intense desire to find lasting solutions. Maybe this should be taken into account to face head on the current and future global threats.

The Challenges of Globalization

As stated by Gagnon, the COVID-19 crisis has been a vivid demonstration of much stinginess, particularly with regard to vaccines. As it has been the case so many times since we’ve become “globalized”, the most powerful in the world take what they think they are entitled to leaving the less fortunate to their fate. Gagnon uses Haitian people and all poor countries as an analogy, as if we can leave all of them without vaccines. Have we become that much desensitized to misery? asks Gagnon.

Unfortunately, a small committee of people cannot resolve the COVID-19 pandemic or all the environmental issues we face. These issues are subjects of worldwide concern; they are global problems and must be addressed as such.

Gagnon maintains that the greatest threat we face is not natural disasters or viruses; our greatest threat is ourselves and our inability to face problems together. We seem to be unable to unite around a common priority. The contempt we have for others prevents us from sitting and working together.

Yet, Gagnon says that when he sees artistic and musical performances reach people all over the world, when he sees Innus moved by the OSM, when he sees Japanese moved to tears by the music of Beethoven, when he sees the unanimity of sentiment before these splendours, he believes that salvation of humanity is possible.

Healthcare workers are exhausted. The pandemic, which continues to claim victims, is overwhelmingly pressuring the health system and the lack of personnel for primary care is complicating the situation considerably. As it is the case in several other sectors of activity, the field of healthcare has experienced labour shortages for many years now. But what do we really mean by labour shortage? Above all, how do we prevent other sectors of reaching the limits of their human capacity?

According to Jacques Gagnon, the CEO of Imagem, a firm located in Saguenay that specializes in the development of technologies in the healthcare sector, workforce issues would have more to do with management issues.

Gagnon says that managers must ask themselves serious questions. Too often, the reason an employee doesn’t do the job right is because they have not been well integrated or they have not found their strengths nor have they been able to utilize them. No matter the organization or the work to be done, no employee is able to train himself or herself alone. Someone must take the time to guide them and to help them grow within a firm.

Imagem embraces this type of ideology. The firm, which has developed and designed the software suites Interview and Postscriptum, which help organizations respond to the challenges linked to managing diagnostic imaging and to producing medical reports, has seen over the past 25 years a significant increase in its workforce. This pleasant challenge has led the administrators to look at best practices in the field of human resources.

Interpersonal skills and good judgement say a lot about a person. The diplomas a person has also are of value; they show a person’s ability to summarize, analyse and achieve results. Those are qualities that Jacques Gagnon looks for in employees.

Selected foremost for their human qualities, the candidates who have secured a position at Imagem over the years have been able to make a place for themselves thanks to the time and the energy that was invested in their integration and training.

Beyond qualifications per se, individuals and human intelligence must be valued. One can develop know-how; it can be worked on. Often, expectations managers have are unrealistic and the criteria they use to evaluate candidates are inadequate.

— Jacques Gagnon, Chief Executive Officer of Imagem

Break the mould

The message “In search of new talent” taken directly from a dozen job offers gets an eye roll from Imagem’s CEO. According to him, talent is something that is developed and cultivated with time. Employers who are seeking rare gems or “all-purpose” people can only experience disappointment. No one can expect that candidates can fit perfectly in a stiff mould.

Gagnon mentions that beyond qualifications per se, individuals and human intelligence must be valued. One can develop know-how; it can be worked on. Often, expectations managers have are unrealistic and the criteria they use to evaluate candidates are inadequate.

Managers would also benefit from recognizing that the true value of their organization lies on their employees. The healthcare sector is a modern-day example. Without nurses, doctors, personal support workers (PSW), healthcare professionals, the system simply collapses.

Employee Retention: A Challenge to Overcome

For Jacques Gagnon, there is no doubt that retaining employees once an employer has recognized their value also presents a challenge. The key? Valorizing their work, recognizing their abilities as well as their personal and professional qualities. According to a poll based on a sampling of 17,000 Quebeckers that was conducted by Léger, a Canadian market research firm, self-actualization, work relations and recognition bring more happiness at work than individual responsibility, salary and a sense of belonging.¹

Gagnon notes that everybody needs to know they are important. Recognition is essential. We can offer higher salaries, but sooner or later it won’t make a difference if employees don’t feel that they are reaching their full potential and are appreciated. Using the healthcare personnel example, Gagnon refers to the situation of personal support workers. According to him, it is obvious that the value of their work is underestimated.

Many people would be completely unable to do to what PSWs do on a daily basis. They perform ungracious, but essential tasks. We should look at ways of integrating them with different teams and raise the profile of their role.

With respect to the fast-track training to become a PSW and the grants provided for training by the Québec Government, Gagnon finds that the approach was overly simplistic and hurried. According to him, lasting solutions must be sought in the long run. Without continuous training in the field, without support, without integration in the work environment, it is likely that few new PSWs will hold on to their job beyond the 12-month period imposed by the government as they are, after this period, discharged of the obligation to repay the $9,000 grant received during their training.

In an article published in the newspaper Le Devoir, on December 3, 2020, the FSSS-CSN (the health and social services federation in Québec) mentions that the lack of staff in the field is a concern for both old and new personal support workers. Also, there is another problem says Jeff Begley, the president of the FSSS-CSN: the salary of $26 an hour is still being negotiated.²

_{1 Léger, Workplace Happiness Index, November 2018 and March 2019.} 

_{2 https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/sante/590872/les-nouveaux-preposes-restent-au-front [IN FRENCH]}