Arena Labs

When we started Arena Labs in 2017, we built our foundation on humility. We believed that if we were going to offer value to the frontlines of healthcare, in one of the most complex institutions in society, we could only do so with our heads down, learning and listening. Our team never wavered in the impact we saw in High Performance Medicine® but if we were to bring the tools of other high-risk, high-consequence teams into healthcare, we recognized it would take years to figure out how best to provide those tools within the unique challenges that exist in the 21st century medical landscape. We also believed that despite the amazing men + women who make up our team — from professional sports, the creative arts and elite military backgrounds — we had no right to talk about the work we were doing and its impact until we had fully learned how to create solutions of enduring value for modern healthcare. That all began five years ago. That’s lifetimes in most start-ups. But here, we continue to be humble and move with intention, always listening and evolving. We never imagined how much the world would change and specifically, how much that change would rest on the shoulders of the nurses, doctors and medical leaders we’d been privileged to work along side leading up to and during the pandemic. Over the last two years we rebuilt our company and radically focused our mission alongside those who have stewarded society through the most challenging period of modern healthcare’s history. We are proud of our work, the partners we have, and our mission serving The Service Archetype on the frontlines. It has all culminated in what we call “healthcare’s first performance coaching platform” — Arena Strive. So now, after five years of working, iterating, learning and listening, we’re telling our story beyond the sacred teams we’ve served since our start. We’re building content to share the narratives and journeys of frontline clinicians and world-class performers through the lens of our work in High Performance Medicine. We’d be grateful to have you on the ride with us. Follow us on Instagram: @arenalabs (https://lnkd.in/gJRzqyXQ) Here’s to those in the Arena. With Respect. #arenalabs #arenastrive #highperformancemedicine #humanperformance #clinicians #nurses #doctors #recoverymanagement #stressmanagement #hospital #stressrelieving #healthcare #frontlineworkers

We have deep admiration for those who choose to protect and care for our society. The path to serving and stewarding human health — the role of the “Service Archetype”— never begins too early. Few fields evoke a sense of mentorship and possibility, like medicine. VIDEO CREDIT: IG @rcsi_studentlife #healthcareperformance #highperformancemedicine #sacredworldofmedicine #servicearchetype #clinicia

At Arena Labs, we focus on “getting upstream of medical error.” Most errors are related to a failure in the human system. We know that fatigue, stress, and poor communication are just a few of the “human factors” that can lead to a poor outcome. But, part of avoiding major errors or mistakes comes from learning in the smaller moments — both as individuals and as a team. The best teams in the world, especially those working in “mission critical” or life + death environments, use mistakes as opportunities to learn, grow + improve. Building individual and team protocols to learn from a mistake or error is perhaps the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT behavior in improving and moving toward clinical excellence.

MJ Wilson spends hundreds of hours understanding what individual physicians and nurses need to manage stress or “load.” She looks at how they learn in our platform and how their data improves or suffers. She explains the stressors she looks for in 8 types: 👇 1️⃣ Physiologic 2️⃣ Emotional/Relational 3️⃣ Sensory 4️⃣ Mental 5️⃣ Financial 6️⃣ Incongruence/Dissonance 7️⃣ Uncertainty 8️⃣ Life Event #healthcareperformance #highperformancemedicine #sacredworldofmedicine #servicearchetype

Our deep belief at Arena Labs is that being empowered with individual data + tools is the single most powerful way for physicians and nurses to feel a sense of agency in the demanding schedule of modern healthcare. @Natalie Crane’s reflections on her wearable data here are a powerful example of a surgeon who: 1. Is using data to understand when her body needs to recover and regenerate. 2. Understands the stressors and lifestyle factors that lead to feeling depleted: heavy travel, red-eye flights, giving a speech at a large conference, eating late, drinking, etc. 3. Most importantly, recognizes the tools to use in order to rapidly recover and not allow those stressors to bleed too far into the future. As she notes, this is “Geek out worthy” and is the self-awareness we aim all of our partners to have.

Healthcare has often looked at sleep and rest as an after thought. And, acquiring sleep debt is a normalized behavior in many frontline medical environments. But being world-class as a surgeon or nurse requires high “executive function”— skills like reaction time, awareness, and problem identification. As it turns out, Executive Function is a direct byproduct of being well-rested. Here, our Science Advisor, Kristen Holmes, discusses how world-class patient safety starts with being well-rested. #healthcareperformance #highperformancemedicine #sacredworldofmedicine #sleeprecovery

Meg Young is Head Performance Coach for the Seattle Sounders MLS team, a world-class strength and conditioning coach, and a cancer survivor. Her wisdom on how to understand alcohol and recovery in the context of performing in the high-stress, demanding world of the operating room is brilliant…. #healthcareperformance #highperformancemedicine #sacredworldofmedicine #servicearchetype #recovery

Sarah Draper is one of our most popular coaches. She spent her career in the FBI and is deeply intentional about her own life, managing stress, and raising a family. After spending over 20 years in the high-stress field of federal law enforcement, Sarah draws on practical tools that she saw work for her teammates and that can be applied on the frontlines of healthcare. #healthcareperformance #highperformancemedicine #sacredworldofmedicine #leadershipcoach

In many of our recent surgeon cohorts, we see those who are consuming alcohol on Saturdays are seeing significantly degraded physiology (elevated resting heart rate and decreased heart rate variability). Most importantly, these same surgeons self-report higher levels of stress and lower readiness on Mondays. There is no issue socializing and enjoying the weekend, but understanding how and when to consume alcohol is a hallmark of high-performance that we coach our surgical partners to understand.

“Active Recovery” is a vital tool we focus on for many of our healthcare partners. The term came out of professional sport and has also been adopted in elite military units, to include FBI Hostage Rescue. Many frontline medical personnel stretch themselves during the week and then stack their weekends with the activities they missed — time with family, workouts, chores, etc. Having a “third thing” — something outside of work and family is an important means of relaxing and recovering and of making time for “self valuation”, which often correlates to a reduction in burnout. The Active Recovery protocol we encourage clinicians to follow is:  1. Find a “third thing” that brings you joy (hiking, paddle boarding, etc) and can be done outside.  2. Make it a sacred ritual for yourself at least one hour on the weekend or during your time off.  3. Do it with close friends or loved ones. #healthcareperformance #highperformancemedicine #sacredworldofmedicine #activerecovery