In edition, “The 10 Most Successful Leaders Pioneering the Healthcare”, CIO Look is featuring such healthcare leaders who have created distinct places for themselves in the sector with their exceptional leadership skills.

1. www.ciolook.com
Elaine
M Wallace
Fostering Academic Excellence and Research
VOL 06 | ISSUE 01 | 2021
Dean
Nova Southeastern
University(NSU)
Most Successful
Leaders Pioneering
The Healthcare
The
Towards
Excellence
Seeing the
Opportunities
and Making
them Count
Diligently

4. Becoming the Shield
of Humanity During
the Pandemic
ast one year has been a struggle for whole world while facing
LCoronavirus disease. First identified in China’s Wuhan City in
December 2019, the disease spread from Hubei Province to
the whole world in time span of one to two months. The speed of
spreading this virus was so fast that even the world’s top countries
with most sophisticated health care systems failed to identify its
effect and deadly potential. As the healthcare systems were failing,
the healthcare industry and all the health care workers were
forced to face health consequences due to no efficient disease
data, personal protective equipment and lack of training. However
there is not all pain, as the pandemic is not all about challenges but
learning as well especially for healthcare leaders.
As healthcare environment has become more complex than ever,
today’s healthcare executives and leaders should acquire the
management skills to match and thrive in it. We expect the
healthcare executives to demonstrate measurable outcomes and
effectiveness and practice evidence-based management. Also,
there is dire need of management programs that are emphasizing
over attainment of competencies related to workplace
effusiveness not only medical qualifications. Through this
approach, when the next pandemic will hit the healthcare workers,
the whole industry will be physically and mentally prepared to
fight even if there are no immediate vaccine solutions.
Besides, we cannot deny that the healthcare sector has seen an
exponential uptick in the recent years. It has become possible due
to novel approaches brought by many exemplary leaders in the
healthcare sector. By pushing the envelope, they have taken
healthcare arena to the new heights.
EDITOR’S NOTE

5. In its upcoming edition, “The 10 Most Successful Leaders Pioneering the Healthcare”, CIO Look is featuring
such healthcare leaders who have created distinct places for themselves in the sector with their
exceptional leadership skills, innovative approach, and futuristic ideas.
The cover features Elaine Wallace who is the Dean at Nova Southeastern University. Elaine began her
journey at NSU as the Liaison to the development of international medicine and the chair of the
Department of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine. Within 6 years, she returned to her previously held
position (in Kansas City) as the Executive Associate Dean, under Anthony Silvagni, DO. Five years ago, she
became Dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine and have shepherded a time of expansion and
growth within her college. The college has nearly tripled in size since Elaine’s deanship and is a leader in
research and holistic medical care on campus.
Delve into more such inspiring stories of successful leaders pioneering the healthcare and their significant
contributions to the industry.
Lastly, never stop learning with our CXO standpoints written by the industry experts and the creative
articles by our in-house editorial team which will help to improve your skillset.
Let’s Begin!
Sourabh More

6. COVER STORY
Elaine M
WALLACE
Fostering Academic Excellence
and Research
08

7. C O N T E N T S
Leader’s
Viewpoint
Going Forth and Rising
28
Towards
Excellence
Seeing the Opportuni es
and Making Them Count Diligently
16
ARTICLE
Anthony Chang
Revolu onizing the Healthcare Arena
20
Dr. Tania Mar n-Mercado
Leveraging Data for Advancing Scien fic Research
and Improving Healthcare Outcomes
24
Michael Showalter
Leading with a Passion for Serving Customers
32

8. CONTENT
Senior Editor Alan Swann
Executive Editors Sourabh More
Alex Spellman
DESIGN
Visualizer Dave Bates
Art & Design Director Kartik Balapurkar
Associate Designer Shubham Dali
SALES
Senior Sales Manager Kshitij S.
Customer Success Manager Jack Ryan
Sales Executives John, Maneesh, Sanket
TECHNICAL
Technical Head Aditya K.
Technical Consultant Victor Collins
June, 2021
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9. Brief
Company Name
Tashfeen Suleman
CEO
Tom Oakley
CEO
Jonathan Stump
Vice president
Sharad Joshi
CEO
Independence Blue Cross is the leading health insurance
organization in southeastern Pennsylvania.
CloudMedx is transforming healthcare delivery using Artificial
Intelligence with an altruistic focus to create "Aligned
Intelligence," an integrated system that joins Payers, Providers,
and Patients to serve their needs.
Feedback Medical is a specialist technology company
providing innovative software and systems to benefit those
working in the field of medical imaging.
NanoDx Inc. is a privately held medical device company
developing novel and rapid point-of-care technologies for the
objective diagnosis and management of concussion and other
traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Elaine wallace
Dean
Nova Southeastern University (NSU) has more than 22,000
students, is the largest, private, selective, research university in
Florida, and is also the largest private institution in the United
States that meets the U.S. Department of Education's criteria as
an Hispanic-serving Institution.
Nova Southeastern
University
nova.edu
Independence Blue Cross
ibx.com
BioDirection
biodirection.com
Anthony Chang
Founder
Mi10 is a healthcare artificial intelligence consulting firm
dedicated to helping healthcare stakeholders efficiently
implement actionable AI solutions.
Mi10
mi10.ai
Sr. Mary Haddad
President
Catholic health care is a ministry of the Catholic Church and
the largest group of nonprofit health care providers .
Comprised of more than 600 hospitals and 1,600 long-term
care and other health facilities in all 50 states.
Catholic Health
Association
chausa.org
Feedback
fbkmed.com
Kevin M. King
CEO
iRhythm is a digital healthcare company redefining the way
cardiac arrhythmias are clinically diagnosed by combining its
wearable biosensing technology with cloud-based data
analytics and machine- learning capabilities.
iRhythm Technologies
irhythmtech.com
IFS
cloudmedxhealth.com
Michael Showalter
CEO
Health e(fx) experts include a highly experienced team of
business and technical professionals with unique knowledge
and experience in healthcare legislation, government policy
direction, and regulatory changes.
Health e(fx)
healthefx.us
Tania
Martin-Mercado
CEO
Phronetik is a rapidly-growing leader advancing precision
medicine by leveraging biotechnology, bioinformatics, and
artificial intelligence to improve diagnosis, treatment and
monitoring to impact scientific research with actionable
insights.
Phronetik
phronetik.com
Featuring Person

10. Elaine M Wallace
Dean
Nova Southeastern
University (NSU)

11. ‘
‘
‘
‘
NSU is one of only 37
institutions holding the
dual classification of
"Community Engaged"
and "High Research" by
the Carnegie Foundation.
Elaine
M Wallace
Fostering Academic Excellence and Research
Cover Story

12. H
ealthcare system across the globe is continuing
to improve, innovate and change under the
leadership of successful leaders that are
pioneering the healthcare system. They are coming up
with new and innovative ways to automate and ease
the delivery of best-in-class healthcare solutions to the
maximum number of people. Ensuring the holistic care
of patients is more important than ever as sound body
is the product of a sound mind. Education is one of the
most important ways through which best future
healthcare professionals are created.
To create the best healthcare professionals that are
highly skilled for delivering the best healthcare
solutions is an important task of all educational
institutions by offering diverse array of academic
programs and educational opportunities. The
healthcare leaders who foster academic excellence and
research related to Healthcare are more valuable.
Elaine M Wallace is one such healthcare leader who is
Dean at Nova Southeastern University(NSU).
Leader in Research and Holistic Medical Care
Elaine began her journey at NSU as the Liaison to the
development of international medicine and the chair of
the Department of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine.
Within 6 years, she returned to her previously held
position (in Kansas City) as the Executive Associate
Dean, under Anthony Silvagni, DO. Five years ago, she
became Dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine
and have shepherded a time of expansion and growth
within her college.
Since Elaine’s initial deanship, the college has started
and is responsible for 4 Bachelors programs (Public
Health, Nutrition, Biomedical Informatics, Health and
Wellness Coaching), 5 Masters Programs (Public
Health, Nutrition, Medical Education, Disaster and
Emergency Management, Biomedical Informatics), a
Registered Dietician program, a post baccalaureate
program, and it has expanded the DO program by 150
students on a second campus. It also has assimilated the
program in Couple and Family Therapy, with a
bachelor’s degree in Human Development, a master’s
Degree in Family Therapy and two Doctorate programs
in Couple and Family Therapy. The college has nearly
tripled in size since Elaine’s deanship and is a leader in
research and holistic medical care on campus
Driven by Core Values
Located on a beautiful 314-acre campus in Fort
Lauderdale, Nova Southeastern University has more
than 22,000 students, is the largest, private, selective,
research university in Florida, and is also the largest
private institution in the United States that meets the
U.S. Department of Education's criteria as a Hispanic-
serving Institution. It also has 8 regional campuses,
throughout Florida and Puerto Rico. NSU’s core values
are: Academic Excellence, Student Centered, Integrity,
Innovation, Opportunity, Scholarship/Research,
Diversity, and Community.
Being a private, not-for-profit, institution, the mission
of Nova Southeastern University is to offer a diverse
array of innovative academic programs that
complement on-campus educational opportunities and
resources with accessible distance learning programs
to foster academic excellence, intellectual inquiry,
leadership, research, and commitment to community
through engagement of students and faculty members
in a dynamic, life-long learning environment.
The pandemic, as with all crises, offered opportunities
and challenges. The greatest challenge has been the
denial of the validity and respect in medical knowledge
that grew as a result of NSU’s national leadership.
Never in Elaine’s 12 leaders been so doubted. Never in

13. her life – including the polio crisis – have vaccines been
so doubted. It is a tremendous threat to science when
politics enters into a process that should – by definition
– be free of partisanship.
Despite this tremendous schism in country, the
pandemic demonstrated new and accelerated methods
for the development of vaccines. This is a technology
that may be applied now to the development of cancer
drugs and other breakthroughs in medicine.
Additionally, governmental money for the development
of treatments for chronic COVID-19 will propel the
medical field into new futures, and as NSU evaluates
responses to this pandemic in the setting of public
health, its systems of care may be revitalized and its
responses on a global level also stand to be improved
and developed.
Reaching Undeserved Communities
One of the other unexpected benefits of the COVID 19
pandemic has been the challenge that it has afforded
NSU to telecommunicate. This has accelerated the
growth of telehealth – allowing greater reach into
underserved communities and has allowed educators
to teach students from afar – seamlessly now on zoom.
Zoom has allowed greater proficiency in meetings and
has provided a new platform for innovation.
Taking Care of the Whole Patient
Osteopathic Medicine has always been about taking
care of the whole patient, mind – body – and spirit. This
concept of holism has seen advances, on all levels in
USA, in recent years. The development of bachelors
programs within the college are all dual admit
programs, meaning that when a student enters into an
undergraduate bachelor’s program run by its college, if
s/he excels and maintains a GPA of 3.5 and scores at a
high range in the MCAT examination, s/he has a seat
reserved for him/her in the Osteopathic Medical
school. This program demonstrates how higher
At Nova Southeastern
University, its approach
to education has always
been innovative and
unique.
‘
‘
‘
‘

14. education stands to improve medicine. Traditionally,
students in medicine are from backgrounds of
chemistry and biology. However – with these new
programs, Osteopathic Medical school is admitting new
matriculants who will focus on nutrition, and
informatics, and public health. Their views and
backgrounds will change, as will their focus for the
health, product development, and medicine of the
future.
Robust Research and Treatment Center
NSU-KPCOM is a leader in research on campus and is
the #1 grant funded research college on the campus.
KPCOM has robust research in Gulf War Syndrome,
Neuroimmunology, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, HIV
psychology in youth, and Health Disparities. Recently, it
has received a 4.5-million-dollar grant from the CDC
for patient education of COVID 19, and it has just
submitted over $30 million in requests to the federal
government to become a pandemic Research and
Treatment Center for long term COVID 19 as well as
other pandemics.
NSU’s private,
undergraduate college
offers a personal,
nurturing atmosphere,
but it is also an exciting
university with a wide
variety of graduate and
professional degrees.
‘
‘
‘
‘

15. The grant mentioned above for Treatment and
Research of pandemics, includes individuals from 4
other colleges. Two of NSU’s bachelors programs, are
joint programs with other colleges as well. In fact, many
of its research projects include researchers from other
universities. This reflects NSU’s belief in collaborative
approach.
Serving the Community in Maximum Possible Ways
NSU is recognized as a collegiate leader by the PEW
foundation in service to the community. Of all the
colleges at NSU, KPCOM is the #1 college in
community service.
A part of the ethos of KPCOM is to develop servant
leaders. Its mission is to serve the medically
underserved. In this vein, the college requires 40 hours
of community service from students in year one and 40
hours of service in year two. These service projects
include medical health fairs, tutoring, participation at
camps for children with disabilities, work with the
homeless and many other projects. The college is also a
national leader in international outreach programs, as
Osteopaths see the entire world as its community. Its
students participate yearly to medical missions in
Jamaica, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, and India. It did
a medical student training program to Cuba just prior to
the pandemic, and it served Puerto Rico, twice, post
hurricanes. Its students also do three months of rural or
urban underserved medicine as part of the third-year
curriculum, serving communities of great need in
Florida. Health fairs, for all students in year one and
two and all faculty, occur twice during the academic
year and serve patients in the community health
canters. KPCOM also has well over 70 student clubs,
many that are directed towards service within the
community.
Research at KPCOM is robust. It has just submitted a
29-million-dollar grant for the development of a
Treatment and Research Center for long-term COVID
19 care and for other future pandemics. If Elaine could
change one thing about research, it would receive this
grant and be able to further serve its community and
country with cutting edge scientific research.
Treating Patients World-wide
KPCOM was just named #20 by US News and World
Report – for medical schools (Osteopathic and
Allopathic) that turn out the most students in primary
care and serve the underserved. It is the philosophy of
Osteopathic Medicine – to treat the whole patient and
the whole patient system – that gives a great
foundation for treatment of patients world-wide.
Elaine mentions that when any individual seeks to
render care to a patient who is underserved, he or she
needs to study why the patient is underserved – and fix
that problem as well as the patient, or s/he would have
only a well patient and a sick system. KPCOM’s unique
attention to Osteopathic Medicine, Public Health,
Medical Informatics, Couple and Family Therapy,
Nutrition, Health and Wellness Coaching, and its solid
foundation in research, make KPCOM a college well
equipped to tackle the challenges of equity health care
here in the United States, and worldwide.
Thinking Outside the Box
Elaine’s always advises budding healthcare and Higher
Education leaders aspiring to venture into the medical
industry to follow one’s passion. “It is only when you love
your work, and it is no longer a job, that you have the ease
and comfort to think outside of the box and to take risks,”
she asserts.
By being at NSU one
can drive one’s
future forward with
a degree that unites
one’s passions and
one’s goals.
‘
‘
‘
‘

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18. Seeing the
OPPORTUNITIES
and Making them
COUNT DILIGENTLY
| June 2021 |
16

19. T
he unprecedented time calls for unprecedented
actions. The pandemic is one such
unprecedented time, as the world is still
witnessing the time of pandemic from last few months.
We should learn few things from such unprecedented
time, as it offers so many lessons practically for
everyone. The most important lesson it has offered us is
that we should not take anything for granted in life. We
should appreciate the beauty of life and every moment
in our precious life. We should be grateful for every
breath we breathe. Every moment is opportunity to
make a difference if we have the right perception and
right state of mind. The most precious opportunities in
life comes most rarely and we should be diligent to grab
them most diligently.
It is most essential especially for business leaders to
recognize such opportunities and make them count by
making most of such opportunities. Business leaders
should have the diligence to cleverly converting
obstacles into opportunities. This is a art and it can be
learned. One needs to have right perception to
transform obstacles into opportunities. Business
leaders should be smart enough to see unprecedented
times as unprecedented opportunities, as they say
necessity is the mother of invention. If one is prepared
to seek the solution, then one will find the answer.
The world has the habit of making room for the people
whose words and actions show that they know where
they are going. Leaders should have congruence with
their words, thoughts and actions. This will help them in
developing the congruence in themselves. If they have
this congruence in themselves, they can create this
congruence in the people working in their businesses.
This way they will be able to lead with authenticity.
What great people do common people follow.
Therefore, leaders should set the right standards for
others to follow.
The greatest way to earn the trust of clients is through
delivering results, as it builds the credibility of leaders
or organizations. This way their services can be
attractive to the prospective clients. By demonstrating
credibility, organizations can expand their business in
many folds. Credibility is built by the combination of
exhibiting high competence and strong character. To
lead any organizations effectively, it is very important
to have high competence and high character in the
leader. High character helps in keeping people together
and high competence helps in creating the capabilities
in the people to deliver better results.
The mark of a great business leaders is that they exhibit
their remarkable qualities even in the most challenging
situations. The greatness of a business leaders is
established by the ability to thrive even in the most
provoking situations. Leaders should utilize their talent
as well as temperament to achieve great results in life.
By using their talents and temperament, they can take
the high value decisions which can be exceptionally
profitable for their business. To succeed in the world of
business, leaders need to develop their talent as well as
temperament.
Temperament is the ability to deal with different
situations with proper emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence plays big role in determining the
success of business leaders. If one is having balanced
emotional intelligence and rational intelligence, one will
be able to make a big contribution in the business. The
more effective the utilization of resources one has, the
more one will be able to make a big impact on the
clients and in the industry one is leading.
To lead from the front, leaders need to constantly keep
learning and adapt best practices in their organization
to deliver upgraded solutions to their clients. Constant
learning and adapting best practices is the way forward
of sustainable developments. To sustain one’s
competency in the business world, business leaders and
organizations have to meet the changing requirements
of the clients to sustain their credibility. Leaders should
not take their success for granted. They should not be
complacent by being in the comfort zone, as it is the
greatest trap. One should never settle in that zone
because comfort zone is the killer of the growth. One
should be in the stretch zone and should always be
prepared to go beyond.
Moreover, business leaders need to keep on evolving in
their solutions to be relevant in the market. Being
relevant to the people is the most fundamental secret
of success in business world. One should be relevant by
the smart implementation of latest technologies in the
organizations to improve the quality of solutions to the
clients.
The world is so full of possibilities to make a difference
in the world by being exceptional in offering something
to the world. Opportunities are the chances to make a
profound impact. The leaders have to be clever,
competent, capable and diligent to make the most of
available opportunities to make a significant difference
by offering something of relevance to the world.
| June 2021 |
17
Towards Excellence

22. | June 2021 |
20
Dr. Anthony Chang
Chief Intelligence and
Innovation Officer (CIIO)
Children's Hospital of
Orange County (CHOC)

23. Revolutionizing the Healthcare Arena
A
fter decades of incremental progress, the
healthcare technology sector has seen a recent
exponential uptick in innovation. This shift can
be traced to a number of different converging
factors—including increased processing power, the
widespread availability of datasets, and access to cloud
computing among them—but look closer and one
uniting factor ties them together: human champions
that are pushing the industry forward. Artificial
intelligence is the driving force behind some of the
most powerful innovations in healthcare today, and
there is no greater champion for artificial intelligence in
healthcare than Dr. Anthony Chang.
Exemplifying Proficiency
Dr. Chang spent the first part of his career building an
impressive resume as a pediatric cardiologist. His
education included stops at Johns Hopkins,
Georgetown, and Children's Hospital National Medical
Center. He served as the medical director of several
pediatric cardiac intensive care programs before
accepting his current role as medical director of the
Heart Institute at Children's Hospital of Orange
County.
A Quest for Knowledge
As his accomplishments in the realm of pediatric
cardiology grew, Dr. Chang chose to follow several
areas of interest and pursued additional degrees. He
completed a Masters in Business Administration
(MBA), and a Masters in Public Health (MPH) in Health
Care Policy before seeking his Masters of Science (MS)
in Biomedical Data Science with a subarea focus in
artificial intelligence from Stanford School of Medicine.
It was during this last educational pursuit that he found
a passion that would fuel the next phase of his career.
As he writes in his book, Intelligence-Based Medicine:
Artificial Intelligence and Human Cognition in Clinical
Medicine and Healthcare (Elsevier), “It is estimated that
about 80% of health-care data are unstructured.” In Dr.
Chang's view, this data represents a vast store of
valuable insights, research and information that are
essentially lost to the broader medical community. Not
only does this prevent clinicians like Dr. Chang from
using this information to help guide their practice, but,
more importantly, it deprives patients of valuable
insights that might create better treatments.
| June 2021 |
21

24. With his newly-acquired expertise in data science, Dr.
Chang realized that there was only one way to harness
that data and information: by leveraging artificial
intelligence. Armed with his varied experience in the
worlds of medicine, business, leadership, and data
science, Dr. Chang set to work bringing change to the
healthcare industry that would allow artificial
intelligence to flourish.
Leveraging Data Science and AI in Healthcare Space
Dr. Chang recognized that he faced a number of
obstacles to bring the worlds of AI and healthcare
together. The healthcare industry can be notoriously
slow to accept new technologies. Unlike Dr. Chang,
most hospital leadership lacks the data-science
background to understand cutting-edge technology like
AI. And AI companies have difficulty navigating the
labyrinthine world of healthcare. In order to bridge
these two worlds in the pursuit of a better healthcare
system, Dr. Chang founded MI10, a healthcare AI
consulting firm.
In his work with MI10, Dr. Chang and his team of
experts have been serving clients in a variety of realms
including hospitals, AI companies, medical schools, and
venture capitalists. His unique position at the nexus of
these disparate worlds helps his clients to make
targeted, informed decisions that can help them enter
into a healthcare/AI partnership with the utmost
confidence.
In addition to MI10's mission, Dr. Chang saw a pressing
need to educate clinicians in the realm of AI. To this end,
he founded the American Board of Artificial
Intelligence in Medicine (ABAIM). This non-profit
organization provides certification and classes in the
realm of AI in medicine. In the future, Dr. Chang plans
to expand the organization's certification offerings to
include board certification similar to the clinical
informatics board certification.
As one of the most important evangelists of AI in
medicine, Dr. Chang has also founded a series of
conferences on the topic known as AIMed. This
multimedia educational and networking platform is
especially designed for supporting the entire
ecosystem of AI in healthcare and medicine for
clinicians and administrators, as well as data scientists
and AI entrepreneurs and companies. With AIMed, he
hosts close to 20 international meetings a year.
Looking to the Future
If experts in the realm of healthcare technology are
correct, artificial intelligence will reshape the industry
as we know it. Estimates place the value of the industry
at over $50 billion by 2027. As technologies ranging
from deep learning to blockchain to natural language
processing take root and spread throughout the
industry, we may soon find ourselves looking back on
the pre-AI healthcare system and imagining that this
advancement was inevitable. But history has shown
again and again that great periods of innovations are
ushered in by great visionaries. Dr. Chang is one such
visionary, leveraging his vast array of accomplishments,
connections, and experiences to bring about a new age
of healthcare.
| June 2021 |
22

26. Dr. Tania
Martin-Mercado
CEO, Phronetik, Inc.
| June 2021 |
24

27. Dr. Tania
Martin-Mercado
Leveraging Data for Advancing Scientic Research
and Improving Healthcare Outcomes
T
he importance of sound health cannot be
mentioned enough. Especially the ongoing
pandemic has highlighted the need of good
health of the people. Good health and well-being is one
of the most important sustainable development goals.
Without good health, people cannot function at their
full productivity and this is certainly not good from
economic point of view as well. Taking this into
consideration, many leaders in healthcare have come
forward to bring a significant change in the industry by
leveraging technology and innovation. Among those
leaders, one such passionate leader is Dr. Tania Martin-
Mercado.
Currently, Dr. Tania is serving as the CEO of the
Phronetik, Inc. Phronetik delivers high-quality sample
processing, extraction, data analysis and interpretation
quickly and securely in order to advance scientific
discovery and help guide every-day medical decisions
throughout a patient's life.
In an interview with CIOLook, Dr. Tania shares her
journey and about her contribution to improve
healthcare through Phronetik.
Below are the Highlights of the Interview:
Give us a brief overview of your position at your
company, and your journey since inception.
Phronetik is a rapidly growing leader advancing
precision medicine by leveraging biotechnology,
bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence to improve
diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and advance scientific
research. A few of our core competencies include
genomic testing, sequencing services, and technology
services.
As a business leader, what is your thought on the
changes in the Medical Industry and in R&D after the
pandemic?
The pandemic has provided significant opportunity for
innovation and transformation in clinical research and
patient care. Healthcare providers are seeking new,
improved ways to interact with their patients and
demanding digital enhancements from their EHR
vendors to meet this need. The healthcare delivery
cycle has changed and is leaning toward more
interoperability and less siloed information. This
requires a cultural change within healthcare, more than
a technical one.
Research and Development, life science, and
pharmaceutical organizations have an increased
demand for genomic information as the industry
advances personalized therapeutics and precision
medicine. These initiatives require strategic planning
and focused investment. The pandemic has only
accelerated these plans.
What is your opinion on the advancements of Higher
Education to improve the offerings with newer
medicinal technological developments, especially
when it comes to building a population of healthy
individuals?
| June 2021 |
25

28. Advancements in higher education should include a
focus on digitalization, data, and analytics, and how
these apply to patient care in a practical manner.
Focusing on healthy behaviors to prevent disease
rather than reactive measures to treat disease should
be a core component of learning. Knowledge of social
determinants of health, equitable care, and a vision and
path to treating the whole patient is imperative for the
next generation of health and medical professionals.
Which is the best way to meet today’s and tomorrow's
challenges with your company’s exceptional product
and services for urgent needs coming our way?
Phronetik enables organizations to better capture,
interpret, and present data from several sources –
genomic, biological, structured, unstructured – in order
to advance scientific research. The challenge in life
science exists in the large amount of data generated
from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical
devices, and genomics, and how to leverage this data
for improved healthcare, therapeutic, and business
outcomes.
As an established healthcare leader, what would be
your advice to the budding healthcare leaders aspiring
to venture into the medical industry?
My advice is to find an area you are passionate about,
and dive right in. Learn all you can. Hopefully, the
interest in the field stems from a desire to advance
healthcare and research. As such, an understanding of
public health, access to care, and disease prevention
should be at the forefront of the journey.
In what ways do you or your company contributed to
the community? If given a chance, what change would
you bring in creating a "Community of High Research?
We would like to see a concentrated effort to diversify
clinical trials, in partnership with public health
professionals, health care providers, and clinical
researchers. This effort requires understanding of the
historic record of medical experimentation on the most
vulnerable and underrepresented communities without
consent. There is a well-earned history of distrust
among marginalized communities on the topics of
clinical research.
One way we tackle this issue is by outwardly
advocating within marginalized communities, educating
the population, and fostering open and transparent
communication. Representation is of utmost
importance in working toward trust between
marginalized communities and researchers.
How do you envision on sustaining your company’s
competency in a cutthroat and volatile world of
Healthcare?
We do not feel healthcare is cutthroat. There is room
for everyone and enough work for all to contribute.
Phronetik will continue to promote diversity in clinical
trials, improved access to care, and strong data
governance.
Phronetik offers
competencies in
biotechnology,
bioinformatics, data science,
artificial intelligence and
information systems to
advance precision medicine
and positively impact
scientific research.
“
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30. Going Forth
Going Forth
and Rising
and Rising
Going Forth
and Rising
et's start here - "things" will not go back to
Lnormal. Normal has left the building, literally and
with it has come the arrival of new work trends
like ‘location independence’ and ‘hybrid work. We are
seeing a whole new normal in how people work and
how the technology space enables that forward
progress. For those who think 2020 was a difficult year
to manage work and the technology needed to support
that work – the next decade has a surprise for you – it’s
going to get even more challenging.
In 2020 we saw an entire knowledge workforce change
to remote work; everyone was on a level playing field –
all remote all the time. That made tools and technology
challenging at first but then we all settled in using our
home networks, UCaaS platforms, and new hardware
for the win.
Moving forward we won’t have it quite so easy; we will
have to balance these new work trends and the
technology needed with increases in cost to serve and
major focus on the real cost to protect all that data in
motion. With location independence and hybrid work
comes new challenges at every level in every part of the
organization. Technologists will be asked to find the
solutions, design the work environments, and drive the
innovation for an entirely new generation of work.
This will mean an uptick in spending on AI enabled
platforms that can detect where work is being done and
utilizing technology that allows for an enterprise
headquarters for example that is open to hoteling to
sense the needs of the worker coming in that day.
Additionally, since the virus is here to stay these very
same building will also need to be able to perform
health checks using systems like Turing Video to
identify temperature, condition, and identification to
protect those working in a facility.
But the spend on remote technology won’t go away;
with close to 50% of workers believing they will work
remotely in some capacity we will still need to stay
invested in remote hardware, connectivity, software,
and services that support that remote work. In fact,
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31. Leader’s Viewpoint
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32. human augmentation to overcome remote employee
obstacles will become common place. Network
improvements brought by 5G will also change work
from home; there will be much less low bandwidth
issues when firms like T-Mobile are offering home
internet on 5G that can outperform much of the
nations slow and low bandwidth issues for work from
home. And of course, we will need to see continued
investment in security to defend all that corporate data
moving around the network will be common; solutions
like Privafy will be widely implemented to help protect
data in motion.
In fact, this is a leadership lesson - and these new ways
of thinking about work will be both a strength that can
lead us through these very trying times, and a challenge
to encourage us to adapt and adopt new technologies
that aid in the transition. Technology leaders will need
to lean into the trend, define how their firm will manage
an evolving workforce, and work swiftly to deliver the
needed technology. The alternative? A nimbler and tech
savvy competitor will find a way to provide what is
needed to enable this new work reality and the top
talent in your industry will follow the technology
leaving your firm quite frankly in the dust. This is the
new world that we live in. This is our challenge. This is
our opportunity. Go forth and make it happen and you
will thrive, fail to harness this trend, and face the
consequences. As leaders that is our choice – may the
work trends be forever in your favor!
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34. ccess to quality, affordable healthcare is the
Amost essential need of citizens in any country. It
was the zeal to address this need that fueled
Michael Showalter's passion to become part of the
solution to provide access to quality, affordable
healthcare to everyone in the United States.
Michael's passion is also driven by three personal life
experiences: As he was growing up, Michael's dad was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Consequently, his
employer denied his father’s promotion because they
didn't recognize that a person can have MS and live a
full, productive life. Then, early in his own career,
Michael turned down a job opportunity – the new
Michael Showalter,
CEO,
Health e(fx)
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32

35. employer wouldn't offer health coverage because his
wife was being treated for cancer.
Later on, Michael became member of a multi-national
healthcare think tank. At almost every meeting,
representatives from other countries would ask those
who were from the U.S. why the wealthiest nation on
Earth couldn't provide healthcare for all of its citizens
(which every other member country of the think tank
had figured out). It made Michael realize that America's
healthcare position at the time just wasn't defensible.
Solving the issue of access to quality, affordable care
for everyone drives Michael even more today in light of
the global health crisis we know as COVID-19.
Successful Track Record
As CEO, Michael leads Health e(fx) with a passion for
serving customers. An accomplished industry veteran,
Michael is recognized for his senior leadership
experience and successful track record for growth in
both healthcare startups and large organizations.
Internally, Michael promotes a customer-centric
culture of respect, responsibility, focus and working
together. His diverse and challenging experiences have
given Michael a broad, holistic view of customer needs
within the healthcare industry. As a change agent, he
has a proven track record of creating growth for
companies in the highly competitive and dynamic
healthcare space.
Transforming Healthcare Solutions
Reforming a system as complicated as healthcare can
actually add to the system's complexity. Although
employers provide healthcare coverage for their
employees, Michael understands that the average
employer doesn't want to be an expert on the
intricacies of healthcare or how to transform it. That's
where Health e(fx) plays an important role. The
purpose of Health e(fx) is to serve its customers by
transforming healthcare one solution, one dataset and
one life at a time.
Thriving on Complexity
Health e(fx) expertise can solve employers' complex
health reform obligations. For example, the new Biden
Administration will likely seek to enforce stricter
employer compliance of Affordable Care Act (ACA)
reporting regulations to ensure that private sector
companies are doing their part for health reform. On
the private sector side, each employer has unique, and
oftentimes complicated, needs in meeting those
compliance regulations. Health e(fx) thrives on that
complexity. It's at this intersection between
government expectation and private sector need for
support to fulfill obligations where Health e(fx) impacts
health reform.
Active Data Management
Health reform and compliance is Health e(fx)’s
specialty. It's how it has become the largest ACA
"Be brave, be
authentic, be yourself.
Drive the change that's
needed, which means
putting change first
and yourself last."
Michael Showalter
Leading with a Passion for Serving Customers
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36. software solution provider, serving strategic partners,
some of the nation's largest employers and over 22
million individuals. Through active data management,
Health e(fx) helps employers catch potential
compliance risks early, deliver timely federal and state
reporting, and uncover unique workforce insights.
Improving the Lives of Others
The support Health e(fx) provides to employers and
their representatives, as well as to strategic partners, is
rooted in its passion for serving its client's best
interests. In addition to Health e(fx)'s core business,
Michael believes that, as a successful organization,
Health e(fx) has a duty to be a good citizen in the
community in which its employees live and work. All of
its employees support philanthropic organizations. In
2020 alone, it helped 23 organizations that provide
meals and homeless shelters, support for students in
school, as well as resources for education on building
multicultural relationships.
Michael is proud of the role Health e(fx) plays to help
reform healthcare and make its communities better
places to live, work and play. Yet, the need for strong
leaders is great, and many more must come forward.
Afterall, left on its own, any system, organization,
department or even individual will lean toward
homeostasis. Everyone wants to navigate toward
comfort and stay with what's familiar. One of the most
important qualities needed in future leaders is the
ability to question the status quo and transform it. And
that will create disruption, which is frequently
unwelcome. Therefore, to future leaders, Michael says,
"Be brave, be authentic, be yourself. Drive the change that's
needed, which means putting change first and yourself last."
Michael also advises future leaders to "be grateful that
you have the opportunity to lead. It's an honor. For a short
time in your life, you'll get the opportunity to lead an
organization. Lead with humility and remember that
leadership is a role, not an identity.”
Appreciating Cooperative Spirit
Michael applauds every healthcare worker whom he
has ever encountered. He owes his life to a surgeon. His
dad's life was saved by many doctors. His mom and wife
were both saved from cancer by many healthcare
workers.
The actual determinants of physical, mental and
emotional health are driven by paying attention to what
our bodies and minds try to tell us. Michael says that,
"We each need to find a way to listen to ourselves and live-
in harmony with what we hear. We need to learn to live in
flow instead of turning to clinicians and expecting them to
hand over a means for each of us to cope with our lifestyle
choices. To achieve flow requires that each of us becomes
quiet and listens to ourselves. That we treat others as we'd
treat ourselves. And that we respect what each person
needs and then honor that."
Michael further adds that, "While each of us needs to take
responsibility for our own health journey, we can't do it
alone. Employers must support the people who work for
them by providing quality, affordable healthcare coverage,
sponsoring total wellbeing education and activities, and
playing an active role in health reform initiatives. Only then
we will have a truly healthy society."
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