7 minute read
Five questions with Cardinal Health’s Dan Baker
from REP OCT 21
The Digitization of Healthcare
Five questions with Cardinal Health’s Dan Baker
Dan Baker recently joined Cardinal Health WaveMark™ Supply Management and Workflow Solutions as vice
president of Global Commercialization and Sales. In this role, Baker will provide leadership, talent management and culture-building initiatives across the WaveMark™ business. He has responsibility for defining WaveMark’s™ vision and commercial strategy and will lead the creation of new commercial growth initiatives to expand the business’ presence on a global scale.
In the following interview, Baker offered his insights on how digital health has evolved, industry challenges, lessons learned amid the pandemic, and more.
Repertoire: In your 20 years of experience, what have been some of the biggest benefits of the digitization of healthcare?
Dan Baker: Digital health has certainly evolved the last 20 years – and this evolution has presented incredible, worldchanging benefits. Looking back 20 years ago to a world where most clinical documentation was done on paper and stored in manilla folders, it’s incredible to reflect on the progress that’s been made. The aughts were still the early days of electronic health records, bookended by rapid adoption through “meaningful use” stimulus credits afforded by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. Widespread electronic health record (EHR) adoption really laid the groundwork for the digital health ecosystem we know today.
Dan Baker
As core clinical data began to be captured at scale, population health and data analytics became the next best opportunity to impact care, allowing provider groups to practice more proactive and preventative versus pure traditional diagnostic care. I was driving adoption on the front lines, realizing the power of these growing data sets. Like any meaningful change, it was hard work, but we saw tangible clinical and operational improvements.
The opportunity to unlock additional value for health systems from their EHRs, as well as from other clinical and ancillary systems, remains massive. As a personal example: I led a team that helped scale a precision medicine
software company called Syapse. We did some pioneering things with structuring and normalizing genomic and clinical data to help health systems make better treatment decisions for their cancer patients. We signed partnerships with many of the largest health systems in the world, and we eventually evolved to become the first-of-its-kind network connecting pharma and health systems to identify clinical trial sites, pre-screen trial cohorts and understand the clinical efficacy of targeted oncology drugs using realworld data and evidence.
I believe that technology that can enable greater trust, transparency, and collaboration between healthcare’s largest stakeholders presents the biggest opportunity in digital health today.
Repertoire: What about the most pressing challenges related to the digitization of healthcare in today’s market?
Baker: One of the most pressing challenges in digital health today is physician and nurse burnout, an issue that has been making headlines over the last couple of years and especially this past year. As the U.S. healthcare system continues to realize the power and potential behind clinical data, it has shifted much of the data capture burden onto physicians and their care teams. Layer on a global pandemic and it’s no surprise that we’re seeing one of the biggest clinical labor shortages of our generation, with forecasts predicting the gap between clinician supply and demand only continuing to widen.
Record digital health investment is resulting in literally thousands of new software companies, all fighting for provider mindshare. The solutions that relieve the documentation and administrative burden from care teams, while ensuring comprehensive data capture for appropriate reimbursement, will win the mindshare over the next five years.
Repertoire: As a leader, how do you approach talent management and building a successful culture?
Baker: Success on any commercial team starts with a positive attitude, an inquisitive nature and a competitive team spirit. Empathy is another key attribute I look for in future leaders. Being able to see a situation from a customer or team member’s perspective produces win-win outcomes.
Selling Enterprise SaaS solutions to large health systems is incredibly complex. Culturally, we need to remind ourselves of our responsibility to the provider and their patients. We could work in any industry, but there is nothing more rewarding than delivering solutions that directly impact the quality of patient care. The best healthcare commercial teams have this in mind every day.
Repertoire: Biggest lesson you’ve learned amid the pandemic?
Baker: The pandemic put a spotlight on the healthcare supply chain and how paramount it is to public health. Giving clinicians the tools and supplies they need to safely provide the best possible care is the cornerstone of Cardinal Health’s business. WaveMark’s work with leading health systems to drive efficiency, transparency and clinical quality by enabling a truly clinically integrated, digitally automated supply chain is a very clear opportunity.
Things changed so fast and tough decisions had to be made without perfect data. It reinforced for me that speed beats perfection every time. We could all take a page from Voltaire and not let perfection be the enemy of good.
Repertoire: Why was this position at Cardinal a fit for you?
Baker: I’m passionate about solving really big problems in healthcare. Sixty percent of healthcare is still managing their supply chain manually – and most commercially available solutions are piecemeal, disparate technologies that do not roll up to provide clinical and supply chain leadership with enterprise-level insights or benchmarking. Cardinal Health WaveMark™ has a world-class team, innovative and best-in-class solutions and the largest footprint in clinically integrated supply chain technology.
Most importantly, I joined the WaveMark family because of the proven results it has achieved for some of the country’s leading health systems. The best products in healthcare come from on-the-ground work with forward-thinking health systems. Seeing the results that our health system partners have achieved toward their goals of patient safety, clinical quality and cost reduction is truly inspiring.
A CLOSER LOOK AT AFINION™ 2 ANALYZER
The Afinion™ 2 Analyzer enables fast and easy quantitative determinations of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR). With its compact size and short test times, the Afinion™ 2 System is ideal for any of your customers that are managing patients with diabetes.
FACTORY CALIBRATED
Each Afinion 2 Analyzer is carefully calibrated during manufacturing and a self-check is automatically performed when the instrument is turned on. No calibration check devices or cumbersome and costly operator calibration is required.
GUIDED TEST PROCEDURE
The analyzer’s simple, 3-step procedure includes a touch display with icons and short messages that guide the operator.
NO MAINTENANCE
The analyzer has no parts requiring periodic replacement.
Recent studies comparing the Afinion™ HbA1c assay to routine and reference laboratory methods have consistently shown a bias close to zero and a coefficient of variation (CV) below 2% (NGSP units).1-5
Test results can be printed or transferred to electronic medical records.
1. Nathan DM, Griffin A, Perez FM, et al. Accuracy of a Point-of-Care Hemoglobin A1c Assay. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2019;13(6):1149-1153. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1932296819836101. 2. Arnold WD, Kupfer K, Little RR, et al. Accuracy and Precision of a Point-of-Care HbA1c Test. J Diabetes Sci Technol. March 10, 2019. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1932296819831292. 3. Arnold WD, Kupfer K, Swensen MH, et al. Fingerstick Precision and Total Error of a Point-of-Care HbA1c Test. J Diabetes Sci Technol. March 6, 2019. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ pdf/10.1177/1932296819831273. 4. Lenters-Westra E, English E. Evaluation of Four HbA1c Point-of-Care Devices Using International Quality Targets: Are They Fit for the Purpose? J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2018;12(4):762-770. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1932296818785612. 5. Sobolesky PM, Smith BE, Saenger AK, et al. Multicenter assessment of a hemoglobin A1c point-of-care device for diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. Clin Biochem. 2018;61(4):18-22. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/clinical-biochemistry/vol/61/suppl/C. © 2020 Abbott. All rights reserved. All trademarks referenced are trademarks of either the Abbott group of companies or their respective owners. Any photos displayed are for illustrative purposes only. 10005910-01 08/20
