Finding Meaningful Work, On and Off the Job: Insight from Surescripts’ Dr. Jaime Smith
Dr. Jaime Smith is always looking ahead at "what's next."
"Right now, I'm looking to expand my footprint in healthcare," says Jaime, who recently completed her PhD in Health Services Research with a focus in health informatics and data mining. She completed the program while working full time at the nation's leading health information network, Surescripts.
For that next program, Jaime, who is a Surescripts Principal Researcher and Statistician, is thinking about focusing on strategic leadership. Whatever she ends up studying, she will find a way to do meaningful research that makes an impact: "I've always aimed to conduct research that is high-impact, well-read, innovative, thought-provoking, and a springboard for future work."
We sat down with Jaime to learn more about what research topics most interest her, how she balances a full-time job with her research passion, and how Surescripts supports her work.
Why healthcare
"We're all going to encounter the healthcare system at some point," says Jaime. She explains a moment that most Surescripts employees have experienced: "A person goes to the doctor and the provider is in their EHR [electronic health records], the provider sends an e-prescription to the patient's pharmacy of choice, and the mechanism that allows that transaction to happen is Surescripts.'"
Seeing her company's products come to life is exciting for Jaime, but it's also vital. Part of why she's so inspired to work and study in the healthcare field is because she knows how impactful empowering people about their own health can really be.
"When you think about the social determinants of health or chronic conditions, these factors can add complexity to understand what's going on with your health, and to be knowledgeable and educated about your personal healthcare becomes critical," she says.
As a Principal Researcher and Statistician, Jaime's job at Surescripts is to lead the statistical research that the company does. She also presents that research at conferences and educates key stakeholders such as policymakers and the broader healthcare community at large.
"[We need] everyone involved to understand what research is available and how it's useful," explains Jaime.
Research projects of Jaime's have included value studies (where she looks at ways to quantify the value of Surescripts' products for stakeholders like pharmacy benefit managers), internal number-crunching (where she designs executive dashboards for her C-suite), and other investigative pieces that use Surescripts data to explore broader issues that impact the public.
Expanding her impact
When Jaime was completing her undergraduate degree in economics, she wanted to add another discipline to her studies to get a broader perspective."I needed something to enrich econ, something to complement it," she says.
She found that enrichment by picking up a second major in American Studies, which felt "real world" and gave her a lens that grounded economic concepts in practical ways.
On the job, Jaime applies that same interdisciplinary approach. "I have the ability to carve out things that are interesting to me, and that I can make an impact with," she says.
For example, Jaime recently wrote a paper in her "off time"—"It wasn't originally a part of my [work] portfolio, but I love the idea of being innovative in the way that I think about using our data to make an impact," she explains. The paper investigated the impact of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria on various healthcare systems in the U.S. including how weather-related infrastructure problems influence public health, especially for patients in vulnerable areas.
That paper was so well-received that policymakers reached out to Jaime to ask her to help them come up with a plan to better address those risks.
"That's the type of reach that I love. That's what research is: it's the significant impact you can have. You see something that policymakers and other influencers can hone in on and say, 'This is unique. We haven't seen this before. And we think it'll be helpful,'" says Jaime.
Jaime's peers and colleagues have also taken note of the impact of her research: she was recently recognized for the unique research that she conducted for her doctoral program, receiving the "2021 Graduate Award for Excellence in Health Systems Research" from the College of Health and Human Services at George Mason University. The faculty in her department noted that Jaime has uniquely "bridged the gap between health informatics and health policy" by designing "high-impact research" that truly exemplifies the health services research field.
Currently, Jaime is working on analyzing COVID data across different groups, as well as continuing her ongoing research on the opioid epidemic, which was part of her dissertation. While at Surescripts, Jaime has visited the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other government agencies to talk about the importance of legislation around electronic prescriptions for controlled substances.
"I personally gave them my research, and they used it for impactful legislation," she says. "I'm super excited about that."
Growing with Surescripts
Before she joined Surescripts, Jaime was accustomed to balancing various priorities: she worked while in school, then had a family while working and while in school.
"You just balance all of the priorities that you have to juggle," says Jaime. "Part of it is my own self-management. And the other part is being able to really understand the landscape of where I am and connecting the dots."
The Surescripts landscape has been especially conducive to Jaime pursuing impactful work both on and off the job. She has her own vision in terms of the types of research she wants to do, then she looks for signals and opportunities to pursue that vision in ways that align with Surescripts' mission.
Additionally, she credits her relationship-building at Surescripts—with everyone from mentors to peers to her boss— to support her in balancing it all.
"My boss is very, very interested in employee development," she says. "When you have that, you're able to accomplish more."
Jaime has also found an alignment in her interests and Surescripts business needs which has been very rewarding. For example, what she learned in her dissertation was helpful when writing up data briefs for executive leaders and policymakers.
"Whether it's predicting outcomes for the business, or improving client relations and understanding what needs to be addressed, I think of research as being used in every sector of our lives. Whenever we're asking the questions of what, why, and how, research is the key to the answers that lead to quality, improvements, and learnings,'" says Jaime. "I look forward to adding more value and continuing to be engaged in this important work."
If Surescripts' mission and culture sound interesting to you, check out their open roles!
The Outlook That Helps CSL’s Paula Manchester Invest in Herself and Her Team
If you told Paula Manchester that you weren't good at math, she wouldn't believe you.
"That's a global indictment," she says. "'I'm not good at math' implies that you don't have the ability to nurture that muscle. And then I'd ask what kind of math? There's a lot to math."
Instead, she'd introduce you to a growth mindset perspective: "Try 'I have not yet been exposed to differential equations. Let me open the book and start studying, let me get access to teachers and tutors who can help me understand this, let me begin to practice,'" she says.
"A growth mindset says, 'There's nothing that I can't do. It's just that I need to learn how to do it, I need to practice doing it, I need to have the right circumstances in order to achieve this goal.'"
Throughout her long career as a leader in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, Paula has leaned on her growth mindset when approaching new challenges, expanding into new responsibilities, and understanding her mistakes. (Because yes, even an expert leader still makes mistakes, and cultivating a growth mindset means there's endless opportunity to learn from them!)
We sat down with the Senior Director of Global Commercial Development at global biotech firm CSL to learn more about how Paula's growth mindset shows up in her life and her work.
Determining her path towards growth
When Paula entered Stanford as an undergraduate, she thought her next academic stop would be medical school. She started down that path, taking psychology classes where she first learned about concepts like the growth mindset.
Instead, she got an MBA at Northwestern.
In between those two educational experiences, Paula determined what kind of life and career she wanted to have.
It was during an internship at a historically Black college's medical school that made her realize that she didn't need to be in the room with patients in order to positively impact their experience. "My eyes were opened to the ecosystem of healthcare," she says, "and I realized it would probably be a tighter match between some of my interests in terms of how people make decisions. I knew I could make meaningful contributions without necessarily going to medical school."
Following her interest in how patients were informed about their health, Paula pursued a career in marketing and communications, working at Merck and GSK before taking on her role at CSL Behring. Now she leads the marketing strategy in the transplant space, partnering with the company's R&D team to bring potential new therapies for those patients into the world as regulatory-approved products.
"It's exciting because it means that patients who have been through so much might not have to worry about losing their kidney, going back on dialysis, and maybe even having to go through years and years of waiting for yet another kidney transplant," she says of an investigational treatment in development that aims to address antibody mediated rejection of transplanted organs like kidneys. "The work that we do every day means that somebody can hold on to that very precious gift of life that they've been given. That brings me energy every day. It gives me inspiration. It also allows us to be very clear...there's no question—we know we're impacting patient lives."
Growing with others
Business school was the first time Paula really had to learn to be effective through others. "You learn how to drive performance under very tight circumstances in order to produce a high quality deliverable as a team," she says.
Those skills served her well in her post-MBA roles, and have been especially useful now that she's at CSL Behring.
She accepted her current role for two reasons: first, she believed in the company. "When I got a chance to come to CSL a couple of years ago, I was thrilled because of what this company stands for. A lot of companies talk about being patient-focused, but this company lives it; it's woven throughout our DNA," says Paula.
Second, she was intrigued because the role came with a whole new set of responsibilities—and a new group of people to work with and through. "I was attracted not only because of the work, but also the challenge of a larger remit," says Paula. "I knew that I could work across boundaries, not just in my particular swim lane of marketing expertise, but to be accountable for leading a cross-functional team."
She was immediately proven right: her new responsibilities were significant. "People will laugh and say, 'What you wish for, you get,'" says Paula, smiling. "I wanted a larger remit, and that came to me in spades. There's just so much to do, which has taught me a lot about prioritization and flexibility."
Paula credits her ability to stay calm in the face of so much change with her growth-focused outlook. "Every experience I have is an opportunity to learn," she says. "As opposed to setting up a particular decision or opportunity as 'either I will fail or I will be successful,' every event is an opportunity for success because it's framed as an opportunity to learn."
4 ways to incorporate a growth framework into your own life as a leader
Paula has specific tips for anyone interested in becoming more effective by approaching opportunities with a growth mindset:
- Learn to listen well. From being able to pick up on subtle cues in meetings to unlocking coworkers' participation by making them feel heard, Paula says much of her success in seeing challenges as opportunities—and helping others do the same—comes from listening. "Quite frankly, given some of the issues that we're dealing with in contemporary America, I think that there's probably plenty of room for increased listening skills, right?" says Paula.
- Get comfortable reflecting in the moment. "Part of the growth mindset is the notion of not being perfect," says Paula. "There's always an opportunity to get better and better. By reflecting, you can ask, 'How specifically can I get better?'" Paula often will do a quick debrief with herself after conversations and meetings to reflect on how she conducted the conversation, how she listened, how flexible she was, and what her outcomes were. "Reflecting can be very, very powerful," she adds. "As a Black woman in corporate America, it's especially important because of the pressure to be excellent in everything we do. But for everyone, especially in 2021, with what we've been through this last year—COVID, disparate access to healthcare, social distancing, working remotely, the global nature of all this disruption. There's an opportunity to think about what we just went through as a society and to ponder what the lessons are."
- Practice long-term reflection, too. Paula leads after-action reviews for her team each quarter where she asks four questions: what happened, what worked, what didn't work, and why. "It's not a complex tool, but it enables you to remove the emotion, and reveal more of the concrete data. You can leverage the observations of others to provide that perspective that you may not be able to see as a team member," she says.
- Read, learn, and share. If you consistently seek out opportunities to learn something new, whether in the pages of a book or in a classroom or just from a peer, and then you go out of your way to help others based on those new insights, you're well on your way to practicing a growth mindset, says Paula. "Open your eyes and look around—there's somebody who needs [what you have to offer]."
Interested in growing alongside Paula and her team? Learn more about CSL's open roles here or click here to join an upcoming virtual event with Paula and other women leaders at CSL this Thursday, May 27th!
How This VP of Brand Marketing Found a Job at a Company with a Mission She Loves
One of Jennifer Martin's first jobs was working the front desk of the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, where she got very good at asking one question: "How can I help you?"
She credits her earnest, honest interest in the answer to that question with her career success. "I learned everything that I ever needed to know about customer service from working at the front desk of a hotel," explains Jen. "And I quickly learned that I needed to have that guest service lens on in my career. How can I help? What can I do? How can I partner with you? I think if you're more open, people come to you because they know you're open to learning, they know you're open to relationships. They know you're open to failure."
From hospitality to client service to agency to now being an in-house marketer, Jen's career has taken her around the country and through several industries, but the role she feels most excited about is the one she has now: VP of Brand and Advertising for AI healthcare startup Olive.
Not only is she working with a company whose mission aligns with her own—discovering hidden connections that make people's lives easier—but as a mom of a child with a rare genetic disorder, she knows just how important it is to find those connections within the healthcare industry, which is ripe for innovation.
How Olive can help patients
Jen's daughter Sarah has Rett Syndrome. "She's great and healthy and thriving and beautiful—and nonverbal and works really hard to do a lot of the things that come so easily to most of us," says Jen.
Caring for her daughter has given Jen an intimate look at all of the inefficiencies and failures of the American healthcare system. "I understand from a patient perspective how difficult it is to navigate all of it," she says. "The healthcare industry is hard to understand for many people: prior authorization, claims, insurance, appointments, rattling off for the 100th time that yes, she does have an allergy to penicillin...We have so much more to do to fix the system and streamline the patient experience."
Olive is a healthcare-specific artificial intelligence solution that can help hospitals optimize administrative workflows including processing invoices, managing registration, authorizing claims, and verifying benefits. "I want to make [my daughter's] life better," explains Jen. "This is an indirect way for me to do that. I can draw a parallel if I can make another parent's experience with a hospital be more streamlined."
Staying open to new possibilities
If you'd asked Jen as she began her career where she thought she'd end up, she probably wouldn't have answered with her current role or even industry. That's been true for most of the professional transitions she's made.
While working at the Hyatt early on in her career, she started a pilot program with what was then a little startup out of Las Vegas called Expedia. Their partnership began selling 10 rooms, then 40, and then turned into a new role for Jen at Hyatt's headquarters working on building out the hotel chain's ecommerce functionality to sell their rooms directly.
Then her hospitality background was appealing to an ad agency who needed an account director for their client, United Airlines, so Jen made the switch into agencies and marketing work. She and her husband then moved from Chicago to more family-friendly Columbus, where Jen got a job with a women-owned ad agency and took on other big projects, like launching Sherwin-Williams' ecommerce business.
But when IBM bought her agency and Jen realized she was on the fast track to becoming a partner, she had a wake-up call. She was at a training retreat for to-be partners that asked participants to think through their values, and Jen realized her current work wasn't aligned with what she cared about most. "[My coworker] and I spent a lot of time talking about what we wanted in life, and it was in those moments that I realized I wanted my work to matter," she says.
She left IBM and started at a smaller, more traditional ad agency, but it wasn't a good fit for Jen's ambitions. "I knew I wanted to find something that was rooted in technology, rooted in automation—which was a passion point for me at IBM—and rooted in creating better outcomes for humans," says Jen. She also knew she wanted to be on the client side of things. "I wanted to feel good about what I was building. At the agency, you don't get to own it. You have to just build it and walk away from it. And I'm at the point now where I would like to nurture a brand and see it grow and see it become something."
A friend told her to check out Olive. "I was drawn to Olive by her mission to drive innovation within healthcare, to affect patient outcomes. Olive has a vision for how to do it and the right team in place to make it happen," says Jen.
And now Jen is overseeing Olive's major branding campaigns in cities around the country, partnering with Olive's product and sales teams to get their message out, and finally feeling really connected to the work she spends all day doing.
She left us with a few tips for how you can find work that makes you feel the same way.
3 tips for finding a company whose mission you're aligned with
1. Write down your values. "The personal has to come before the professional. Start there and really try to understand and dig deep into your own self. Figure out what matters the most to you," says Jen, who offers an example: "I can tell you that in this moment, my family matters most to me, and my daughter is certainly a huge part of that."
2. Do your research. Jen notes that she didn't follow her own advice when she left IBM for another agency. "Find the leaders within whatever company you're evaluating and follow them on LinkedIn. See what they're saying, how they position themselves, how they position their company. Find multiple leaders to get a perspective that's more holistic," she says. She also recommends looking at hashtags that matter to you and seeing which companies use those in their posts. "Look to see how diverse the leadership is. Diversity drives much better thinking within an organization, much more well-rounded thinking."
3. Be yourself. "It manifests in different ways," says Jen, who notes that especially now, in extended work-from-home setups, it's important to be able to be your true self at work and feel like others are being authentic with you, too.
Learn more about Olive, their mission, and their open roles.
Check Out the Recording of Our Conversation with Leaders from Surescripts
Healthcare technology is an ever-changing, complex industry, which is consistently in demand, now more than ever. That's why we were thrilled to sit down for a fantastic panel discussion and interactive Q&A session with several women leaders and male allies from Surescripts back in May.
Speakers from Surescripts included:
- Monica Ingudam, Senior Product Analyst
- Eric Kirchstein, Software Development Manager
- Andrea Thomsen, Enterprise Data Services Manager
- Michelle Trombetta, Director of Product Innovation
Want to make a positive impact in healthcare? Surescripts is hiring.
Not to mention, a career with Surescripts means joining a team that values diversity and inclusion. They hire genuinely awesome people with many different personalities, backgrounds and talents that create a work culture that encourages individuals to be themselves, share ideas, work their way and feel like they belong. They provide competitive pay and benefits including health insurance, 401K, a corporate bonus program, and paid time away from work. Plus, they offer lots of ways to grow, learn, and build community. To learn more about Surescripts' values and company benefits, visit their page here.
