Q. Tell us a bit about yourself and your professional journey.

A. I am currently a Director, Global Program Leader at Johnson & Johnson where I have responsibility for strategy and execution for clinical development operations within ophthalmology/retina and rare disease. I have more than 20 years of global experience working in clinical R&D in the pharmaceutical sector. After graduating from college with a degree in biology, I began my journey at Novartis working on studies supporting the development of Aclasta® for osteoporosis. In addition to earning my MBA from Columbia University, I studied management and leadership at the Sloan School at MIT. I also serve as a member of the Board of Directors of Triage Cancer, a national non-profit organization that provides free education on the legal and practical issues that may impact individuals diagnosed with cancer and their caregivers through events, materials, and resources.*

Q. What do you see as the biggest challenges in digital health implementation?

A. At the national level, let alone globally, we currently lack interoperability of health databases such as hospital EHR systems, patient registries, laboratory data, data generated by digital health technology, and opportunities for clinical research participation. There are many historical reasons for this such as privacy regulations, ethical concerns, and the proprietary nature of many of these health data sources. To realize the benefits of better interoperability, cross-functional stakeholder partnership and the development of opportunities for larger cooperation are essential as its very difficult to tackle as a one-off need, for example trying to identify patients with a very-specific disease characteristic who may qualify for a particular clinical study using multiple data sources that are not currently connected in anyway.

Q. What do you see as the biggest opportunities?

A. There are tremendous opportunities for digital health to improve the connection of patients with their overall healthcare experience. In pharmaceutical R&D, digital health could assist patients find clinical trials they might qualify for through AI-based evaluation of EHR data against the inclusion/exclusion criteria of a study and perform patient matching for research opportunities. The burgeoning Internet-of-Things sensors, wearables, electronic clinical outcome assessments, and other health monitoring devices could be deployed in a bigger way in clinical trials to assist with real-time data collection, with seamless integration into a central clinical database. The benefits of embracing digital health in clinical studies could mean more robust data collection, more insight into the holistic status of patient’s health, the development of innovative and novel study endpoints, and better connectivity between patients and their healthcare providers.

Q. What advice do you have for anyone looking to get into digital health?

A. I think that would depend on how they want to contribute to digital health. If as an entrepreneur / innovator with a new product concept then consider not only how it could help fulfill a currently unmet need, but consider its ultimate benefit to patients, how it will connect to other data sources in an efficient manner, how it might assist in data collection in the clinical research setting, and how it will be utilized in connection with other Internet-of-Things solutions to add value.

For someone more interested in an end-user role involving deployment of digital health solutions for their organization, I would suggest to become acquainted with background literature such as “The Promise of Digital Health: Then, Now, and the Future” by Abernethy et, al (NAM Perspect. 2022)

Q. What is your 5-year plan?

A. Something I would like to do more of in the coming years is to try to connect with as many people as I can who are at the intersection of innovative clinical research work and the creation, development, testing, and deployment of digital health solutions designed for clinical research applications. I definitely see a lot of opportunity in this space and I’m passionate to be at the forefront of innovation in clinical research to ultimately benefit patients with unmet needs. Based on my background and experience I think I have a lot to contribute and am excited to have those connections whether through HITLAB, pharmaceutical industry conferences, Columbia Business School, LinkedIn connection and chat, or other forums.

*Note: This views expressed in this spotlight article are my own.