Summary
As an expert in Design Thinking methodologies, I am driven by people. I believe understanding people along with their needs, barriers, triggers, motivations, and values is the foundation of designing game-changing products and services that re-imagine the healthcare experience. With this in mind, I have facilitated over 200 workshops with a variety of stakeholders and mastered the art and science of creative problem solving to develop solutions in a wide range of healthcare settings. In the last 5 years, I have developed over 50 strategic alliances and designed unique collaboration opportunities for clients to experience the spoken and unspoken needs of the end-users and translated them to user-centric digital health products. With over two decades of experience in science and the practice of healthcare, I am equipped with the right tools, methods, and mindsets needed to develop people, products and services that will flip the current healthcare system on its head.
Experience
Partners Connected Health Innovation, Partners HealthCare, Boston, MA Team Lead, Human-Centered Design and Product Development 2019 - Current
Led a team of UX Researchers, Strategists and Designers to design user-centric digital health products and services to radically disrupt how patients receive care at Partners hospitals.
Implemented participatory and agile methodology for product design and development to align qualitative and quantitative data insights with business strategies resulting in six new digital health products. Here are three examples.
Generated over $2M in services revenue in the last two years while maintaining a 5M business development pipeline to co-create novel digital health products with leading healthcare Fortune 500 companies
Built strategic relationships with over 30 companies in the Health-Tech, Medical-device, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare delivery companies.
Created a new organizational structure and roles to enable for rapid cycle UX research and ideation to reduce overall time from needs assessment to ideation by 80%.
Streamlined product prototyping process to be 30% faster, and increased time available for stakeholder testing and feedback by almost 50%.
Developed a more insight-based storytelling approach as deliverables for our products and services resulting in new marketing materials for our products and services leading to a 20% increase in repeat business.
Added 4 new services to our portfolio in the last 8 months resulting in $200,000 revenue, making us the fastest growing business line at Partners HealthCare.
Over 500 people have participated in workshops using the CAPS (Creative Approach to Problem Solving) Model that I created which lays out a framework for an iterative and action learning process to support product and service design. More than 70% participants have reported an increase in their ability to effectively work on problems that don’t have an obvious solution.
Program Manager, Innovation Programs 2016 - 2019
Led innovation programs (Connected Health Innovation Challenge CHIC & Connected Health Innovation Fellowship CHIF) aimed at building a community of cross-functional healthcare professionals working together to re-imagine the healthcare experience using digital products.
Headed a large, cross-functional team to create, implement and scale CHIC and CHIF to over 500 participants in a short span of 15 months, leading to a prestigious award at the Partners HealthCare (Partners in Excellence in Leadership, Innovation and Teamwork).
Built and managed strategic partnerships with healthcare industry for collaboration projects targeted towards brining connected health to the forefront of our communities. Types of projects include: Human-Centered Design and development, usability testing, clinical research for data gathering, clinical validation and outcomes analysis, data analytics and algorithm development.
Cultivated relationships with healthcare accelerators and incubators (MassChallenge HealthTech and Cedars-Sinai Accelerator) to accelerate Clinical Mentorship and Advisory services for Digital Health Start-ups.
Led market landscape analysis and recommendation of Digital health solutions for the Center of Population Health Management at Partners HealthCare to help them implement solutions in the health system.
ADVENT HEALTH INNOVATION LAB, Orlando, FL 2014 - 2016
Project Manager, Innovation and Research Projects
Generated $200,000 in the first year as a lead member of a start-up team that established processes using Agile and Design Thinking concepts to work with external companies that continue to generate new revenue streams for Advent Health.
Led 15 innovation projects between Advent Health and Healthcare Technology, Medical Device and Diagnostic companies across US and Europe resulting in new product development, service and experience design, process improvement, and discovering new applications and business models for existing technology.
The outcomes ranged from decreased patient falls on a patient unit by 80%, increased medication tracking in the ER, reduced cost in the OR, development of innovative products, new applications with a business model for existing technologies.
Developed journey maps and personas to visualize patient experience resulting in definition of needs and gaps in a transplant patient’s journey through their care continuum in and out of the hospital.
Conducted stakeholder alignment, empathic/qualitative research and user feedback through interviews, observations, focus groups and participatory workshops for over 50 hospital facing and industry collaborations.
NOBLE INTERNATIONAL INC., Orlando, FL 2015 Consultant for Product Development
Reviewed scientific scope of products and use-cases for their compliance with regulatory requirements in a consulting capacity to generate recommendations for the best path forward for maximum value creation.
Generated value proposition and use-cases for the technology in collaboration with the lead scientist.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON, Madison, WI 2007 - 2014 Research Assistant
Effectively investigated and analyzed existing primary and secondary research to identify prospective projects with maximum significance and impact on the market along with the potential to secure maximum funding.
Identified the cause and effect of a novel inherited mutation in hERG Potassium ion channel that was implicated in intrauterine fetal death resulted in a publication.
Consulted as a part of a team with inventor of orthobiologics on ways to harvest maximum value from his novel technology detailing product and market analysis and competitive threats.
Mentored 4 undergraduate researchers, 1 of whom received a scholarship to pursue PhD at UC Berkley.
EVOTEC, Abingdon, UK. 2005
Discovery Scientist
§ Responsible for synthesizing libraries of compounds using in-depth organic chemistry knowledge.
§ Used different methods of purifying organic compounds like, Column chromatography, HPLC and Prep TLC
§ Performed basic analysis including LC-MS
Education
PhD Cell and Molecular Biology 2007 - 2014
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
MSc. Drug Discovery 2004 - 2005
The School of Pharmacy, University of London, UK
Bachelor’s in Pharmacy 1999 - 2003
University of Pune, India
Certifications
Initiating and Planning Projects, UC Irvine (Coursera) 2016
Budgeting and Scheduling Projects, UC Irvine (Coursera) 2016
Managing Project Risks and Changes, UC Irvine (Coursera) 2016
Presentations and Panels
Radical Collaborations to Break Down Silos – A Case study in Healthcare Innovation Projects Sept 2019
Speaker
HIMSS Health 2.0
The Case for Disrupting People in Healthcare July 2019
Speaker
American Hospital Association Leadership Summit
Developing Innovative and Effective Digital Health Solutions with the User in Mind May 2019
Speaker
BIOMEDevice Design & Manufacturing
Building an Innovation Ecosystem to Design AI Solutions that Transform Healthcare May 2019
Workshop Facilitator
BioPharma eMarketing Summit
Design Thinking for Health Innovations October 2018
Speaker
The Digital Health Collaborative, Implementing Health Innovations HIMSS Connected Health Conference
Implementing Successful Standards, Regulations and Guidelines October 2018
Panel Moderator
The Digital Health Collaborative, Implementing Health Innovations HIMSS Connected Health Conference
Creating an Innovation Ecosystem to Disrupt Healthcare from Within October 2017
Panel Member
Connected Health Conference
Awards and Recognition
§ Top 8 Boston Based Women Shaping the Future of Digital Health, MassChallenge HealthTech 2019
§ Steering Committee Member, Health Equity Residency Program, Brigham Health 2019
o Designed and led the CAPS model-based workshops for the Health Equity residents resulting in their increased understanding of the human-centered design process.
§ Judge for scientific posters selection, HIMSS Connected Health Conference 2019
§ Judge for selecting digital health startups in the state funded accelerator program 2017 – 2018
o MassChallenge HealthTech, Boston MA
§ Partners In Excellence Award, Partners HealthCare, Boston, MA 2018
o For Teamwork, Connected Health Innovation Fellowship
§ Partners In Excellence Award, Partners HealthCare, Boston, MA 2017
o For Leadership and Innovation
§ $46,000 Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, UW-Madison, WI American Heart Association 2009 – 2011
o For writing a 2-year strategic plan including the significance, proposed experiments, controls, data analysis methods, expected results, potential pitfalls and future directions of my research project
§ Teaching Assistantship, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, UW Madison, WI 2007
§ Teaching Assistantship, Chemistry 101, University of Louisiana Monroe, LA. 2006