January 25, 2023 • 21 mins
Austin Chiang, MD, is Chief Medical Officer for Medtronic Gastrointestinal, an assistant professor at an academic medical center in Philadelphia, and a social media trailblazer. Social media can add a human touch and reduce the distance between providers and patients – like how Dr. Chiang’s TikTok videos educate patients about procedures and lead them to take control of their health. Join Austin and host Lindsey Mosby as they discuss his advice for the next wave of healthcare practitioners, what he’s seeing in medtech innovation, and how we can bridge the gap between academia and the medical industry.
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S1 (00:03):
And. Hello. Welcome to Prophets Healthcare Transformers podcast, where we'll
be talking to leaders in healthcare who are focused on
transforming their organizations to drive the next level of growth
for their business and for health care. Hosted by Priya
in Asia, Lindsay Moseby, Paul Strength and Jeff Gordy. Transformation
(00:26):
is one of those terms that has a lot of
layers to it. Sometimes it's about innovation. Sometimes it's about
shifting the way you do business. Sometimes it's to your
overall operating model and other times it's to a specific
department or function. It's also about people helping them navigate
the discomfort that comes with change, but also motivating them
(00:47):
to engage in the journey of transformation from the CEO
to the newest employee. It's a journey, and that's why
we created this podcast to break down this multidimensional, dynamic
topic of transformation one story at a time. Are you
ready to dive in? Hello, everyone. My name is Lindsay Moseby.
(01:09):
I will be the host of today's Profit Health Care
Transformers podcast, and I am absolutely delighted to be speaking
with Dr. Chang, who is chief medical officer with Medtronic. Gastrointestinal. Yes. Yes.
S2 (01:22):
Correct.
S1 (01:23):
Yes. All right. Wonderful. Well, I'll hold with that much
intro and let you do the much better and more
complete 2 minutes on who you are, and then we'll
just kind of dive into into the interview.
S2 (01:34):
Sure. So as you mentioned, I'm the chief medical officer
for the gastrointestinal business at Medtronic. I wear several different hats.
I'm still also active academically. I'm assistant professor of medicine
at Jefferson Health, and I'm in advanced Endoscopy, which is
a kind of subspecialty of gastroenterology there. I lead the
(01:55):
bariatric endoscopy program at the hospital, and I'm also very
active on social media as well. So that's kind of
me in a nutshell.
S1 (02:04):
So you're busy this year, So.
S2 (02:06):
All it just so.
S1 (02:09):
There's all manner of things to get into there, not
the least of which is going to be your tick
tock stardom and strategy that I'm really interested to hear about.
But maybe if we maybe will start by just kind
of taking a little bit of a step back, I
would love to just know a little bit about how
did you decide to do this. What were the early
days that led you into thinking, This is what I
want to do for the 12 to 14 hours of
(02:29):
my day, every day.
S2 (02:30):
I think, to be honest, there were a couple physicians
in my family. My grandfather, who I've never met, was
a surgeon kind of in the World War two era.
I have some cousins who are in medicine, so that
kind of runs in the family a little bit. So
I had some exposure in that way. And then when
it came to deciding what to pursue as a career,
I felt like evaluating all the kind of common options
(02:53):
that this really suited my personality and my interests in
terms of wanting to help people, plus like being interested
in science and wanting to advance science. So that's ultimately
what I what took me into medicine. You know, I
can't say that I was 100% sure, but I sort
of discovered my passion along the way. And and the
truth of the matter is that medicine is just so diverse.
(03:14):
Even with the exposure that I had, I was only
getting slivers of what medicine was like in different corners
of the profession. And ultimately, you know, I went through
the whole kind of training process 15 years after high
school to get to be done with all of my
training And after high school. Yeah, after high school, you know,
(03:37):
this was not going into gastroenterology was not something that
I knew I was going to do from the from
the start. It was truly a process of discovery through
medical school and just going through the different rotations and
evaluating all the different specialties and ultimately landed on gastroenterology
because it's just such a there's just so much variety
(03:59):
in what we do, so many organs involved, so much
technology with how things are becoming less invasive. And that
innovation was really a big part of what led me
to even advanced endoscopy. That's a specialty area that I
practice in because that's where a lot of the more
complex procedures are and where there are a lot of
new fun tools and gadgets that we get to use.
(04:23):
And really a year ago was when I made the
transition to becoming chief medical officer at Medtronic GI, and
that was actually, in all honesty, a very unexpected transition.
I was approached with the opportunity and had to really
think about, okay, is this what I want to do?
Because I had trained so long to be a clinician
(04:45):
and I ultimately agreed to do it because I felt
that kind of like what I was trying to do
with social media all along was reach a wider audience
and touch more people and have an impact at a
population level. And so that really felt like a good,
tangible way to do this was to be a part
of the innovation process. And I agreed to do it
only if I could continue practicing clinically, which is what
(05:08):
made this a kind of a very interesting, unique hybrid opportunity,
which isn't often seen out there. But it makes a
lot of sense in my mind because here I am
working with MedTech Medical Devices, and if I am not
active clinically, I wonder if I'd be able to speak
to what I'm doing quite as well. So that's ultimately
(05:32):
kind of how I got here.
S1 (05:34):
That resonates with me so much as someone who both
enjoys the sort of helping to shape and craft strategy.
But I don't know that I'm ever going to get
to a point where I don't want to keep my
hands in the work to write exam, quite literally, your
hands and your butt. That yes, that makes total sense.
And it's sort of like, how would we know what
(05:55):
the latest and greatest was if we weren't actually actively
working with it and using it and trying it and
all of those things? Well, you talk a little bit
more about that, talk about what you're seeing in terms
of innovation, maybe. Within sort of medtech, but even across
the ecosystem that you're in, how sometimes we in health
care get kind of labeled as not moving fast enough
(06:15):
or where, you know, we're lagging behind and our experiences
aren't as good as they should be and are not
as good as they are in other industries. How are
you seeing change happening there and is there anything you're
particularly excited about?
S2 (06:27):
Well, I can only speak for myself, so this is
not on behalf of Medtronic or Jefferson for that matter.
But really, I feel like we're at a pivotal moment
where kind of big technology or digital technologies are intersecting
well with health care and the delivery of patient care.
I think in a way, the pandemic has also catalyzed that.
(06:50):
I think things that just made sense in my mind,
like telemedicine, really didn't kind of take hold until the pandemic.
And even just like the awareness of social media as
a way to consume health information, I think wasn't taken
so seriously until until the pandemic happened, because we clearly
(07:11):
have can see how social media has played a role
in shaping public opinion and have an impact on public health.
So I think now that we realize that, I think
there will probably be more attention to that. But it
still holds true that health care feels like transformation and
health care feels slower than other industry. I think that
(07:32):
it's especially in the US, things are very complicated and
the fact that much of the world I think also
relies on us for innovation kind of makes it all
that more complicated for the entire world. But hopefully, you know,
we'll find solutions somewhere along the way.
S1 (07:49):
So let's talk a little bit about this social media
presence that you that you have and that your have
cultivated and I can only assume want to continue to cultivate.
How has that become a part of your practice and
what do you see its role alongside the other two
that you play?
S2 (08:07):
You know, that's a good question. I never felt like
it was a primary goal of mine. To have a
social media presence when I started out was truly rooted
in wanting to educate because I was this is a
decade ago when I started seeing patients coming to the
hospital because of what they were hearing on the news
or because or making clinical decisions based on what they
(08:28):
were reading or seeing on TV and now through social media.
And I felt like if we as health professionals were
present on social media, then we wouldn't have a voice.
Then it would be kind of dictated by people who
didn't actually have any sort of relevant training. And so
that's really where this all came about. And I started
(08:49):
on Twitter really from a personal use standpoint, I've been
using other platforms even before Twitter, but kind of when
I position myself professionally, it started on Twitter and then
I transitioned or I adopted other platforms Instagram, YouTube, take,
talk over the years. So I've been active in maintaining
(09:09):
all of those. I think given time constraints, it's hard
for me to devote more time to doing all that.
I feel like it could always be better, but kind of,
as I mentioned, I think that there's going to be
more attention to this in the future. And and I'm
hoping that we'll be able to see this landscape evolve. But,
you know, part of it is not only just transmission
of knowledge, but I think it's just putting my personality out.
(09:32):
There has always been a goal of mine and I
can get asked, do I have a separate professional account
versus a personal account? And I feel that for me
it's important to showcase kind of the human aspects of me,
and not just the professional aspects, because I always felt
like people maybe saw health care or health professionals as
intimidating or unapproachable, and by letting a little bit of
(09:56):
our personalities shine. Hopefully it'll reduce that distance with the patient.
S1 (10:02):
Yeah. Do you think, or is part of your hypothesis
around being part of the social media universe, to your
point is that you're able to reach more people. Have
you seen that happening in any ways? And it could
be directly like someone literally says, I saw your this,
that or the other. I mean, access and health care
is such a big deal, right? Your geography, your socioeconomic status,
(10:25):
your gender, your race, all of those things may or
may not help or hinder your ability to get the
kind of care that you need and deserve. Do you
feel like this is that this particular medium is is
offering some new ways to reach people that might have
been harder to reach before?
S2 (10:42):
I mean, yeah, I think it's gotten to a point though,
like now with more and more people having access to
the Internet and having access to mobile devices where it
makes more sense than maybe it did ten, 15 years ago.
I think that, yes, I definitely get a lot of
in the most tangible way, I've gotten feedback about how
(11:02):
some of my content has influenced people to get screened.
For colon cancer. There was one particular tick tock where
I was talking about a discovery weight loss procedure that
isn't commonly done. And, you know, to be honest with you,
I think that that is an often promoted because the
marketing budgets of the device companies that are involved are
are small. And so they don't have the ability to
(11:25):
reach people quite as easily. And in that one video,
I referred so many people who are asking me where
they could get this done to different centers across the US.
And ultimately some of these the centers actually contacted me later.
The physicians had told me that people had seen my
tick tock, and that's why they ultimately had a procedure done,
(11:47):
which I thought was really great. But I think more importantly,
just even providing more context to help understand what health
care is about, to understand what it takes to become
a physician and what the barriers are and how to
navigate them and even other sort of more social justice
related issues. Just to have a better understanding of social
(12:08):
determinants of health, I think is really important. Just so
people understand what plays into health care, it's not always
just biology.
S1 (12:17):
Yeah, I'd love for you to talk a little bit
more about that. I'm so lucky to know some really
amazing people across the industry and a very dear friend
of mine who is now with a large pharmaceutical. So
talking about sort of the reshaping of clinical trials even,
and how it's not just about what happens in the
lab that makes the medicine work or not work. It's
(12:37):
all the stuff that happens in somebody's regular day to
day life that makes something work or not. So how
do you kind of balance that? It is what it is, right?
The biology of the body, the clinical and what's clinically possible.
And this need to really start or continue to push
behavioral change or motivation or do you see yourself prescribing
(12:59):
differently than you might have used to by virtue of
the fact that we are talking about the social determinants
of health more? We are talking about equity, equity and access, right?
S2 (13:07):
Yeah, definitely. I think that there's lots of opportunities and
just like how medicine has evolved over time, I think
that having awareness of these issues will shape how we
deliver patient care, how we design clinical trials, like you said,
some of the new technologies that are coming out. You know,
we have an opportunity now to actually incorporate our understanding.
(13:29):
And one thing that especially with Medtronic Gastroenterology, we have
the first market sort of artificial intelligence powered polyp detection
device to help with colorectal cancer screening. And I think
with this recent development, it's an opportunity to make sure
that we have that the right inputs into the data,
because I think there's been a lot of criticism of
(13:49):
some artificial intelligence platforms out there in general, not just
in health care being biased. And if we can avoid
that because we're aware, then, you know, that will really
that could potentially affect health outcomes with what we're doing here.
S1 (14:03):
Absolutely. In your in your work these days with Medtronic
and maybe even your clinical work with Jefferson, what are
some of the things that are really exciting? You are
really lighting you up these days.
S2 (14:15):
For me, I'm always inspired by my peers and my colleagues,
but since I'm in this unique position, juggling or straddling
two different worlds of industry and also academia, I'm hoping
to see how to bridge the gap a little better.
I feel like both sides would benefit from bridging the
(14:36):
gap better, and I understand in the past maybe the
reasons why we kind of had a much clear delineation.
But I think it's it's really stifling innovation. If we
don't if the left hand doesn't know what the right
hand is doing. And it's interesting because before I joined Medtronic,
I really had no concept of what goes on in
the background to make a new technology come to market.
(14:59):
And understanding those complexities I think really helps people appreciate
what it takes and how to kind of overcome some
of those barriers and how we can collaborate better. And
I'm just excited to learn every day on the job
about all the different aspects of this and how the
whole system comes together. I don't think that many of us,
especially having gone through medical school, you know, we're taught
(15:22):
a lot about disease and how to diagnose and treat it.
But I think we have a long way to go
to actually understand the whole health system as the entire
landscape and and not just academia. And I don't want
to point fingers and blame anyone for that lack of education.
I think that part of it is when you're in
academia and the faculty in academia are they're only accustomed
(15:46):
to their world. That's what they're going to speak to.
And and I think that now that now that I'm
in this role, hopefully, you know, part of my goals
is to impart whatever learning I have to the next
generation of physicians and to share what I'm learning with everyone.
So hopefully I'll be able. To do that maybe through
(16:07):
social media, too. Sometimes kind of. In my role at Medtronic,
I am involved in those business development conversations with startups
outside of Medtronic. Today, I haven't been quite as involved.
I think before I joined Medtronic, I was a consultant
to multiple companies and was maybe able to provide some
(16:28):
input here or there. But I'm seeing a lot of
my colleagues, especially those who are not involved in kind
of a big publicly traded company with a lot of history,
but are involved in getting involved in startups and other ventures.
I think there are opportunities out there for people to
do so.
S1 (16:43):
How are you helping to sort of push the boundaries?
S2 (16:45):
I really try to route everything I do and the
purpose of what I'm doing and I always go back
to like, what exactly is our mission here? And not
so much like short term goals, but maybe a longer
term purpose that I'm striving for. And with that said,
I think that I'm a big believer in sort of
small incremental change rather than big disruption. And I think
(17:10):
part of why I've come to that conclusion is because
and maybe this will change over time, I don't know.
But I think that when I look back at how
I got to where I am today and kind of
what I was able to do through social media, a
lot of those decisions were me asking why I was
doing this rather than, Oh, I want to just get
(17:31):
it done, to get it done. And so now that
I look back, a lot of those little changes or
little decisions that I made, maybe even subconsciously along the way,
kind of amounted to where I am today. And I
know Steve Jobs has a quote about being able to
connect the dots on the air when you look backwards
and not when you move forwards. And I think that
when you're rooted in that purpose, those dots will connect
(17:53):
and eventually lead you to the transformation that you're trying
to deliver.
S1 (17:58):
We talk a lot about that as well. Like, you know,
change doesn't have to be overwhelming and sweeping, right? Like,
especially with health care. I feel like we're all in
this because we're playing the long game. And so I
think it's a great advice, right? Like, enjoy those small wins.
Take those small wins and add them up. Well, maybe
this is sort of a similar line of query, but
as you see a new wave of doctors coming and
(18:20):
clinicians coming up behind you as you look to people
ahead of you, and now you've got people coming behind you,
looking to you. What is your advice for the next
wave of health care practitioners, whether they be in administration
or whatever?
S2 (18:34):
Yeah, I think one thing is that something that's not
popular may be an opportunity because that hasn't been done yet.
I think the social media thing was definitely me running
with it because it wasn't popular at the time and
but I really believed in it. And so I think
the corollary to that is, again, going back to your purpose.
(18:55):
So if you feel strongly about something because you believe
in it, then I would let that be your driver.
And it takes a lot of reflection. You know, you
have to constantly remind because there's a lot of distractions
along the way. And I see that a lot of
people who go into social media these days or kind
of use it as a tool often for self-promotion or
because they want a lot of external validation with followers.
(19:18):
And while that might be a good temporary driver, I
think after a while that gets old. So and, you know,
that sort of validation can often fizzle or kind of
come in waves. So I think if you're really again
in you're in a good purpose, everything will work out.
And it takes a lot of patience, too. So people
often see kind of my social media presence for my career,
(19:39):
and it's kind of a cross-section, a cross-sectional view of
and this moment in time and what it looks like.
It looks like so much has happened overnight. But really
it's been something that's been developed over a decade over,
you know, longer than a decade. So it takes a
lot of patience and kind of conviction over time.
S1 (19:59):
Yeah, If I kind of read between the lines of
what I think I'm hearing you say is you really
hit on it when you're like, if you're looking for
self validation, a part kind of wears off after a while.
But I feel like you've talked a lot about being
of service at the end of the day, Right? What's
the point of doing this? What's your what's your purpose?
And who are you actually serving or who we're actually
serving at the end of the day?
S2 (20:20):
Yeah, exactly. And I mean, you know, I think that
there are certain ways that self-promotion may actually help serve others.
I think that, you know, when when doctors and practices
are promoting their practices and promoting what they have to offer,
I think that that is something that could ultimately be
beneficial to patients and to the health care ecosystem as
(20:40):
a whole. But I think that they just have to
be very honest with themselves when they evaluate why they're
on there, because you might not get immediate results and
sometimes those results will come over time.
S1 (20:55):
Love that. All right. Well, I see that we're about
up at time. Thank you so much for your time
this afternoon. I really appreciated. It's been a pleasure talking
with you. And yes, I. Wish you best of luck
on all parts of your career and definitely keep the
tech talk going.
S2 (21:13):
You're going to do.
S1 (21:14):
Better. Thank you.
S2 (21:17):
Thanks so much for having me.
S1 (21:24):
And. Thanks for listening to Prophet's Health Care Transformers Podcast.
This podcast is produced by Jared Johnson and his wonderful
team at Shift Forward Health and a big thank you
to our hosts Priya NASIR, Lindsay Moseby, Paul Shrimp and
Jeff Orji. If you like today's episode, you can find
more great content like this at Prophet dot com slash thinking.
(21:46):
I'm Anna Kuno, the senior editor of this podcast. Thank
you for listening.
And. Hello. Welcome to Prophets Healthcare Transformers podcast, where we'll
be talking to leaders in healthcare who are focused on
transforming their organizations to drive the next level of growth
for their business and for health care. Hosted by Priya
in Asia, Lindsay Moseby, Paul Strength and Jeff Gordy. Transformation
(00:26):
is one of those terms that has a lot of
layers to it. Sometimes it's about innovation. Sometimes it's about
shifting the way you do business. Sometimes it's to your
overall operating model and other times it's to a specific
department or function. It's also about people helping them navigate
the discomfort that comes with change, but also motivating them
(00:47):
to engage in the journey of transformation from the CEO
to the newest employee. It's a journey, and that's why
we created this podcast to break down this multidimensional, dynamic
topic of transformation one story at a time. Are you
ready to dive in? Hello, everyone. My name is Lindsay Moseby.
(01:09):
I will be the host of today's Profit Health Care
Transformers podcast, and I am absolutely delighted to be speaking
with Dr. Chang, who is chief medical officer with Medtronic. Gastrointestinal. Yes. Yes.
S2 (01:22):
Correct.
S1 (01:23):
Yes. All right. Wonderful. Well, I'll hold with that much
intro and let you do the much better and more
complete 2 minutes on who you are, and then we'll
just kind of dive into into the interview.
S2 (01:34):
Sure. So as you mentioned, I'm the chief medical officer
for the gastrointestinal business at Medtronic. I wear several different hats.
I'm still also active academically. I'm assistant professor of medicine
at Jefferson Health, and I'm in advanced Endoscopy, which is
a kind of subspecialty of gastroenterology there. I lead the
(01:55):
bariatric endoscopy program at the hospital, and I'm also very
active on social media as well. So that's kind of
me in a nutshell.
S1 (02:04):
So you're busy this year, So.
S2 (02:06):
All it just so.
S1 (02:09):
There's all manner of things to get into there, not
the least of which is going to be your tick
tock stardom and strategy that I'm really interested to hear about.
But maybe if we maybe will start by just kind
of taking a little bit of a step back, I
would love to just know a little bit about how
did you decide to do this. What were the early
days that led you into thinking, This is what I
want to do for the 12 to 14 hours of
(02:29):
my day, every day.
S2 (02:30):
I think, to be honest, there were a couple physicians
in my family. My grandfather, who I've never met, was
a surgeon kind of in the World War two era.
I have some cousins who are in medicine, so that
kind of runs in the family a little bit. So
I had some exposure in that way. And then when
it came to deciding what to pursue as a career,
I felt like evaluating all the kind of common options
(02:53):
that this really suited my personality and my interests in
terms of wanting to help people, plus like being interested
in science and wanting to advance science. So that's ultimately
what I what took me into medicine. You know, I
can't say that I was 100% sure, but I sort
of discovered my passion along the way. And and the
truth of the matter is that medicine is just so diverse.
(03:14):
Even with the exposure that I had, I was only
getting slivers of what medicine was like in different corners
of the profession. And ultimately, you know, I went through
the whole kind of training process 15 years after high
school to get to be done with all of my
training And after high school. Yeah, after high school, you know,
(03:37):
this was not going into gastroenterology was not something that
I knew I was going to do from the from
the start. It was truly a process of discovery through
medical school and just going through the different rotations and
evaluating all the different specialties and ultimately landed on gastroenterology
because it's just such a there's just so much variety
(03:59):
in what we do, so many organs involved, so much
technology with how things are becoming less invasive. And that
innovation was really a big part of what led me
to even advanced endoscopy. That's a specialty area that I
practice in because that's where a lot of the more
complex procedures are and where there are a lot of
new fun tools and gadgets that we get to use.
(04:23):
And really a year ago was when I made the
transition to becoming chief medical officer at Medtronic GI, and
that was actually, in all honesty, a very unexpected transition.
I was approached with the opportunity and had to really
think about, okay, is this what I want to do?
Because I had trained so long to be a clinician
(04:45):
and I ultimately agreed to do it because I felt
that kind of like what I was trying to do
with social media all along was reach a wider audience
and touch more people and have an impact at a
population level. And so that really felt like a good,
tangible way to do this was to be a part
of the innovation process. And I agreed to do it
only if I could continue practicing clinically, which is what
(05:08):
made this a kind of a very interesting, unique hybrid opportunity,
which isn't often seen out there. But it makes a
lot of sense in my mind because here I am
working with MedTech Medical Devices, and if I am not
active clinically, I wonder if I'd be able to speak
to what I'm doing quite as well. So that's ultimately
(05:32):
kind of how I got here.
S1 (05:34):
That resonates with me so much as someone who both
enjoys the sort of helping to shape and craft strategy.
But I don't know that I'm ever going to get
to a point where I don't want to keep my
hands in the work to write exam, quite literally, your
hands and your butt. That yes, that makes total sense.
And it's sort of like, how would we know what
(05:55):
the latest and greatest was if we weren't actually actively
working with it and using it and trying it and
all of those things? Well, you talk a little bit
more about that, talk about what you're seeing in terms
of innovation, maybe. Within sort of medtech, but even across
the ecosystem that you're in, how sometimes we in health
care get kind of labeled as not moving fast enough
(06:15):
or where, you know, we're lagging behind and our experiences
aren't as good as they should be and are not
as good as they are in other industries. How are
you seeing change happening there and is there anything you're
particularly excited about?
S2 (06:27):
Well, I can only speak for myself, so this is
not on behalf of Medtronic or Jefferson for that matter.
But really, I feel like we're at a pivotal moment
where kind of big technology or digital technologies are intersecting
well with health care and the delivery of patient care.
I think in a way, the pandemic has also catalyzed that.
(06:50):
I think things that just made sense in my mind,
like telemedicine, really didn't kind of take hold until the pandemic.
And even just like the awareness of social media as
a way to consume health information, I think wasn't taken
so seriously until until the pandemic happened, because we clearly
(07:11):
have can see how social media has played a role
in shaping public opinion and have an impact on public health.
So I think now that we realize that, I think
there will probably be more attention to that. But it
still holds true that health care feels like transformation and
health care feels slower than other industry. I think that
(07:32):
it's especially in the US, things are very complicated and
the fact that much of the world I think also
relies on us for innovation kind of makes it all
that more complicated for the entire world. But hopefully, you know,
we'll find solutions somewhere along the way.
S1 (07:49):
So let's talk a little bit about this social media
presence that you that you have and that your have
cultivated and I can only assume want to continue to cultivate.
How has that become a part of your practice and
what do you see its role alongside the other two
that you play?
S2 (08:07):
You know, that's a good question. I never felt like
it was a primary goal of mine. To have a
social media presence when I started out was truly rooted
in wanting to educate because I was this is a
decade ago when I started seeing patients coming to the
hospital because of what they were hearing on the news
or because or making clinical decisions based on what they
(08:28):
were reading or seeing on TV and now through social media.
And I felt like if we as health professionals were
present on social media, then we wouldn't have a voice.
Then it would be kind of dictated by people who
didn't actually have any sort of relevant training. And so
that's really where this all came about. And I started
(08:49):
on Twitter really from a personal use standpoint, I've been
using other platforms even before Twitter, but kind of when
I position myself professionally, it started on Twitter and then
I transitioned or I adopted other platforms Instagram, YouTube, take,
talk over the years. So I've been active in maintaining
(09:09):
all of those. I think given time constraints, it's hard
for me to devote more time to doing all that.
I feel like it could always be better, but kind of,
as I mentioned, I think that there's going to be
more attention to this in the future. And and I'm
hoping that we'll be able to see this landscape evolve. But,
you know, part of it is not only just transmission
of knowledge, but I think it's just putting my personality out.
(09:32):
There has always been a goal of mine and I
can get asked, do I have a separate professional account
versus a personal account? And I feel that for me
it's important to showcase kind of the human aspects of me,
and not just the professional aspects, because I always felt
like people maybe saw health care or health professionals as
intimidating or unapproachable, and by letting a little bit of
(09:56):
our personalities shine. Hopefully it'll reduce that distance with the patient.
S1 (10:02):
Yeah. Do you think, or is part of your hypothesis
around being part of the social media universe, to your
point is that you're able to reach more people. Have
you seen that happening in any ways? And it could
be directly like someone literally says, I saw your this,
that or the other. I mean, access and health care
is such a big deal, right? Your geography, your socioeconomic status,
(10:25):
your gender, your race, all of those things may or
may not help or hinder your ability to get the
kind of care that you need and deserve. Do you
feel like this is that this particular medium is is
offering some new ways to reach people that might have
been harder to reach before?
S2 (10:42):
I mean, yeah, I think it's gotten to a point though,
like now with more and more people having access to
the Internet and having access to mobile devices where it
makes more sense than maybe it did ten, 15 years ago.
I think that, yes, I definitely get a lot of
in the most tangible way, I've gotten feedback about how
(11:02):
some of my content has influenced people to get screened.
For colon cancer. There was one particular tick tock where
I was talking about a discovery weight loss procedure that
isn't commonly done. And, you know, to be honest with you,
I think that that is an often promoted because the
marketing budgets of the device companies that are involved are
are small. And so they don't have the ability to
(11:25):
reach people quite as easily. And in that one video,
I referred so many people who are asking me where
they could get this done to different centers across the US.
And ultimately some of these the centers actually contacted me later.
The physicians had told me that people had seen my
tick tock, and that's why they ultimately had a procedure done,
(11:47):
which I thought was really great. But I think more importantly,
just even providing more context to help understand what health
care is about, to understand what it takes to become
a physician and what the barriers are and how to
navigate them and even other sort of more social justice
related issues. Just to have a better understanding of social
(12:08):
determinants of health, I think is really important. Just so
people understand what plays into health care, it's not always
just biology.
S1 (12:17):
Yeah, I'd love for you to talk a little bit
more about that. I'm so lucky to know some really
amazing people across the industry and a very dear friend
of mine who is now with a large pharmaceutical. So
talking about sort of the reshaping of clinical trials even,
and how it's not just about what happens in the
lab that makes the medicine work or not work. It's
(12:37):
all the stuff that happens in somebody's regular day to
day life that makes something work or not. So how
do you kind of balance that? It is what it is, right?
The biology of the body, the clinical and what's clinically possible.
And this need to really start or continue to push
behavioral change or motivation or do you see yourself prescribing
(12:59):
differently than you might have used to by virtue of
the fact that we are talking about the social determinants
of health more? We are talking about equity, equity and access, right?
S2 (13:07):
Yeah, definitely. I think that there's lots of opportunities and
just like how medicine has evolved over time, I think
that having awareness of these issues will shape how we
deliver patient care, how we design clinical trials, like you said,
some of the new technologies that are coming out. You know,
we have an opportunity now to actually incorporate our understanding.
(13:29):
And one thing that especially with Medtronic Gastroenterology, we have
the first market sort of artificial intelligence powered polyp detection
device to help with colorectal cancer screening. And I think
with this recent development, it's an opportunity to make sure
that we have that the right inputs into the data,
because I think there's been a lot of criticism of
(13:49):
some artificial intelligence platforms out there in general, not just
in health care being biased. And if we can avoid
that because we're aware, then, you know, that will really
that could potentially affect health outcomes with what we're doing here.
S1 (14:03):
Absolutely. In your in your work these days with Medtronic
and maybe even your clinical work with Jefferson, what are
some of the things that are really exciting? You are
really lighting you up these days.
S2 (14:15):
For me, I'm always inspired by my peers and my colleagues,
but since I'm in this unique position, juggling or straddling
two different worlds of industry and also academia, I'm hoping
to see how to bridge the gap a little better.
I feel like both sides would benefit from bridging the
(14:36):
gap better, and I understand in the past maybe the
reasons why we kind of had a much clear delineation.
But I think it's it's really stifling innovation. If we
don't if the left hand doesn't know what the right
hand is doing. And it's interesting because before I joined Medtronic,
I really had no concept of what goes on in
the background to make a new technology come to market.
(14:59):
And understanding those complexities I think really helps people appreciate
what it takes and how to kind of overcome some
of those barriers and how we can collaborate better. And
I'm just excited to learn every day on the job
about all the different aspects of this and how the
whole system comes together. I don't think that many of us,
especially having gone through medical school, you know, we're taught
(15:22):
a lot about disease and how to diagnose and treat it.
But I think we have a long way to go
to actually understand the whole health system as the entire
landscape and and not just academia. And I don't want
to point fingers and blame anyone for that lack of education.
I think that part of it is when you're in
academia and the faculty in academia are they're only accustomed
(15:46):
to their world. That's what they're going to speak to.
And and I think that now that now that I'm
in this role, hopefully, you know, part of my goals
is to impart whatever learning I have to the next
generation of physicians and to share what I'm learning with everyone.
So hopefully I'll be able. To do that maybe through
(16:07):
social media, too. Sometimes kind of. In my role at Medtronic,
I am involved in those business development conversations with startups
outside of Medtronic. Today, I haven't been quite as involved.
I think before I joined Medtronic, I was a consultant
to multiple companies and was maybe able to provide some
(16:28):
input here or there. But I'm seeing a lot of
my colleagues, especially those who are not involved in kind
of a big publicly traded company with a lot of history,
but are involved in getting involved in startups and other ventures.
I think there are opportunities out there for people to
do so.
S1 (16:43):
How are you helping to sort of push the boundaries?
S2 (16:45):
I really try to route everything I do and the
purpose of what I'm doing and I always go back
to like, what exactly is our mission here? And not
so much like short term goals, but maybe a longer
term purpose that I'm striving for. And with that said,
I think that I'm a big believer in sort of
small incremental change rather than big disruption. And I think
(17:10):
part of why I've come to that conclusion is because
and maybe this will change over time, I don't know.
But I think that when I look back at how
I got to where I am today and kind of
what I was able to do through social media, a
lot of those decisions were me asking why I was
doing this rather than, Oh, I want to just get
(17:31):
it done, to get it done. And so now that
I look back, a lot of those little changes or
little decisions that I made, maybe even subconsciously along the way,
kind of amounted to where I am today. And I
know Steve Jobs has a quote about being able to
connect the dots on the air when you look backwards
and not when you move forwards. And I think that
when you're rooted in that purpose, those dots will connect
(17:53):
and eventually lead you to the transformation that you're trying
to deliver.
S1 (17:58):
We talk a lot about that as well. Like, you know,
change doesn't have to be overwhelming and sweeping, right? Like,
especially with health care. I feel like we're all in
this because we're playing the long game. And so I
think it's a great advice, right? Like, enjoy those small wins.
Take those small wins and add them up. Well, maybe
this is sort of a similar line of query, but
as you see a new wave of doctors coming and
(18:20):
clinicians coming up behind you as you look to people
ahead of you, and now you've got people coming behind you,
looking to you. What is your advice for the next
wave of health care practitioners, whether they be in administration
or whatever?
S2 (18:34):
Yeah, I think one thing is that something that's not
popular may be an opportunity because that hasn't been done yet.
I think the social media thing was definitely me running
with it because it wasn't popular at the time and
but I really believed in it. And so I think
the corollary to that is, again, going back to your purpose.
(18:55):
So if you feel strongly about something because you believe
in it, then I would let that be your driver.
And it takes a lot of reflection. You know, you
have to constantly remind because there's a lot of distractions
along the way. And I see that a lot of
people who go into social media these days or kind
of use it as a tool often for self-promotion or
because they want a lot of external validation with followers.
(19:18):
And while that might be a good temporary driver, I
think after a while that gets old. So and, you know,
that sort of validation can often fizzle or kind of
come in waves. So I think if you're really again
in you're in a good purpose, everything will work out.
And it takes a lot of patience, too. So people
often see kind of my social media presence for my career,
(19:39):
and it's kind of a cross-section, a cross-sectional view of
and this moment in time and what it looks like.
It looks like so much has happened overnight. But really
it's been something that's been developed over a decade over,
you know, longer than a decade. So it takes a
lot of patience and kind of conviction over time.
S1 (19:59):
Yeah, If I kind of read between the lines of
what I think I'm hearing you say is you really
hit on it when you're like, if you're looking for
self validation, a part kind of wears off after a while.
But I feel like you've talked a lot about being
of service at the end of the day, Right? What's
the point of doing this? What's your what's your purpose?
And who are you actually serving or who we're actually
serving at the end of the day?
S2 (20:20):
Yeah, exactly. And I mean, you know, I think that
there are certain ways that self-promotion may actually help serve others.
I think that, you know, when when doctors and practices
are promoting their practices and promoting what they have to offer,
I think that that is something that could ultimately be
beneficial to patients and to the health care ecosystem as
(20:40):
a whole. But I think that they just have to
be very honest with themselves when they evaluate why they're
on there, because you might not get immediate results and
sometimes those results will come over time.
S1 (20:55):
Love that. All right. Well, I see that we're about
up at time. Thank you so much for your time
this afternoon. I really appreciated. It's been a pleasure talking
with you. And yes, I. Wish you best of luck
on all parts of your career and definitely keep the
tech talk going.
S2 (21:13):
You're going to do.
S1 (21:14):
Better. Thank you.
S2 (21:17):
Thanks so much for having me.
S1 (21:24):
And. Thanks for listening to Prophet's Health Care Transformers Podcast.
This podcast is produced by Jared Johnson and his wonderful
team at Shift Forward Health and a big thank you
to our hosts Priya NASIR, Lindsay Moseby, Paul Shrimp and
Jeff Orji. If you like today's episode, you can find
more great content like this at Prophet dot com slash thinking.
(21:46):
I'm Anna Kuno, the senior editor of this podcast. Thank
you for listening.
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