Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello, everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason with
Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning
into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
So today, we're going to cover the future
of pharmacy access, empowering patients and strengthening health
system strategy.
And joining me for this important conversation is
Julian Herbert, the chief product officer at DoseSpot.
(00:20):
Julian, thank you so much for being with
us today. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Oh,
we're glad to have you. And before we
get started on our discussion about pharmacy access
and what that means, I thought it'd be
helpful if you could just share a little
bit more about yourself, your role, DoseSpot, whatever
you feel our listeners should know. Yeah. Sure.
So as you mentioned, I've been the chief
product officer at DoseSpot
(00:41):
for almost three years now.
I am originally
a South Louisiana boy, raised born and raised,
computer science undergrad and went straight into
developing.
So I was a developer at a health
insurance company, so that's kinda how I got
into health care. And then I decided to
move into, like, high-tech for the most part
and get into product management.
(01:01):
After my MBA,
I decided to do m and a consulting,
specifically focused in biotech and pharma. So I
learned a lot about the industry and how
it impacts patients and things like that. But
I'm a product person at heart, so, decided
to go back into Amazon.
And I was working on
ML products for third party sellers and then
(01:23):
switched over to AWS to build out startup
platforms.
And through that work, it also helped me
kinda think about
how to scale these big solutions to a
lot of problems.
And then I did a detour in EdTech
and then decided to come to DoseSpot in
health care,
primarily because, one, DoseSpot gave me the opportunity
to build a product org centered around impact
(01:45):
to patients
and providers.
And then I noticed DoseSpot was just growing
and had a lot of opportunity in front
of it. And so,
I'm super excited to talk more about it
and and join the podcast. Yeah. Oh, well,
it's great to have you again, Julianne, and
I appreciate you sharing some of your background
and how you got to where you are
today.
It sounds like you really followed this passion
(02:06):
for for product and and everything that goes
into it. So I'm excited to pick your
brain a little bit more.
And I know that at the heart of
our conversation today is patient access,
pharmacy as well. But a big part of
that, and increasingly so, is patient centricity.
This idea that patients and their journey needs
to be first and foremost as health systems
(02:27):
and hospitals are carrying out their their strategies.
So
from your perspective, what does it mean to
put patients at the center of care, and
where do you see the biggest opportunities to
really reduce friction points for them today? Yeah.
Great question.
And for me, I define
patient centricity
more so centered around putting the tools, services,
(02:48):
info, experience in front of the person who
cares the most. And the person who cares
the most in this instance is the patient.
They care most most about their outcome.
If I'm in pain as a patient,
while my doctors have empathy and they can
relate to that,
I care about actually that pain going away
and having to pay for it and things
like that. And so I think as I
think about patient's sincerity, it's building products and
(03:11):
services
that really adhere to the person who cares
the most. Mhmm. And if you work backwards
from that, you tend to solve a lot
of the upstream problems. And so I think
as I think about opportunities, I think of
them really in three buckets. There's kind of
the before.
Mhmm. And that's where you're doing eligibility checks
and making sure that there are no surprises.
(03:31):
And the patient is getting the care that
is covered, and they know potentially what they're
gonna pay. And then also the
the provider offices know what to expect as
well.
And then during,
which is where you see more signals. Right?
You're doing real time prescription
benefits, so you're seeing pricing. You're You're looking
for covered alternatives.
You're really giving that patient the transparent
(03:53):
view of everything that's going on so the
two parties can make the best decision for
that patient going forward. And then after,
that is, you know, pricing availability, being able
to make a selection and say, I wanted
to go to this pharmacy, or,
I wanna follow-up on my prior auth for
these reasons.
And I think when those three areas are
(04:15):
all solutioned,
you end up getting a much better patient
centric approach
and each partner working together
to kinda solve that problem for the outcome
of the patient. And I'm super excited about
the work that's happening in a variety of
different areas. The the biggest part is just
getting all of that to come together in
front of the patient in an easy way.
Yeah. It it's so helpful to think of
(04:35):
that in the three buckets that you've outlined.
It kind of reminds me of journey mapping
in a sense, you know, really considering
every part and
every interaction the patient's going to have.
What an intentional approach. And and I know
a big part of
that those three buckets really, and you've kind
of touched on this, but affordability and choice
are so key to patient centricity today. And
(04:57):
they're usually noted as these critical levers that
can really advance patient centered care. So what
should organizations consider to improve medication access and
streamline
engagement?
And how important are those factors in in
achieving some of the broader organizational goals that
health systems
have? Yeah. That's a great question. And I
think the way I think about it is
(05:19):
not just offering, you know, affordability
information
or availability
information is great. Mhmm. But you also have
to do it in a way to where
it's not significant cognitive load on a patient.
Right? So you have to offer in a
way that's personalized to them and meet them
where they are,
versus saying, hey. Here's all the information in
a PDF.
You have it. Go forth and prosper. Now
(05:42):
patients want it on their phone or they
want it through chat g p t or
they want
easy access to very complex information. Like I
mentioned earlier,
I worked my first internship was at a
health insurance company. Mhmm. I would like to
say I walked away with a a great
knowledge of how all this worked, but I
did not because it was so complex and
I was working there. And so to think
(06:03):
that we can just give that to a
patient and say, alright. Go forth. Make the
best decision that you can with all these
interconnected systems
is just not an easy thing to do.
Mhmm. And I think to your point,
really being
specific about how we wanna serve a certain
pay patient population and serve this information up
to a patient population Mhmm. Is gonna be
(06:25):
super critical.
And I start I see that now with,
you're seeing much more access on mobile around,
you know, choosing your pharmacy Mhmm. Or learning
more about your prior authorization and why something
was not approved versus why it was approved.
And a lot of organizations are building these
kind of patient portals to try to give
them some more information.
(06:46):
The problem that happens is if I'm a
patient and I have to check six different
portals Yeah. To try to figure out, okay.
Well, this one says this is covered, and
I should expect this. Well, I get to
my doctor's portal, and they say something different.
And then I call my insurance, and they
say something different.
And so really being able to have systems
across the board that say the same thing,
(07:06):
but then give that information in a way
to say, hey. You're looking for this
very specific information.
Here's the best way to think about it.
I can't help you make the choice, but
I can give you the options in a
way that you can make the best decision
for yourself. And I think that is kind
of super critical to the whole patient centricity.
It's not just about giving access to the
(07:27):
information. It's being very diligent about building experiences
that people can utilize to to actually solve
a problem. So for example, I would say
it's like all these services that'll let you
buy your car from your phone. Right?
If they just gave you the information, right,
like, that'll be super difficult now. You can
price comparison. You can do all these things.
And something that was, hey. I have to
(07:48):
go sit in a dealership for four hours
and hear somebody tell me 50 different things
before I make a decision. Now I can
just do it on my phone because it's
right there to give me the information I
care about. Yeah. And now I can make
the best decision for me and my family.
Yeah. I think so so much of what
you're hitting on to is the concept of
trust in patients' interactions with their own health
(08:09):
information and recommendations.
You know, as a health care consumer myself,
we all are I can't tell you how
frustrating it is exactly that scenario you're painting
where one patient portal is telling you one
thing about your health history and the doctor's
recommendations, and another portal is telling you something
different. And, you know, so to your point
too, technology is playing an increasing role in
(08:31):
shaping patients' care experience and building their trust
or eroding it. So how do you think
health care organizations and partners can ensure that
innovations feel personal and empowering rather than transactional
or
overwhelming in some of the ways that you've
described. Yeah. I think we're in a
bit of an inflection point. You can go
the route of, let's say, like, a a
(08:51):
kayak or something like that that helps you
book your trips. They don't care about the
context. It's just I'm looking for a flight.
I see a bunch of flights. I pick
one for my own purpose. Or you can
go a much more
customer focused or patient focused way where
I wanna know the context of why you're
looking for this information, and then I can
give you an output that matters. Mhmm. And
(09:12):
I think one way to think about trust
is
people wanna know why you're suggesting something to
me.
There's a lot of, like I said, AI
tools and things like that that will say,
here's the answer. Yeah. But when it comes
to my personal
care, I wanna know why that's the answer.
Mhmm. And I also want you to be
transparent when you don't know. And I think
(09:33):
doing that and saying, hey. We suggest,
you know, this path of care
for this reason
Mhmm. Will help build that trust. And, again,
even if you're wrong or you're not you're
unsure,
at least you're telling the person that I
am unsure. Here are the options.
And you're presented with both of these options.
We think either one is fine.
(09:54):
You get to make the ultimate choice, and
this is why we think both of them
are fine, will help with build that trust
with patients, I think, more and more. And
so,
what we're trying to do, I think, on
on our side is really give patients that
choice, show them availability, show them pricing.
And whatever you decide to do is fine.
Mhmm. But we're showing you this because these
(10:15):
are the best prices we can find.
We're showing you this because this is the
availability data that we have
and,
giving you that opportunity to make that decision.
And so I think as organizations are building
more of these solutions,
especially in a industry that has always been
somewhat opaque and somewhat difficult to understand,
(10:36):
the more we lean and transparency on the
why Yeah. I think will offer up
more trust in the whole system Yeah. And
say, hey. You're not just telling me this
because I think someone's making the money in
the background. Mhmm. You're telling me this because
this is the best opportunity for my care.
Yeah. And this is what you think based
on all these different data points.
And I think that will help patients a
(10:58):
a long way be able to kinda trust
the system more. Yeah. I I can imagine
because when I think about,
again, putting myself in a patient's shoes,
the thing that I
want the most,
clear cut, transparent, data backed answers about, it's
generally going to be medications
and the recommendations from my doctor about those
medications. So I appreciate you outlining
(11:20):
not only how important all these steps are
to build patient trust in general, but especially
in the pharmacy space. I I it seems
critical. So,
Julian, it's it's been a real pleasure learning
from you today. Before we close, I wanted
to see if there's anything maybe we jumped
through too quickly or points or takeaways you
wanted to add to our discussion for the
listeners.
Yeah. No. The way I I think one
(11:41):
of the things I think about a lot
is,
you know, everyone asks about all these big
moonshot
ideas Mhmm. And how to fix health care,
how to revolutionize everything. And the thing that
seems to me to be one of the
opportunities,
that we didn't cover is just, like,
realistically
being interoperable. Right? Like, I don't think it's
(12:02):
a one big idea. It's multiple different connections
from all the parties,
and everyone's starting with the patient and saying,
okay. If our goal is to better patient
outcomes and meet them where they are,
that means we're gonna work backwards and fix
prior auth because we care about the patient.
Mhmm. We're gonna work backwards and fix medication
(12:22):
availability. We're gonna work backwards and fix pricing.
And I think
the way it's been working before is we're
kind of starting with, hey, we wanna fix
pricing then getting to the patient versus coming
back the other way. And so I think
that's the revolutionary
idea in my mind is to, like, take
a step back and say, who's ultimately
Yeah. Our user here and our the customer
(12:44):
that cares the most? And if we solve
that problem, a lot of the things upstream
will start being solved separately. And that includes
regulation. That includes
all of the desperate things that are going
on at the same time. If all of
them start with the patient at the center
Mhmm. Then I think it flows back pretty
well upstream. Yeah. So,
excited to be a part of building and
(13:05):
working on pushing for that as well. Yeah.
Well, I appreciate how you brought the conversation
full circle, Julian. And I know after your
introductory remarks, I I mentioned your passion for
product. But, really, what has come through in
our conversation is the passion for understanding
the problem points that patients face and working
backwards, as you mentioned, to fix them. Or
not even working backwards, but really this upstream
(13:26):
approach of putting patients first and how do
we how do we solve that first before
these other problems and hoping that that domino
effect will then ensue. So it's been a
real pleasure having you. Thank you so much
for joining today. Thanks for having me. Super
exciting. Yeah. And we'd like to thank our
podcast sponsor for this episode, DoseSpot.
Listeners, be sure to tune in to more
podcasts from Becker's by visiting our podcast page
(13:47):
at beckershospitalreview.com.