Digital Health x Health Equity Panel: Reinvent a More Equitable Future

With a staggering $93 billion in excess healthcare costs and $42 billion in untapped productivity annually in the U.S. alone, health equity is critical to the total cost of healthcare.

To combat health inequities, we need to recalibrate health equity efforts by adopting a total reinvention mindset and embedding health equity into the development of digital solutions. Accenture’s U.S. health inequity: beyond the statistics report found three key areas to building a digital core: 1) mitigating bias in data and algorithms, 2) designing inclusive products and services and 3) creating sustainable and structural change.

How might digital health help us close the gap?

Join panelists Whit Rawlinson, oncology digital innovation leader at Merck, Ken Tubman, head of patient engagement at Takeda, Sans Thakur, chief growth officer of Medable, Dr. Ankoor Shah, pediatrician and health equity lead at Accenture, and Alexander Condoleon, head of digital healthcare at Sanofi for a discussion moderated by Laura Westercamp, Managing Director in Accenture’s Life Sciences and MedTech practice, to deep-dive into how digital health can support health equity and ways it might divide. How might digital health make more equitable healthcare a reality from recruiting diverse clinical trials to patient access support?

Agenda:

11:00–11:05am CT/12:00–12:05pm ET | Welcome remarks

11:05-11:30am CT/12:05–12:30pm ET | Overview of Accenture’s health equity research

11:30-12:15pm CT/12:30–1:15pm ET | Panel discussion

12:15-12:30pm CT/1:15–1:30pm ET | Q&A and closing remarks

About the panelists:

Whit Rawlinson, Oncology Digital Innovation at Merck

Whit Rawlinson is a digital health innovation leader in Merck Oncology. He is a transformational leader who is driven by challenge, undeterred by obstacles and committed to furthering standards of excellence with tremendous depth in marketing.

He has garnered multiple industry awards, including the Effie Advertising Award for Best Pharma Consumer Campaign Worldwide, as well as being named a DTC Perspectives Top 25 Marketer multiple times. Whit is active in his community, serving as a board member on the Child Care Council of Westchester.

Ken Tubman, Head of Patient Engagement at Takeda

Ken Tubman is head of patient engagement services and SaMD at Takeda and leads the development of innovative digital technologies within the global data, digital & technology teams at Takeda.

Ken is a seasoned product leader with a passion for enhancing the interface between healthcare and technology. With extensive experience building well designed, user-focused applications, he specializes in development of solutions that address complex business and clinical problems with simplicity and efficiency, focusing on internal and industry standards, automation and reusable technology.

Prior to joining Takeda, Ken served as vice president, product innovation and strategy for Cogstate, focused on optimizing the measurement of cognition.

Sans Thakur, Chief Growth Officer of Medable

Sanskriti (“Sans”) Thakur is Medable’s chief growth officer and is focused on market expansion and growth initiatives to advance the company’s vision of human-centered research, enabling remote access to clinical trials regardless of geography, income and race. She most recently served as global life sciences research lead for Accenture, responsible for market-shaping strategy and research in therapeutics, digital health and business model innovation.

During her 18 years in the life sciences industry, Thakur has advised more than 30 companies, launched 10 products, advised digital health venture funds and managed a leading pharmaceutical portfolio.

Alexander Condoleon, Head of Digital Healthcare at Sanofi

Alex Condoleon leads Sanofi’s digital healthcare business. He has extensive experience globally in Australia, China, France and the U.S. identifying strategic insights and translating them to actionable business opportunities to drive growth.

To accelerate innovation, Alex is passionate about leveraging big data, utilizing advanced analytics and creating digital health solutions, particularly in the development of new experimental business models.

Dr. Ankoor Shah, Pediatrician and Health Equity Lead at Accenture

Ankoor Shah, MD, MBA, MPH, is a management consulting principal director and health equity lead at Accenture. A recognized health expert, Dr. Shah helps healthcare companies become market leaders, create competitive advantages and drive business growth by applying a data-driven, solution-oriented health equity framework. He has expertise in executing health equity strategies that drive client value in ways that improve health outcomes and care experience. Specifically, his experience focuses on the application of health equity principles that measurably reduce disparities in care. He excels at optimizing data analytics to develop solutions that have a quantifiable impact on innovation, strategy and technology services. He has leadership experience in clinical care delivery, public health and government-related healthcare issues.

During the COVID-19 pandemic response, Dr. Shah served in a variety of critical functions, including advising on reopening metrics, supporting safe functions within childcare, schools and universities, coordinating access to care strategies across the district’s healthcare systems and directing D.C.’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

Dr. Shah has led efforts that have reduced recurrent asthma-related pediatric emergency department visits by 65 percent among a cohort of socioeconomically disadvantaged children with a high asthma burden. He has also created partnerships and implemented unique technology solutions to reduce the racial disparity in COVID-19 vaccine coverage among senior citizens.

He has written opinion pieces for The Washington Post and The Hill. The National Minority Quality Forum named Dr. Shah a leader in minority health.

He received his medical and public health degrees from Emory University and his MBA from George Washington University. He completed his pediatric residency and chief residency at Children’s National Hospital in D.C.

He is board-certified in pediatrics and clinical informatics. He also continues to see patients as a practicing pediatrician on a volunteer basis.

Selen Karaca-Griffin (Research Overview)

Selen Karaca-Griffin is Accenture’s global life sciences research lead responsible for building and managing life sciences thought leadership and research assets. She has over ten years of experience in the life sciences industry. Prior to this role, she was a senior manager in Accenture’s life sciences strategy practice, leading c-suite business strategy engagements and serving as life sciences offering development lead. Prior to joining Accenture, Selen worked at two large biopharma companies as a biochemical engineer and scientific researcher. Outside of Accenture, Selen serves as a biotechnology industrial advisory board member for Northeastern University.

Laura Westercamp (Moderator)

Laura Westercamp is managing director in Accenture’s life sciences and med tech practice. She has worked across five continents, helping her clients rethink and transform their customer experience approach, operating model design and digital health strategy. Inspired to work in healthcare by her grandmother, a WWII army nurse, Laura believes in the power of industry to create solutions that will help everyone live healthier, fuller lives. Outside of Accenture, Laura is a board member and guest lecturer for the University of Iowa’s Entrepreneurial Center and serves as a venture mentor, working with health tech startups. Prior to Accenture, Laura was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent and innovation led company with 738,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Accenture Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients succeed and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

About MATTER

At MATTER, we believe collaboration is the best way to improve healthcare. The MATTER collaborative includes more than 800 current and alumni startups from around the world, working together with dozens of hospitals and health systems, universities and industry-leading companies to build the future of healthcare. Together we are accelerating innovation, advancing care and improving lives. For more information, visit matter.health, follow us @MATTERHealth and join our mailing list.