Identifying Tomorrow’s Leadership Teams Required to Advance Digital Health: Why Digital Health Needs Its Own Sports Teams & League

Sherri Douville
4 min readAug 19, 2024

Trustworthy Technology & Innovation Book Series
by Sherri Douville, CEO at Medigram | Chair, TTIC

This table highlights the leadership and readiness gaps between healthcare IT, digital health, and consumerism. It underscores TTIC’s advanced position in healthcare IT and the significant time lag in other sectors, emphasizing the necessity for targeted leadership teams to advance digital health and consumerism.

In the fast-evolving landscape of healthcare, it’s crucial to understand why TTIC focuses solely on healthcare IT while acknowledging the need for specialized leadership in advancing digital health. TTIC’s focus is not just strategic; it’s essential for laying the groundwork upon which all forms of digital health can thrive.

Here’s why a separate, dedicated leadership team is necessary for digital health, and why it’s still decades behind TTIC’s progress in healthcare IT.

The Importance of a Dedicated Leadership Team for Digital Health

Digital health is an emerging field with immense potential to transform healthcare delivery. However, it faces unique challenges that require a specialized and distinct leadership team to navigate. Unlike healthcare IT, which is deeply embedded in the infrastructure of healthcare systems, digital health is still in the early stages of integration and requires a leadership team with specific skills and foresight to drive its progress.

This table focuses on distinct skills required specifically for advancing digital health and consumerism. It illustrates how these sectors are still decades behind TTIC in terms of leadership readiness and capability, further justifying TTIC’s concentrated efforts in healthcare IT.

Leadership Team for Advancing Digital Health (1–2 Decades Behind TTIC)

To effectively advance digital health, a leadership team must be composed of experts who bring a variety of critical skills:

  • Visionary and Strategic Thinker: Sets a clear direction for integrating digital health technologies into healthcare. [1 decade behind TTIC]
  • Regulatory and Compliance Expert: Ensures digital health innovations meet all necessary regulations and standards. [2 decades behind TTIC]
  • Technology Integration Specialist: Oversees the seamless incorporation of digital health tools into existing healthcare systems. [1–2 decades behind TTIC]
  • Patient Engagement and Education Leader: Enhances patient understanding and use of digital health solutions. [2 decades behind TTIC]
  • Innovation and Research Leader: Drives R&D to keep digital health at the forefront of technological advancements. [1 decade behind TTIC]
  • Collaboration and Partnership Builder: Fosters alliances to strengthen the digital health ecosystem. [2 decades behind TTIC]

Consumerism Leadership Team (Even Further Behind TTIC, by Decades)

The consumerism sector in healthcare, focused on direct-to-consumer products and services, is even further behind TTIC. This sector requires a different leadership team, one that is still 2–3 decades behind in terms of readiness and capability:

  • Market and Consumer Insights Leader: Aligns healthcare products with consumer expectations and demands. [2 decades behind TTIC]
  • Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Expert: Develops strategies to directly reach consumers through digital platforms. [2 decades behind TTIC]
  • User Experience (UX) and Design Leader: Ensures consumer healthcare products are intuitive and user-friendly. [2–3 decades behind TTIC]
  • Data and Analytics Leader: Leverages consumer data to optimize healthcare services and personalize experiences. [2–3 decades behind TTIC]
  • Consumer Advocacy and Support Leader: Builds trust and ensures consumers have access to quality healthcare products. [3 decades behind TTIC]
  • Strategic Partnerships and Alliances Builder: Creates partnerships across retail, tech, and healthcare to expand consumer healthcare offerings. [2–3 decades behind TTIC]

TTIC’s Role: Supporting Healthcare IT as the Foundation for Digital Health

TTIC is committed to developing and integrating healthcare IT, providing the necessary foundation for digital health to succeed in the future. By focusing our efforts on healthcare IT, we ensure that the infrastructure is secure, compliant, and robust enough to support the advancements in digital health and consumer-driven healthcare that are yet to come. This strategic focus also accelerates Medigram’s ability to lead in the healthcare IT space, as it builds upon TTIC’s strong foundation.

Conclusion

The leadership required to advance digital health and consumerism is still decades behind the progress TTIC has made in healthcare IT in terms of leading and shaping the direction of AI integration into medicine. TTIC’s exclusive focus on healthcare IT is not a limitation; it’s a strategic decision to ensure that the healthcare industry has the solid foundation it needs to eventually advance all forms of digital health. While TTIC lays the groundwork, the leadership teams necessary for digital health and consumerism will need to develop over time, equipped with the right skills and strategic vision to tackle their respective challenges.

TTIC team: we encourage you to share this perspective with your teams and colleagues, helping them understand why our focus is where it is and why it’s critical for the future of healthcare.

About Sherri Douville

Sherri Douville is the CEO of Medigram and Chair of the Trustworthy Technology and Innovation Consortium (TTIC). A recognized leader in healthcare IT, Sherri drives the development of secure, innovative technologies that set new standards for compliance and patient safety. Her leadership at TTIC is instrumental in shaping the future of healthcare technology by integrating AI and establishing integrated and robust, future proof regulatory with technical, operational, clinical, and business strategies and operating plans while building and developing the teams to lead and execute them. Come chat with Sherri at AIMed, the preeminent AI in medicine conference.

About Medigram

Medigram is at the forefront of healthcare IT innovation, delivering secure communication and AI-driven solutions that enhance patient care and operational efficiency. Under the leadership of Sherri Douville, Medigram leverages the foundational work of TTIC to accelerate its position as a leader in healthcare technology, focusing on compliant and secure healthcare IT solutions.

About Trustworthy Technology and Innovation Consortium (TTIC)

The Trustworthy Technology and Innovation Consortium (TTIC) is a pioneering force in healthcare IT, dedicated to advancing secure, innovative technologies that align with the highest standards of compliance and patient safety. Led by Chair Sherri Douville and industry experts like Chuck Podesta, Mitch Parker, Ed Gaudet, and Dr. Apurv Gupta, TTIC bridges the gap between innovation and regulation, ensuring healthcare technology evolves with trust and security at its core. TTIC’s strategic focus on healthcare IT provides the necessary foundation for future advancements including for digital health.

--

--

Sherri Douville
Sherri Douville

No responses yet