Stephanie is a Director in West Monroe’s Healthcare practice, a business transformation and digital services firm. Her expertise in data, analytics, and omni-channel engagement has equipped clients to embrace emerging digital business models, accelerate improvement initiatives, retain patients, increase loyalty, and improve performance. Before joining West Monroe, she was a Solution Director for KPMG’s Healthcare advisory practice. Prior to that, she spent 25 years in consulting, operations, marketing, and business development roles with IBM, NTT Data, and Deloitte Consulting. She has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Drake University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

How did you become a leader in healthcare? Was healthcare always something you were interested in?

I spent the first part of my career in strategy and operations consulting, primarily in the banking and insurance industries which included working with some of the larger healthcare payers. My interest was in helping to improve the consumer experience – or as I once heard it described, “make it easy for people to give you their money.” 

In 2006, my youngest daughter was born with a rare genetic disorder and suddenly our family was encountering the healthcare industry in a very different way. The challenges were significant. It was hard to get appointments, the providers we were seeing weren’t communicating with one another, I was constantly repeating information, and my husband and I felt like we were alone in navigating her healthcare needs, causing us even more stress and anxiety. 

In 2010, I made a personal decision to point my skillset toward the healthcare industry to help make it easier for families like mine to get care in a way that was easy, not hard. Now my passion is improving the healthcare consumer experience – or to “make it easy for people to get the care they need.” I feel it’s almost an ethical responsibility for us to reduce stress for people experiencing healthcare issues – they are already vulnerable and scared and we must make getting healthcare easier.

Consulting roles are, by nature, very solutions-oriented. To you personally, what guidelines are most important to consider when assessing a potential solution for a client?

The first thing I always prioritize is getting clear definition and alignment on the problem we are trying to solve. That’s not always easy, but it’s critical to do first before jumping into solutioning. I often find people want to move quickly to solutioning without spending enough time on problem definition.     

It’s also important to consider the broader context into which you’re introducing a potential solution. It might look like the “right” fit for the specific solution, but if it doesn’t integrate well into the operations of the business and the people who are going to have to use it won’t adopt it, it’s not going to work. 

From a tech perspective, I often find my clients have spent money on solutions that are duplicative within the enterprise. There’s value in taking a “use what you already have” approach, as long as what you already have will deliver the capabilities you need and can be cost-effective. 

Another guideline I try to follow is to not be tempted to go crazy with customizing tech solutions that provide the majority of what you need to be successful. Technology solutions that are over-customized are hard to maintain and support.

AI has been and continues to be one of the hottest topics when it comes to healthcare trends. What specific use case for AI in healthcare are you most excited (or most nervous) about?

I’m very excited about the possibilities for GenAI to simplify how information is delivered to people so they can have a better understanding of their health needs and what they need to do to manage their care. I love the idea of an “explanation of benefits” that would be easy for anyone to comprehend, be explained in a vernacular that makes sense to them culturally, and be delivered in their first language. 

Conversational AI that can help people navigate to what they need, and at the same time, reduce the burden on our healthcare professionals, is also very exciting to me. That also makes me a bit nervous because healthcare is still very personal and it will be interesting to see what people want (or will tolerate) when it comes to conversational AI. I have been excited for years about how AI and machine learning can help drive greater personalization and engagement. 

I’m also excited about the ability to enable true “personalization” with AI and machine learning. This is something I feel like we’ve been talking about in healthcare for some time and it feels like we’re on the cusp of really being able to do this well, not just with personalized marketing-oriented messaging, but with personalized care messaging and nudges that keep people on track in managing their health and loyal to their healthcare providers. 

Personally or professionally, what might the WBL network be surprised to know about you?

I grew up in a small farm community of about 1,800 people in Nebraska and my life goal as a high school senior was to become an accountant because I thought if I could do that, I could move out of my small town and live in a city. Thankfully, I was able to avoid accounting as a profession (no offense to accountants, just not my favorite subject) AND have been able to live in several cities over the course of my life. 

Another surprise might be that I spent almost 2 years working and living in Johannesburg, South Africa. I nearly took a job with a client there but decided that I needed to move back to the U.S., which was a huge relief to my mother!