Katrina Rogers: In Light Of The Pandemic, Here Are The 5 Things We Need To Do To Improve The US Healthcare System

An Interview With Luke Kervin

We must incentivize better health choices at every stage of life, disease, and treatment through education and access. Treatment options often focus on corrective options when behavior changes (like 5 minutes more daily exercise or a single different food choice each day) are less expensive and more effective. Improved focus on the consumer-provider relationship will further encourage better health choices.

The COVID-19 Pandemic taught all of us many things. One of the sectors that the pandemic put a spotlight on was the healthcare industry. The pandemic showed the resilience of the US healthcare system, but it also pointed out some important areas in need of improvement.

In our interview series called “In Light Of The Pandemic, Here Are The 5 Things We Need To Do To Improve The US Healthcare System”, we are interviewing doctors, hospital administrators, nursing home administrators, and healthcare leaders who can share lessons they learned from the pandemic about how we need to improve the US Healthcare System.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure to interview Katrina Rogers.

Katrina Rogers is a leadership expert with over 25 years of experience discovering, developing, and manufacturing medicines and related technology. An expert in laboratory and technical operations, she is also an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence and Pharmaceutical GMP Professional. Her professional services firm specializes in dramatically decreasing the cost and time of bringing new medical products to market.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and a bit about what brought you to this specific career path?

I’ve been a closet entrepreneur all of my life, but I didn’t recognize this point until 2017 when the new career opportunities on offer didn’t match my personal and professional goals. I wanted to stop being at the mercy of someone else’s bad decisions and start building a business with personal meaning. That’s why I started my professional services firm to help people change the world with their medicines and medical devices.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

At CRO MDS Pharma Services in 2008, we developed services to support the newly expanding drug discovery branches in mainland China. One of those services was providing early data for pharmacology, metabolism, and toxicity on compound libraries. We were leveraging facilities in Taiwan and Seattle and needed a fast turnaround time for results. I worked with a cold-chain logistics company to set up a 24-hour delivery service (including flights and customs) for compounds from labs in Shanghai to Seattle. I learned a lot about international cold-chain shipping on that project.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

My colleagues will tell you I like a lot of structure, and I tend to be agenda-focused when starting a meeting. Early on, I often forgot to facilitate introductions for my colleagues in the discussion. Now I use my agenda-forward focus as a moment of humor at the start of meetings to help me with the first agenda item — introductions!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My quote is in Latin, from Horace: “parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus,” which translates to “the mountains are in labor, (and) an absurd mouse will be born.” It’s my reminder that we should keep track of what’s important rather than what’s loudly publicized.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I’m working with a team to build a regional bioscience innovation cluster that will connect, expand, and develop businesses and workforce in biotech discovery, development, and manufacturing contract services. We intend to make the greater Northwest and Mountain state region the best place in the U.S. to launch and sustain innovative biotech companies, products, and services.

How would you define an “excellent healthcare provider”?

An excellent healthcare provider listens to the consumer, adjusts their frame of reference for empathy, asks questions to develop a deeper diagnostic picture, and connects using person- and context-appropriate language.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. The COVID-19 pandemic has put intense pressure on the American healthcare system. Some healthcare systems were at a complete loss as to how to handle this crisis. Can you share with our readers a few examples of where we’ve seen the U.S. healthcare system struggle? How do you think we can correct these specific issues moving forward?

The economics of the U.S. healthcare system requires expensive diagnostics and corrective procedures rather than preventing health problems. Profitability requires a steady flow of patients through the higher-margin services to offset the costs of providing lower-margin benefits. When the pandemic shut the US down, hospitals and clinics could no longer depend on the cash flow of surgeries and diagnostic procedures. At the same time, many hospitals were hit with increased spending to treat severe COVID-19 cases and protect their workforce from the disease. These issues were already closing rural medical systems, but the pandemic made the problem obvious to everyone. I think we can’t correct these issues by returning to the pre-pandemic system. Instead, I believe a targeted adaptation of the current system towards a model successful in other regions and increased reimbursement for preventative medicine are two approaches we should consider.

Of course the story was not entirely negative. Healthcare professionals were true heroes on the front lines of the crisis. The COVID vaccines are saving millions of lives. Can you share a few ways that our healthcare system really did well? If you can, please share a story or example.

Our healthcare system performed poorly during the pandemic; the true success story is with the healthcare professionals, the floor teams, administrators, and support staff, who persisted in their emotionally and physically taxing work. When I meet them today, I always take a few moments to share my thanks for their work.

Another success story is in producing the COVID vaccines, many of which are outperforming their expectations. We have never been in a better position in human history to bring technology to bear on this threat. Researchers delivered the early sequences of the virus within days of the first cases. Companies were working on the mRNA vaccine technology for decades, and several were in an excellent position to produce a vaccine substance in weeks. International companies collaborated to create the vaccine dose form and launch massive clinical trials to prove safety and efficacy. A typical new drug undergoes a phase 3 clinical trial with 3–5,000 participants. The COVID vaccine trials had 20–40,000 participants, most still monitored for long-term safety and efficacy results. The industry also worked out the delivery logistics for the final products, including special cold-chain procedures. I worked in commercial drug product manufacturing during the pandemic. I saw first-hand how my team and company participated in this massive effort despite personal risk and multiple logistic and social challenges.

Here is the primary question of our discussion. As a healthcare leader can you share 5 changes that need to be made to improve the overall US healthcare system? Please share a story or example for each.

1. We must change healthcare economics to stabilize the system and focus on the patient-provider relationship(s). Such changes are the key to better health outcomes for the patient, provider, and payor systems. Most providers and patients will tell you they are frustrated by a system focused on billable interactions rather than meaningful patient care. I’m not the only person who thinks this is a big problem. MedCity Influencer Michael Abrams shared a timely commentary on the media-touted ban on surprise medical bills.
2. We must incentivize better health choices at every stage of life, disease, and treatment through education and access. Treatment options often focus on corrective options when behavior changes (like 5 minutes more daily exercise or a single different food choice each day) are less expensive and more effective. Improved focus on the consumer-provider relationship will further encourage better health choices.
3. We must expand STEM education to increase public clarity on health and science data and various health science careers. The curriculum needs to acknowledge past mistakes and emphasize critical thinking to restore public confidence in clear choices supported by accurate data.
4. We must adapt our health education system to increase the number and diversity of providers. That includes deliberate changes to value different career perspectives and encourage mid-career shifts. Not only will this address provider shortages, but it will also expand visibility for the wide variety of healthcare career options.
5. We must expand our view of U.S. healthcare as a strategic and competitive asset. The current system is an enormous drain on federal, state, and local governments, companies, and people. Moreover, it provides poorer health outcomes to our citizens than systems in other countries. Recognizing this fact and rethinking our system in a global context will improve patient care, sustain our internal systems, and help us address future health crises.

Here’s a video of me describing these 5 things.

Let’s zoom in on this a bit deeper. How do you think we can address the problem of physician shortages?

Medical education is difficult and expensive. It follows a historical model that may not be optimal given new tools and technologies (for example, AI/ML). Student loan burdens incentivize new doctors to avoid primary care in favor of higher-paying specialties. Adapting the education system to use better tools and techniques and decreasing its cost should help more physicians graduate.

How do you think we can address the issue of physician diversity?

Diversity is an access issue, which results from high cost and insufficient exposure. The solution to physician shortages described above will naturally improve diversity. Decreasing the price will make medical school more accessible for mid-career changers. Expanding STEM education and incentivizing better health choices will bring a more comprehensive variety of healthcare careers into focus for more young people.

How do you think we can address the issue of physician burnout?

Returning healthcare to the patient-provider axis will help providers sustain a passion for and within their career choice. In addition, a more stable, sustainable system will allow for provider sabbaticals and personal development options, which can refresh mental health, support innovation, and provide alternate perspectives.

What concrete steps would have to be done to actually manifest all of the changes you mentioned? What can a) individuals, b) corporations, c) communities and d) leaders do to help?

Individuals must take time to learn about U.S. healthcare issues and use the ballot and media to state their preferences.

Corporations must re-evaluate their business models, including healthcare in strategic plans, and take action on measures that will improve the system to benefit their employees and families.

Communities must also include healthcare in strategic and tactical plans for livability/sustainability.

Leaders must understand that healthcare affects their teams and use their platform to sustain scientifically sound dialog.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would find an operating healthcare system that provides better patient value than the current U.S. system and implement it here in the U.S.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Your readers can find me online on LinkedIn, Twitter, and our website.

Thank you so much for these insights! This was very inspirational and we wish you continued success in your great work.

About the Interviewer: Luke Kervin is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of PatientPop, an award-winning practice growth technology platform. PatientPop is Kervin’s third successful business venture. Prior to co-founding PatientPop, Kervin co-founded and was President of ShopNation (acquired by Meredith Corporation) and was the first executive hire at StarBrand Media (acquired by POPSUGAR).