Event Summary | Leaders in Healthcare Series: Dr. Graham Gardner
Edited by Elisa Danthinne, Giancarlo Nero, Emma Smith, and Dr. Graham Gardner
On October 1st, ViTAL hosted Graham Gardner, MD MBA, for the first installment of the Leaders in Healthcare series. The primary focus of this series is to shed light on the different journeys that healthcare leaders have taken, to not only inspire but also empower students. The path to make an impact in healthcare is not linear, and Dr. Gardner showcased in our fireside chat how willpower and a desire to make an impact can drive success across different facets of healthcare.
A cardiologist by training, Dr. Gardner spent the earlier part of his career practicing as a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Inspired by his father’s venture into the entrepreneurial realm and a desire to make a bigger impact, Gardner decided to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School. After business school, he joined Highland Capital Partners, a global venture capital firm, but soon realized that he wanted to leverage that platform to build something from the ground up. Seeing the momentum around personalized medicine and genetic testing, Gardner co-founded Generation Health, a novel health management company. Within a year, his company was acquired by CVS Caremark.
Inspired by this early success, Gardner went on to co-found Kyruus, a market-leading provider search, scheduling and data management company with the primary goal of connecting patients to the care they need. This venture introduced a new role for Gardner: that of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). As he discussed his journey through healthcare, Dr. Gardner offered several key takeaways.
Being a Physician
Dr. Gardner noted that there is great demand for healthcare services but often an inability to match that demand with the right care at the right time. COVID-19 further exposed stark healthcare accessibility issues and inequities. Ultimately, part of the reason that Dr. Gardner decided to stop practicing and focus on business was a desire to make a greater impact. In doing so, he recognized the need for a team to play to each other’s strengths — leading him to develop a vision to pair patients with physicians tailored to their patients’ needs.
Why an MBA?
While an MBA isn’t required to become a CEO, Dr. Gardner discussed the advantages of a business background in healthcare. In some ways, business frameworks are similar to those of medicine, Dr. Gardner noted. The case teaching methodology at Harvard resonated with his experience solving patient cases in medicine: a patient comes in with an unknown problem, which the physician diagnoses and works to alleviate. Similarly, in the business world, leaders are faced with crises and need to assess the best strategy to work through the issue and align a team around the solution. By combining patient-level perspective with industry-specific knowledge, Dr Gardner believes you can broaden the impact that one can have. As part of that journey, he noted how important it had been for him to professionally re-brand through his MBA degree and escape the label of “just being a doctor.”
Conclusion
This event provided valuable insight to not only our students who are interested in pursuing medicine or those with more of a passion in healthcare innovation, but also to the students at the intersection who wish to foray into both fields. We hope you are able to join us at our upcoming events to hear more inspirational stories and journeys from speakers within the healthcare space.
