We Are Carium: Meet Dr. Stephanie Peters

We’re excited to introduce our Behavioral Medicine Director at Carium, Dr. Stephanie Peters.

What are you most proud of in your job?

I’m most proud of being part of a team that is driven to help people have both better health and a better experience with the healthcare system. I’m proud of the many steps that Carium takes to ensure that improving the patient perspective and experience is our priority. It’s hard to capture the work culture in words, but a few examples include:

• Lygeia Ricciardi’s leadership as a champion of patient-centered care.
• Regularly scheduled “patient advocacy” presentations where we listen to and learn from patients directly about their experiences navigating our healthcare system.
• An inspirational image on our office wall — a version of our company logo surrounded by individual people — which reminds us that what we are doing has the potential to significantly impact people’s lives.

What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?

I love how we are mending the rift between how healthcare is typically provided and what would feel like outstanding care. We are all well aware of the system-wide problems that contribute to the usual care in many settings being suboptimal, including the lack of time given to providers to do their job to their full potential, and how care is normally fragmented across many settings. By focusing on what is important to improve each patient’s experience, we’re designing solutions that will help make healthcare better for both patients and providers. One example: we are working on how to help patients share information — what specifics about themselves they want their medical team to know — more easily.

How do you describe what you do for a living to family and friends?

I usually start by saying that I’m helping with the behavioral medicine aspect of an app that is making our healthcare system better. Considering how frustrating healthcare is for most people, that’s usually enough for people to understand the reason Carium exists.

What has surprised you the most about working at Carium?

I’ve been surprised about how quickly thoughtful solutions can be both developed and implemented. As a healthcare provider, I’ve often recognized ways that the health system could deliver better care. Unfortunately, it is not often clear how a provider can move forward with a good idea to make system-wide improvements. There is an incredibly skilled team here that is capable of designing and building thoughtful solutions faster than I could have imagined was possible prior to joining. But unlike many other startups, we are not trying to just move fast and “break things.”

With healthcare, there is a need for digital companies to be thoughtful and pragmatic as well as skilled in developing innovative solutions quickly that can help people live better lives as soon as possible.

I’ve been grateful to see our team finding that balance.

What’s your favorite part about your job?

The team! I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have worked as part of collaborative and innovative teams — Carium is no exception. In addition to the work culture being patient-centered and thoughtful, I’ve been very grateful to learn how passionate everyone is about what we are doing.

I feel extremely lucky to be able to tackle healthcare challenges alongside people who are equally motivated to improve the system.

Do you have a favorite charity you wish more people knew about?

There is a charity in the UK called “Changing Faces” that helps people who have visible differences (for example, people who have scars) live the lives that they want. Changing Faces is amazing, not only because of their mission to create an enlightened society which fully accepts and values people with visible differences, but because of how they help support both individuals and the broader community. They offer a confidential hotline for advice and support, sessions with their counseling practitioners, self-help guides, skin camouflage clinics, forums, and advocacy campaigns. I wish there were more charities like them.

What are you reading right now?

I just started reading Misbehaving, by Richard Thaler. I’m only about 20-ish pages in, but so far it has been nice to spend some time learning about how traditional economic models don’t take into account how we actually make choices… and how it is not just the field of healthcare that is shifting toward a stronger focus on understanding, appreciating, and supporting our humanness.