- September 5, 2022
- Health Care Podcasts, Patient Experience, Uncategorized
Kate Dion sits down with Healthcare Changemaker and incoming General Manager Roche Slovenia, as she wraps up her tenure as Director of Business Strategy, Transformation and Innovation.
Driven by a desire to deliver the outcomes that matter most to patients, their families, and society, Eva uses her ability to collaborate and build transformative partnerships with those looking to push boundaries, drive healthcare innovation, learn from past lessons, and co-create a better future together.
In this article, Eva reflects upon the most recent conversations with partners in Belgium and Luxembourg. She shares her key insights on the necessity of collaboration to transform healthcare and how to evaluate partnerships to ensure mutual benefit for all.
“The red thread of our shared ambitions as ecosystem partners – biotech startups, industry, academia, government, and civil society, is collaboration. Indeed, it is only by working together – in all our areas of activity and with our partners – that we can make a real difference in the countries we live and serve. I firmly believe and stand behind that.” – Eva McLellan
Transforming health systems to be future fit: Why the moment is now
I’m catching up with Eva late in the day.
I expect her to be tired. She’s anything but. As Eva moves into her new role as General Manager for Roche Slovenia, we’ve met to talk about why she believes partnerships are the key to advancing healthcare transformation and innovation. It’s a topic that Eva cares deeply about and it shows.
Our conversation is taking place just weeks after Eva wrapped up her Healthcare Innovation Talks series in which she was in conversation with several healthcare ecosystem partners. Together they discussed and shared key insights into some of the more innovative approaches stakeholders can be taking to partnering as they seek to prepare for the healthcare system challenges – and opportunities – of the future.
“We’re at a watershed moment. We’re seeing science, artificial intelligence, and advances in informatics all coming together to transform the way we prevent, diagnose and treat disease. The last time I experienced such a transformational moment in healthcare was back in 2003 when the sequencing of the human genome took medicine to a new level,” Eva says.
Since scientists successfully mapped the complete human genome in 2003 – an achievement on the same scale as going to the moon – researchers have been able to identify the faulty genes that are causing diseases, such as cancer and some neurological disorders. This has led to the development of highly effective targeted medicines that come with fewer systemic side effects that can be a particularly grueling part of treatment regimens.
It’s a feat that can sometimes be overlooked by those outside of the healthcare sector, but the pandemic and the ability to rapidly sequence the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19 has brought the significance of the 2003 achievement back into sharp focus.
“The world has woken up and is now realizing just how important health, science, and our healthcare systems are as a result of the pandemic. We’re reaping the benefits of the last 20 years and the world is motivated to come together to solve the many health issues we are still grappling with,” Eva says.
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