Podcasts

In his fourth year attending the World Economic Forum, an annual convening of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland (the Forum is also known as “Davos”), Pat Geraghty can draw a direct line from this global meeting to his role as president and CEO at GuideWell. Each year, the agenda at Davos reflects the most pressing forces that can disrupt and shape society, the global economy and international security. It is no wonder, then, that the opioid epidemic and the drivers evolving the health industry were focal points. As a health industry executive experienced in both issues, we are honored Pat was invited to share his perspective with this global audience.

If you’ve been following our series on the opioid crisis, you already know this is a public health epidemic that is devastating for its thousands of lives lost, and complex for its social, economic and health factors. This “epidemic of epidemics” necessitates a multi-prong response. With oversight from an internal task force, GuideWell is currently engaged in executing an enterprise-wide tactical program to combat the opioid crisis in our home state of Florida. We interviewed our chief medical officer and president of GuideWell Health, Elana Schrader, M.D., along with our vice president of commercial and specialty pharmacy programs, Scott McClelland, PharmD., to learn more about how GuideWell’s health insurance company is working to protect members’ health during the opioid crisis.

By Candace Hodgkins, PhD., LMHC

Editor’s Note: The following article is a companion piece to “Unpacking the Opioid Crisis: A GuideWell Insights Interview.” Our podcast guest, Dr. Candace Hodgkins, CEO of Gateway Community Services, shares evidence for the efficacy of 12-Step programs used in concert with medication assisted treatment (MAT) for long-term recovery of people living with substance use disorder.

I hope you will listen to the conversation I had with colleague and friend, Dr. Huson Gilberstadt, the president of St. Vincent’s Medical Center – Riverside, and GuideWell’s social media manager, Kate Warnock, as we teased-apart the issues that have escalated today’s opioid epidemic into a deadly public health crisis.

Imagine becoming addicted to a drug from your very first use – and living through your first bone-shaking withdrawal within two hours of taking the drug. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and the hundred-times more powerful carfentanil (described by the NIH as “for large-animal use only”) have made this unimaginable situation a reality for too many Americans, and have helped escalate the opioid crisis to a nation-wide epidemic. Yet while synthetic opioids are a significant driver of the crisis, there are other factors that have made this public health emergency so complex that no single response alone can reverse the damage.

In our most recent GuideWell Insights podcast, we interviewed two health industry experts to unpack the opioid crisis, seeking to better understand its root causes, and what approaches they believe are required to save lives.

Ask Pat Geraghty about his top takeaways from his third year at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, and he leads with a point not about the impact of artificial intelligence or universal coverage, but gender equality in the workplace. As you’ll hear in our GuideWell Insights interview with GuideWell’s CEO, AI and universal coverage are critical topics Pat looks to advance within and beyond our enterprise. But when 70 percent of GuideWell’s employees are women, Pat indicated his most practical takeaway from Davos was understanding how pervasive gender bias at work can be.  

Watch our debrief with Pat for more of his practical takeaways, including:

Renee Finley, head of GuideWell Innovation and Nina Nashif, CEO and Founder of Healthbox

By Kate Warnock

Jamie Grooms, the CEO of the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Pubic Research (here forward, The Institute) may not be known as the successful publicly-funded, Florida-based start-up’s secret weapon, but he should be. A seasoned serial entrepreneur who transitioned to leading two successful companies, Jamie leads a host of business, human resources, financial and scientific advisors at The Institute who are charged with leading nascent companies started at Florida universities or research centers through the “Valley of Death.” This real-world stage is when many start-ups lose velocity and disintegrate under the burden of a poor corporate design, inappropriate funding, improper concept execution, and the myriad traps that mine the path to success. I interviewed Jamie and Renee Finley, GuideWell’s Vice President of Enterprise Innovation, for the most recent episode of GuideWell Insights podcast series.

Image courtesy Lake Nona Institute

By Kate Warnock, Social Media Manager at GuideWell

The Lake Nona Impact Forum, hosted this past February by the Lake Nona Institute in Medical City outside of Orlando, is singular in how it convenes health industry thought leaders to engage and inspire health innovation. As a founding partner and advisor on the event, GuideWell shares Lake Nona Institute’s passion for discovering synergies that might lead to new health solutions. In our latest episodes of GuideWell Insights, we interview three GuideWell leaders who participated in the Impact Forum to learn what they found most compelling about the event.

By Kate Warnock, Social Media Manager at GuideWell

My interview with Arden Buchanan, GuideWell Connect’s director of database marketing, took a left turn about ten minutes into the podcast recording. Our topic was supposed to focus on hyperpersonalization, or the ability to use data models to help drive the right offer to the right audience at the right time. In this age when consumers expect a Brand to remember past visits and customize their current experience (without being creepy – too much familiarity is as bad as not enough), hyperpersonalization is an essential marketing tool. Yet what I found most fascinating when talking with Arden is how he optimizes his database marketing team to be able to create such marketing magic.