Why switch from financial services to healthcare?

Having worked as consultant and manager in financial services and other sectors, I often get asked why I got interested in healthcare. Wouldn’t it make more sense to stick with that? The answer has four parts. 

Following an accident and 20 months of living with chronic back pain, I learned about how food has a part in pain management and recovery. By the time I got operated and rid of the pain, I was hooked on how nutrition works. I find it extraordinarily interesting. I discovered the keto diet, and lost and kept off 10 kilos. I began to hack my health, sometimes also helping others.
I had diabetes when pregnant and would have got it again had I not been so deliberate with what I eat. While I recognize that people’s situations are different, my experience has convinced me that diabetes (type 2) is both preventable and curable. I choose what I eat both to keep my A1C level down and to stay slim. Learning how diabetes comes about and how it works was difficult at first, but with my interest in food and nutrition it became very manageable after a while.
Following the loss of my job, I took some time to reflect upon what I want. Being able to achieve complex change, and liking such work, I fit in large organizations and in dealing with uncertainty. My family is very happy in Zurich and we wish to stay. My options here include financial services and pharmaceuticals, and I’ve already done the first of those. Although change in Swiss healthcare is slow, I believe it is bound to happen, and be significant. I decided to invest in a master of healthcare management. One of the courses was about “medicine, for non-clinicians”. It was awesome!
I have always had a passion for learning, especially about complex topics that are important. Human physiology wins in both those categories. It is simply amazing to learn bits of how we work, studying the same problems from different angles, zooming in and out of various mechanisms of physiology, always comprehending more. I find it rather stimulating that one cannot know everything, that new notions often rock previous beliefs, and that serious learning must be anchored in science too.

What the combination is worth

Self-taught about diabetes, hormones, fat loss, food quality, toxins, the food system and food politics, I am superbly engaged in effecting positive change in the food and healthcare environment. I’m neither a health professional nor chemist, but am quick to get what affects what (toxins, hormones, pharmacology, information and consumer behavior), and to connect and balance what it means for a business to address a topic. Perhaps most importantly, I care about this and want it to be my job.

Experience so far

I have done systems integration for pharma sales (SFA) and pharma GDP validated production (ERP). I have prepared the distribution of a new medical device on the Swiss market and a biotech R&D company’s Finance function for commercialization of products. I also have vast experience in service design, strategic sourcing, vendor governance and performance management from other sectors: manufacturing, logistics, high-tech, banking and insurance (see more). I am fluent in Swedish, English, Italian, German and French.

What I want to do

I am interested in many things within pharma, biotech, medicinal devices, healthcare management and policy: preparing for commercialization, setting and implementing customer strategy, extending market access, gauging new needs and ways to tap into them, optimizing the use of resources (incl. HTA), and problem-solving and deciding on healthcare policy and architecture options.
I also ponder on specific problems that appear less often. The list of those is long, and includes:
How come so few people actually help individuals who need and want help in changing their lifestyle? “Eat less and exercise more” never worked for anyone I know. I can think of several windows of opportunity when and how to engage with people at risk, and how to help. It’s very difficult to engage with healthcare professionals about this.
Why is testing for iron, vitamin D, vitamin B and other deficiencies not done systematically, when many of them have inexpensive solutions and undetected they cause risks, costs, and loss of health? Must all lab testing and interpretation be steered to the doctors’ office or could we find complementary ways?
Why are so much bread, pasta, fried foods and sweets served in schools and hospitals? It cannot be for cost reasons alone. Isn’t school and hospital stay excellent places to help people into better habits?
Finally, my interest in health and wellbeing has extended to thinking practices, how learning works, and how to craft actions and habits in a purposeful way. I publish my thoughts on that hier.

Interested in contact

If this is interesting, emailen.