The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare

The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare 

Episode 2 - Sue Schade:  “Own your Own Career”

Today, on our second episode, host Meg Escobosa welcomes Sue Schade, a Principal at Starbridge Advisors and interim CIO at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Meg and Sue discuss Sue’s early days in paper-based health data as a chart secretary and programmer; The evolution of health IT over 35+ years; The essential role of IT teams in making a difference in healthcare; Sue’s legacy as a role model developing the next generation of health IT leaders; What will enable increased diversity in health IT leadership; Some of the risks Sue has taken & lessons learned; The importance of finding mentors & what Sue learned about being a more effective leader; Sue’s observations about the evolution of Healthcare, C-Suite, information technology roles; and Promising healthcare startups that intend to increase access to basic and virtual healthcare.

About Sue Schade:

Sue Schade, is a Principal at Starbridge Advisors, a consulting firm that provides IT leadership advisory and interim management services to healthcare organizations. Sue has over 35 years of experience in healthcare information technology management. She has served as interim CIO for many distinguished organizations, including the University of Vermont Health Network, Stony Brook Medicine on Long Island, University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio and most recently for Boston Children's Hospital.  

Prior to this, for almost 13 years, she served as CIO for Brigham & Women’s Hospital and then moved on to become the CIO of the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers for several years. In 2015, under Sue's leadership, the University of Michigan Health System made the “HealthCare’s Most Wired” list and achieved the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model Stage 6. That same year, she won the “CHIME-HIMSS John E. Gall, Jr. CIO of the Year Award.”

Sue is currently serving as the Vice Chair of Health IT for the board of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation® (AAMI) which is a nonprofit organization focused on the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. Sue achieved fellow status with both HIMSS and CHIME for which she also served as a board member.

In addition, Sue is an investor/advisor to two organizations: Excelerate Health Ventures which is helping to usher in innovation in the realm of virtual care, and AlyxHealth, a platform that enables nurses and non-physician clinicians to deliver patient care as independent business owners and entrepreneurs by providing virtual, mobile, and primary care. 

LinkedIn | Twitter: @sgschade

Find Sue’s weekly blog, HealthIT Connect, HERE!

Further Reading: Starbridge Advisors | Boston Children’s Hospital | John E. Gall Jr. CIO of the Year Award Winners | Health IT Connect Blog | CHIME Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | AlyxHealth

Episode Credits: 

The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare is a production of The Krinsky Company. 

Hosted by Meg Escobosa. 

Produced, edited, engineered, and mixed by Calvin Marty. 

Theme music composed and performed by Calvin Marty. 

Intro and outro voiced by John Parsons. 

Artwork by Paul Huber.

©2021 The Krinsky Company

The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare

Episode 1 - Tracy Byers: Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

Today, on our very first episode, host Meg Escobosa welcomes Tracy Byers, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Imaging at Change Healthcare.

Meg and Tracy talk about what got Tracy hooked in healthcare, some of her early category-creating successes, and the invaluable mentorship and coaching she received that informed her own leadership style. They also discuss the keys to driving successful innovation on teams and the promise of cloud computing in healthcare today.

About Tracy Byers: 

Tracy Byers is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Imaging at Change Healthcare, a 14-year old healthcare technology company, focused on accelerating the transformation of the healthcare system through the Change Healthcare Platform providing data and analytics-driven solutions to improve clinical, financial, administrative, and patient engagement outcomes in the U.S. healthcare system. In January 2021, UnitedHealth Group's OptumInsight unit agreed to acquire Change Healthcare in a deal valued at $13 billion.

Since beginning her tenure at Change Healthcare in 2019, Tracy has been responsible for driving growth, expanding market share, and advancing the company's position as a transformational leader in the imaging market. Tracy has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare technology industry, including executive leadership roles at IBM Watson Health, Philips Healthcare, Agilent Technologies, Hewlett Packard, and GE. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Lehigh University and an MBA from Northeastern University.

LinkedIn | Twitter: @TWByers

Further Reading: 

• Merger of Change Healthcare and United Healthcare Group’s Optum Insight Unit
• Press Release - HP Medical’s acquisition of HeartStream
• LA Times article describing the opportunity in AEDs
• IBM Watson Health

Episode Credits: 

The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare is a production of The Krinsky Company. 

Hosted by Meg Escobosa. 

Produced by Wendy Nielsen and Calvin Marty.
Edited, engineered, mixed, and mastered by Calvin Marty.
Theme music composed and performed by Calvin Marty. 

Intro and outro voiced by John Parsons. Cover design by Paul Huber.  

©2021 The Krinsky Company

Coming soon, from The Krinsky Company: The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare, a podcast celebrating courage, perseverance, creativity, and vision in the pursuit of healthcare innovation. Join host Meg Escobosa in conversation with some of the most inspiring and forward-thinking women working in healthcare today. Meg goes behind the scenes to uncover previously untold stories of struggle and success in a notoriously complex and highly regulated industry. As the worlds of healthcare and technology continue to converge, and as women take on increasingly more important roles in both, these are timely tales that deserve to be told.

Subscribe now and be sure to hear the first episode the moment it drops.