People of Perficient: Meet Douglas Stewart, Principal of Healthcare and Life Sciences / Blogs / Perficient

Douglas Stewart, principal of healthcare and life sciences, is utilizing his 20 years of healthcare experience to solve our clients’ needs with the best solutions to their most complex challenges. We recently connected to discuss how he came to join the Perficient team. I loved hearing more about his background in the healthcare space and what he values most about Perficient’s company culture. I’m sure you will too!

Thank you for joining me today, Doug! I’d **** to kick off with hearing more about your background in the healthcare industry and your current role at Perficient. 

Douglas with his family

I started my career in information technology as a programmer, back when Google was new, and Amazon sold books. That led to an opportunity in New York City working in the healthcare and life sciences industries.

Subsequently, I took a role leading projects and systems for the largest health plan in New Jersey. My focus shifted toward the intersection between technology and business outcomes, where I supported organizations in defining goal-oriented needs.

I’ve been responsible for hundreds of work efforts in the payer space. I’ve been the buyer on many occasions. Now I’m using that background to help provide the best solutions based on payer needs to develop deeper client relationships.

My role involves working with sales teams, marketing teams, clients, other principals, and industry analysts to grow our healthcare and life sciences practice. An average day in this role varies based on what’s happening in the industry and what is most important and relevant to our customers. Typically, a day is about:

• One-third ensuring that our offerings address market needs
• One-third understanding problems and explaining how we have solved them, successfully
• One-third thinking about the future to make sure we stay ahead of changes and develop practical solutions

I’m frequently called on to participate in client proposals because of my background. In those circumstances, I shift my complete focus to communicating the best solutions for our clients’ needs.

LEARN MORE: Healthcare Digital Consulting Services

What do you most enjoy about your role and about working at our global digital consultancy?

The people that I work with at Perficient make it a place that’s very enjoyable to work. This company has managed to collect a critical mass of genuine, helpful people who are really interested in solving problems. In my experience, Perficient is a place where people can be authentic and make a difference in a number of ways.

I’ve been involved with many teams throughout my career, and this is the most talented team I’ve been a part of. 

We have conversations about how to preserve our culture as we grow, which tells you a lot about our company.

I think we all value the culture here, and we should do everything in our power to embody it, preserve it, and include our clients in it.

READ MORE: Perficient Giving, Employee Resource Group

What drew you to a career at Perficient? And what motivates you to stay and do your best work?

As I met with leaders at Perficient during my job search, I was truly impressed by the caliber and number of dedicated experts concentrated in a single organization. Since joining the company, I’ve continued to be impressed with the talent **** at Perficient.

My colleagues are passionate about their industry, have innovative perspectives on how to solve problems, and are eager to collaborate to get things done and make exciting things happen. The enthusiasm is contagious!

I’m applying my 20 years of healthcare experience to help clients define their needs.

The people I work with motivate me. I appreciate the people who were involved in the decision to bring me on board last year and the large group of talented people who are looking for their next assignment. Every week I speak with folks that have done really great work to solve common problems. If we can show clients how we can do the same for them – we’ll win.

We’re all really fortunate to be a part of Perficient right now as we grow and align our technical expertise to healthcare and life sciences.  The amount of money spent on healthcare continues to grow exponentially along with our business here, but the health outcomes are getting worse. We can help fix that. Anywhere you have really complex issues to solve and lots of spending, there’s a great market for industry focused technology consulting.

Large, highly regulated, and complex problems are difficult to solve, and there’s an enormous amount of money at stake. Businesses need help, and that’s where we come in. Our clients need to address these problems head on. They are especially interested in practical solutions and stories about how other organizations solved relevant problems. Right now, we’re seeing a significant shift towards:

• Consumerism
• Accurate and modernized clinical platforms
• How Artificial Intelligence will change the ways we work

We are right in the middle of the action, and that’s the perfect place to be.

LEARN MORE: Culture and Connections

How are you seeing DE&I addressed in your work and in the industry? How are you seeing the prioritization of health equity impact the industry and the clients you serve, and how are we approaching our healthcare work through an equity lens?

Professionally, I look at this from a healthcare management perspective. There is a lot of evidence that certain populations need more personalized attention to improve health outcomes. I also can’t help but view this issue from a personal perspective, having a racially diverse household.

I’d like to think that the prioritization of health equity creates passion and opportunity to become more invested in what’s possible.

In the United States, the health equity conversation has happened primarily through the lens of studying social determinants of health, which try to identify why certain population segments have health outcomes that are worse than others (i.e., infant mortality rates and maternity care).

In the life sciences industry, it’s more complex due to the breadth of global organization. It seems, however, like a large focus right now is creating accurate clinical data and ensuring clinical trial diversity requirements. To me, it’s about smarter ways to get products to market quickly while making sure everyone has equal access to those products.

Perficient has major engagements that align directly to these goals, and help drive better health for everyone, especially those who need it the most.

EXPLORE NOW: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) in Healthcare

Healthcare Leaders Turn to Us

Our healthcare experts  understand the unique challenges facing the industry. The 10 largest health systems and 10 largest health insurers in the U.S. have counted on us to support their end-to-end digital success. Modern Healthcare has also recognized us as the fourth largest healthcare IT consulting firm.

We bring pragmatic, strategically-grounded know-how to our clients’ initiatives. And our work gets attention – not only by industry groups that recognize and award our work but also by top technology partners that know our teams will reliably deliver complex, game-changing implementations. Most importantly, our clients demonstrate their trust in us by partnering with us again and again. We are incredibly proud of our 90% repeat business rate because it represents the trust and collaborative culture that we work so hard to build everyday within our teams and with every client.

With more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Perficient is a trusted, end-to-end, global digital consultancy.

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