Healthcare IT attracts workers from many fields

These forward-looking companies employ IT pros from a wide range of backgrounds, careers and cultures

Diversity is respected and protected for its own sake, and also as a key to
savvy staffing

By Laura Gater
Contributing Editor

Every one of our employees is unique,” declares Patty Martin, VP of global diversity at Eli Lilly and Co (Indianapolis, IN). “Recognizing and applying our people’s diversity of perspectives, skills and talents improves our decision-making and contributes to better solutions for patients, which is what personalized medicine is all about.”

Cheryl A. Wilson, in HR at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), reports that Mayo leadership is devoted to promoting diversity as a strategic advantage. “It gives us access to the broadest pool of qualified employees, letting us recruit and retain the best talent.”

Throughout the healthcare field, diversity is respected and protected for its own sake, as an important key to savvy staffing, and as an excellent way to achieve a positive impact on customers and the bottom line.

David Montgomery: VP of IT quality management at Cardinal Health
For the past year David Montgomery has been VP of IT quality management at Cardinal Health (Dublin, OH). This is his first job in healthcare, and he took it partly because of Cardinal’s excellent reputation. “Everything we do is helping hospitals, pharmacies and physicians’ offices to be more productive,” he says.

Montgomery sees his department as the “gatekeeper” for change control, managing the deployment of IT solutions to customers. It’s his job to ensure the quality of Cardinal Health’s enterprise IT solutions, especially the software solutions that his 200-person department tests and validates. He’s also responsible for information risk management, including IT security policy and disaster-recovery planning.

Montgomery received his BS in management information systems from Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, OH) in 1983. Before he joined Cardinal Health, he worked at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co (Columbus, OH) from 2002 to 2008 as associate VP for enterprise IT and corporate apps. His work covered application and software development support for enterprise technology infrastructure and more.

Before that he was a principal at IBM Global Services’ Business Innovation Services (Columbus, OH) for about eight years, specializing in turning around “troubled contracts.” And before that he worked for Ohio’s Secretary of State as CIO of the IT Division.

“Each job has been a steppingstone to the next,” he explains. “My current job is like a return on my investment.”

Montgomery attributes much of his success to mentors who guided him along the way. Today he shares his own success by mentoring seven or eight rising minority folks. “A lot of people don’t understand what needs to be done to take advantage of an opportunity. You don’t just get in line and wait for it!” he warns.

Montgomery would love to continue to move up at Cardinal Health, maybe as far as a CIO role. “I think Cardinal’s a wonderful place with fair opportunities,” he declares.

Kerry Clark, CEO of Cardinal Health, agrees with Montgomery’s assessment. “Unleashing the power of people is about giving them the confidence and support to achieve their full potential,” he says.

Timothy Coleman: senior IT director for Eli Lilly’s Global Medical
Timothy Coleman has worked at Eli Lilly & Co (Indianapolis, IN) for eighteen years. Today he’s senior director of IT for the company’s global medical division.

He started at the company when he finished his BS in industrial management and CS at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) in 1990. He went on to earn a 1993 MBA in marketing from Northwestern University (Chicago, IL). He saw the job as an opportunity to learn about many areas of the healthcare business. Both his parents had jobs providing services to help people, and he had the same desire.

His job today is leading a team of more than 120 people. They develop information systems that collect clinical research data, and provide statistical analytics and information to support regulatory submissions and customer requests.

Coleman’s varied career at Lilly has included work in human resources, sales and marketing as well as IT. Throughout his career he has understood the importance of good relationships, the potential impact of his work on the company’s bottom line and its reputation, and the importance of giving back to the community as a key to success and fulfillment.

Coleman’s first leadership position was manager of IT for the internal medicine business unit. He moved on to work as manager of IT clinical planning, analysis and reporting; director of
IT global marketing and sales; district sales manager for the osteoporosis specialty business unit; and director of IT global brand development teams. His work often involved launching
key products.

As director of IT global marketing and sales, his job included work on IT platforms that enabled salesforce automation and marketing knowledge management, and extended Lilly’s e-business capabilities and corporate intranet. “Working in any business or technical environment, you should be attuned and responsive to feedback and get to know your supervisors and co-workers well,” he advises. He hopes to continue to advance at Lilly as a business leader with
IT skills, making a difference in the organization and ultimately for the patients and the community.

Alvin Whitney: global business processes at Smith & Nephew IS
Alvin Whitney is a project manager in global business processes at Smith & Nephew (Memphis, TN). The job includes managing and coordinating IS and process-related projects for the supply chain organization: customer service, warehouse management, distribution and field sales.

He also works in tactical and strategic planning activities for application and process development, and he’s responsible for managing budget, costs and vendor relationships as they relate to PM. He manages teams of developers, analysts, technicians and contractors that support and perform project development activities.

Whitney graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1978 with a BS in engineering technology. He’s taken courses toward a masters in IS at the University of Memphis (Memphis, TN), and earned a project management professional certificate in 2007.

He joined Smith & Nephew in 1998, beginning as a systems analyst responsible for engineering and regulatory systems. In 2000 he was made a project leader, adding responsibilities for larger projects, like the one where CAD/CAM apps were adapted for use on PCs.

He became an applications manager in 2002. His new responsibilities included supplying application support and development and overseeing a team. In 2006 he moved up to senior apps manager; he took on his current role last year.

Before Smith & Nephew, Whitney worked at L’Oreal Cosmetics (Memphis, TN) as a developer; at Dover Elevator Co (Memphis, TN) as an engineer, designer and drafter, and then in IS, and at Chicago Bridge & Iron (Memphis, TN), where he worked in production planning and QA.

Whitney’s parents always stressed the value of a good education. Two mentors at Dover Elevator saw the promise of IT early, and encouraged him to transfer to IS and go back to school. “I’m really glad I made that choice,” he says.

Smith & Nephew has a formal mentorship program which helped Whitney when he started there. He’s now informally sharing his experience with others. “I haven’t seen an overabundance of minorities in IS, but I don’t have any issues or challenges related to my work,” he says. “It’s been a rewarding career.”

Rong Huang is an application development manager for Walgreens
Since 2006, Rong (Ronnie) Huang has been an application development manager in pharmacy technology services at Walgreens (Deerfield, IL).

She graduated from the Institute of Mechanical Engineering (Changchun, China) in 1991 with a BS in optical engineering. Her mother, a well-regarded professor of optical engineering in China, gave her daughter a natural interest in the field.

When Huang came to the U.S. everyone was talking about IT, and she noticed that the technology was associated with many types of jobs. She decided to work for an MSCS at Loyola University (Chicago, IL), and she completed it in 1998.

“I started looking into the field of optical engineering combined with CS, and I selected Walgreens as a place to begin my career,” says Huang. “I like the combination of computer science, engineering and the healthcare field.”

Huang’s current responsibility is developing software for Walgreens pharmacies: some 6,600 retail and specialty pharmacies across the country. She’s currently working on “Pharmacy optimization with enterprise engineering (POWER),” a long-term new software project expected to “help shape the future of community pharmacy,” she notes.

Four teams report to Huang, each working on part of the project. The company’s current software system is Windows-based, and Huang and her teams are working to move portions
of its functionality to a central location by developing Web-based methods to implement it.

“My department is IT, but very specialized in terms of application development,” Huang explains. “This has required us to become solution providers instead of pure technology providers. We’ve had to learn how technology is the true enabler of business.”

Huang began at Walgreens the year before she graduated as a programmer/analyst. In
2002 she became a team manager in enterprise solutions, with a development support team that assembled the final pieces of hardware and software for applications before they went
to production.

She advanced to manager of the pharmacy management team in 2003, and was also responsible for QA testing. Then she moved to application development manager on the pharmacy management team, with duties that included developing a new pricing system.

Huang acknowledges challenges in the male-dominated IT field; she thinks they are caused by the difference in how men and women think. “A lot of times women work logically, as we were trained, but also emotionally, as we were influenced,” she notes.

At Mayo, Paul Ruales is a senior analyst programmer
Paul Ruales’ job as senior analyst programmer at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) has him overseeing design and implementation of new physical databases
for online transactional and analytical processing systems. He also helps
other analyst programmers with database performance, architecture and integration among several clinical systems, and he’s database coordinator
of infrastructure changes.

Ruales earned a 1994 BS in business at ESPE University (Quito, Ecuador). He went on to a 2002 BSCS from Winona State University (Rochester, MN) and a 2006 MS with a major in project management and an emphasis in IT from St. Mary’s University (Rochester, MN).

In Ecuador, Ruales worked as a business-oriented programmer/analyst for Manpower/Macosa, and a business system analyst for Bank of Pacific/Lloyds Bank and then for Continental Bank.

In 2001 he joined Mayo as an analyst programmer in integrated clinical systems. He
designed, developed, implemented and maintained purchased software systems for
healthcare technology. He analyzed problems and developed solutions on various computer system layers.

In 2006 Ruales moved to Ciber, Inc (Rochester, MN) as an IT consultant. But the next year he returned to Mayo as a senior analyst programmer.

“Opportunities are readily available today in healthcare IT, but the healthcare field requires great security for private information and great attention to detail; there’s no margin for error.

“Security and QA are important parts of my job today, along with managing large amounts of data and processing large amounts of information,” he explains. “Patient information needs to be available all the time and anytime.”

English at conversational speeds can still be a bit of a challenge for Ruales. But he’s working happily and profitably in electronic medical records, applying the organization and planning which he considers two of his main strengths.

Romel Tolbert: compliance leader in global IT at GE Healthcare
Romel Tolbert taught himself to write code on a Commodore 64 computer when he was in elementary school. So nobody was surprised when he opted for IT as a career. Today Tolbert is a compliance leader for IT infrastructure at GE Healthcare (Milwaukee, WI).

His job involves managing the regulatory compliance of GE Healthcare’s global infrastructure environment. He’s responsible for creating and maintaining a compliant infrastructure state, leading teams of infrastructure qualification managers and a disaster recovery leader; and supporting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspections of global GE healthcare sites.

When Tolbert completed his degree in business administration in MIS at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2001, he had already been working as an intern at GE Healthcare for two years through the Inroads program. He was an IT leader in Americas staffing, eliminating data duplication and manual effort by digitizing the staffing processes.

From 2001 to 2004 he worked in the GE Information Management Leadership Program (IMLP), a corporate entry-level rotation program for new grads in IT at GE. His jobs included managing teams doing IT integration of acquired companies, and project management for critical efforts that impacted IT, P&L and other business functions.

In 2004 Tolbert graduated from the IMLP and became a program manager in IT infrastructure for GE Healthcare in Brookfield, WI. He led infrastructure teams that integrated and deployed the company’s standard technologies, equipment and processes in acquired businesses.

Tolbert became a Lean Six Sigma black belt leader in 2005, working on large, complex IT projects. Early last year he moved to his current position of compliance leader for IT infrastructure.

“I’ve had to learn how to drive change as well as use my technology skills,” he says. “The jobs that GE has exposed me to have all helped me understand infrastructure and regulatory compliance in the role I’m in today. As my team grows, I’m able to look back on those early work experiences and interactions and understand their value.”

He also takes time to go out in the community to speak to minority students about opportunities at GE Healthcare.

Greg Bernard: desktop services for a Medtronic division
Greg Bernard is IT desktop services manager for Medtronic Spinal &
Biologics, where he’s worked for eight years. He’s responsible for maintaining
a stable infrastructure and helping other employees use technology efficiently and effectively.

He oversees multiple sites and coordinates testing and maintenance of computer hardware, software and network infrastructure. Eleven people report to him, and he’s also part of a team.

Greg Bernard’s father, an auto mechanic, owned his own shop, but all his son was interested in was the electronics involved. Young Bernard completed an AS in electronic engineering technology in 1991 from Southeast College of Technology (Memphis, TN). He earned a 2006 BS in IT with a specialization in network architecture online from Capella University (Minneapolis, MN), and a 2008 MBA with a specialty in technology management online from the University of Phoenix (Phoenix, AZ). Now he’s working on a doctor of business admin degree with an emphasis on technology management online from Walden University (Baltimore, MD).

Before joining Medtronic, Bernard worked as a warehouse associate for Americold Logistics (West Memphis, AR), a production supervisor for Cintas (Memphis, TN), a media analyst for VMS (Washington, DC) and a tech rep for Stream International (Memphis, TN).

The stability of the healthcare field drew him to his current job. “I learned from my parents that it doesn’t make a difference what you do as long as you always put your best into it,” he says.

He notes that there are always challenges on the job for minorities, “but nothing you can’t
work around or work through, as long as you have confidence in yourself and believe in what you’re doing.”

One day Bernard and his brothers and sister would like to open a leadership academy in Memphis, TN to help kids find out what they want to do in life. But he loves his current job and Medtronic’s mission. “Even if you don’t have a direct contact with the patients, you can have a positive impact on the service they get,” he believes.

Venkat Jakkula is a system QA advisor for WellPoint
Venkat Jakkula has worked at WellPoint’s Mason, OH office for four years. He has a 1998 BSME from Gulbarga University (Karnataka, India).

At school Jakkula enjoyed the QA aspect of his work the most. He went on to a 2001 MS in engineering from the University of Bridgeport (Bridgeport, CT), and holds certificates of achievement in Six Sigma from Villanova University (Villanova, PA).

“To me, QA is looking at something that seems almost perfectly done, and then leveraging the skills I have to make it even better,” he says.

His first job was as a QA tester at Jindal Iron & Steel Supply Co Ltd (Mumbai, India). From 1997 to 1999 he conducted quality analysis for software design/development and structured test cases using advanced techniques for handling test data.

In 2002 he moved to Innovative Tech Corp (Bridgeport, CT) as a QA and validation engineer. He conducted measurement testing and quality analysis in a software design/development context. In 2004 he joined Ecom Solutions (Oskaloosa, IA) as a QA engineer, performing integration, functionality and performance testing to ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Jakkula’s next job was at Vaktech Corp (Plainsboro, NJ) as a business and QA analyst, working as a consultant for WellPoint. He wrote test plans and created test cases, coordinating and mentoring various tools and the process flow of the applications.

He joined WellPoint in 2005 as a senior system QA analyst. The job involved quality analysis of software, as well as assessing organizational impacts and tradeoffs of the quality processes. He also entered errors in the defects-reporting system and monitored performance at the production site.

In 2007 he advanced to his current job as system QA advisor, coordinating and defining automation test strategy to identify test cases. He provides leadership in design and development of product testing and quality processes, developing test architecture, maintaining current reference architecture, collecting test and product quality data and many other QA-related activities.

He credits mentors at the company, including Robert “Tede” Forman and Brian Schweickert, for helping him train for Six Sigma and other QA certifications. He, in turn, has helped train others and shared the skills he learned in the Six Sigma program.

He feels comfortable at WellPoint, which he says is a very diverse workplace. “Since I came to the U.S., I have never felt any discrimination,” Jakkula declares.

Diversity is good for all
Kerry Clark, CEO of Cardinal Health, notes that “Unleashing the power of people is about giving them the confidence and support to achieve their full potential.”

Tomás Rivera, director of diversity strategy at Walgreens, notes that the company has “a long tradition of embracing the differences that reflect the communities it serves.” He believes that a company must truly understand the diverse needs of its customers to serve them best.

Jim Price, senior manager of workplace inclusion and diversity at Medtronic Spinal & Biologics (Memphis, TN), says, “Diversity has been at the forefront of Medtronic since Day One. Our global mission is without boundaries, limitations or exclusions.”

D/C

Laura Gater is a freelance business and medical/ healthcare writer based in northeast Indiana.

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