Good morning, we are right at 1045 to get started with our session on Allied Professionals, Bridging the Gap Between Industry and Clinical Care. My name is Julie Shea, and I am a nurse practitioner at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and I am proud to serve as moderator with this esteemed faculty that we have with us today. So I'd like to start down the end by introducing you to Beth Davenport at the far end. Beth, if you wanna raise your hand. Beth is a Clinical Translation Specialist at Biotronic. We have Deb Halligan, who is the Chief Customer Officer for Nudge Health. We have Amber Seiler, who is a nurse practitioner and owner-operator of CV Remote Solutions. We have Rebecca Eupazian, who is the Associate Manager of Device Operations and also a nurse practitioner at Cardiac CMS. And, I'm sorry, Cardiac RMS, let me correct that. And then we have Robin Leahy, who is Vice President of Clinical Operations for PACE-ART. So welcome, ladies, so glad to have you all here with us today. And I just wanna kind of start off, let's just kind of lay the groundwork a little bit. I'd like each of you to kind of go through and talk about what you were kind of doing clinically and why you made the whys and hows of, you made the decision to transition over to industry. So Robin, why don't we start with you? Sure, well, and just to clarify, I'm Vice President of Clinical Affairs with PACE-MATE and we just acquired PACE-ART, so that's probably where the confusion comes from. Yeah, so I've been with PACE-ART and industry now for a little over three and a half years. I'd like to say that it was something that I intended to do at this point in my career, but in full disclosure, my position had been terminated just kind of at the beginning of COVID. So I found myself in a position after having been a nurse for nearly 40 years, having to try to pivot and move towards something else. I'd always been afraid to join industry. There was the fear of the unknown. And so I was fortunate enough to have spent a lot of time with a lot of different vendors and companies over those years and landed at PACE-MATE. It aligned with my skillset and the company values also aligned with what I wanted to be doing at this point in my career. Okay, thanks, Rebecca. So similar to Robin, I never intended to go into industry. It was not something I planned. I was working part-time with PACE-MATE, actually, while working as a nurse practitioner and got in a car accident one day and broke both of my ankles and couldn't walk for three months. And you can't really do clinic when you can't walk. So, and I didn't feel comfortable holding a position hostage, essentially. So I, you know, I gracefully resigned, but I needed a paycheck and I love EP. And so my focus has always been I'm going to stay in EP no matter what. So I started looking for companies that put patient care as their number one priority. So I ended up going full-time with PACE-MATE. And then more recently now I'm at Cardiac RMS. And again, we put patient care as number one. And as long as I'm working for a company where patient care is the number one focus, then I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, so. Amber? So my name's Amber Siler. Like Julie said, I'm a nurse practitioner by background. I grew up as a device nurse and knew many of the folks sitting here with me for a very long time. In 2017, Dr. Ard and I co-founded CV Remote Solutions. And in 2021, the company had grown to a point that it made sense for me to transition out of my clinical role and into CV Remote full-time. And so that's what I've been doing since 2021 as Chief Operating Officer with CV Remote Solutions. I am a nurse by training and I started in critical care and went to the device clinic in 2005 and around the time where remote monitoring was starting. So I had, you know, first row seat to workflow and billing and all the nuances that we all work with. Because of that, I wrote an article for EP Lab Digest, which actually was picked up by my CEO. And he brought me on to Geneva Health Solutions, which was one of the first remote monitoring services and platforms. We sold to BioTel in 2019, which then got sold again to Philips in 21. And that is when we co-founded Nudge Health, which is a lifestyle medicine company and cardiac rehab, all virtual. Hi, my name's Beth Davenport. I've been a nurse about 30 years and 20 of those were in cardiac device management. So I went to work for Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute many years ago, loved it. For me, it was a great marriage of technology and taking care of patients. Eventually became the nurse manager there and then the director for the cardiac device clinics and virtual care. While that was happening, I also went back to school to get a master's degree and realized I didn't want to get a master's in nursing administration because I really wasn't, that really wasn't what I was looking to grow into and got a master's in nursing informatics. So basically for me, it was about, I felt like I had been in a clinical leadership role for many years and I loved it, but I really wanted to try something new, but I didn't want to leave the specialty that I love so much. So for me, it was a slow transition. I put out feelers, I talked to a lot of people and tried to figure out what was going to be the next best move for me. Biotronic created this role for me as clinical translation specialist. I worked directly with Dr. David Hayes, who I believe is somewhat of an icon. And by the way, he is really as good as you think he is. He is brilliant, he is smart and he's just a great human being. So yeah, so I've been in the job just for one year, just celebrating my one year anniversary in this new role. Great, well, thank you ladies. So let's start with our first question. How did you leverage your clinical experience to add value to your current role? Whoever wants to jump in and take that. I can take that. It was actually a very natural transition because I was building out clinical operations. Now, I had zero experience on how to scale a business, but I came there as the clinical expert knowing what the customers were going to need. So really bringing all of the experience to really more about management of the devices. And then we were able to scale to like 90,000 patients by the time I left. Now, when I went to Nudge, I was not the clinical expert, but now I'm the operational expert. So it was, again, it was now building out teams, it was in scaling a business. For me, the most important thing really is to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you because there's always someone who knows and who can help. So I think it's really, nursing is about caring for people, it's bringing about, it's bringing, for me, it's patients first. Whatever we do, whatever business I'm in, it's all about the patient. And then secondly, it's about the customer and their workflows and their satisfaction with the product. Yeah, I'll talk to that too. So as a nurse practitioner, I worked for large academic centers, I worked at Duke Health and Lifespan. And so I did a lot of teaching in my practice. And so I have a passion for teaching and a passion for mentoring. And so, and then also I was reading remote transmissions and looking at EGMs and ECGs all day long every day. So moving to the remote monitoring world, just, it made a lot of sense. In my current role, I have a team of about 30 people who I mentor. And as we bring on more people, I do a lot of the interviews and hiring. And I think one thing that we all know in EP is you either get it or you don't. And so I have a knack for kind of finding those people in interviews, the ones who get it or they don't. And so I think I add that value too, is bringing the right people into the company and setting them up for success and setting the company up for success. But bringing the right people also, again, to make sure that we're taking the best possible care of patients. Yeah, that's such an important skill, being able to read that. Anybody else? Robin? I'll go ahead and jump in. I think all of us could probably say all the skills that we have acquired from every role that we have done since leaving, our initial nursing programs have led us to where we are today. The relationships we've created, the mentors that we've garnered along the way, no matter whether they were clinical or leadership mentors or just somebody that helps us keep our head together when stress levels go really high. For me, all of those experiences in acute care, critical care, ambulatory care, all contribute to what I was able to bring to Pacemate at this point in my career and be able to jump into just about any sort of project and provide some sort of help, direction, feedback. And it feels really good to be able to contribute in a meaningful way to an organization. I think all of us would agree on that. Absolutely. So what were kind of some of your biggest challenges from a personal perspective, kind of making that leap from changing, not being patient interfacing every day? Kind of what were some challenges that you experienced? That's exactly the challenge, is we all have a passion for patients. So giving up that patient care is a challenge, stepping away from the hands-on care, but reminding myself all the time that I am still caring for these patients because the work that we do is so important. And we're partnering with our clinics and we're partnering with clinicians and helping to improve their workflow. So the things I wish I had when I was a clinician, I can now give that to other clinics and add that value to them to make their lives better so they can take better care of patients because they're seeing the right patients now. They're seeing the patients they need to see in clinic. So having good positive outcomes from the work that you're doing indirectly. Yeah, I mean, Deb, you kind of mentioned about kind of stepping into a role where there was a lot of kind of uncertainties and things. And how did you kind of navigate through that? I mean, again, it's really about the people that you work with, the team that you work with, and feeling very supported and validated by them. I'll be the first to say, I know very little about finances. Like I couldn't even do an Excel spreadsheet when I started. And now it's like, that's my best friend. So knowing that there are gonna be things that you don't know, and that's okay. Not everybody goes into a position knowing everything. So it's about sitting back, listening, taking cues, finding that your mentor, which is my CEO, who was my CEO at my last company as well, and modeling yourself. And then you start to find your voice and your confidence, and you realize everything that you have learned over the years can be applied. It's just you're using it in a different way. Anybody else? So I think for me, one of the biggest challenges was for 30 years, I got in the car and I went somewhere to do my job, and I delivered care. And to be honest with you, the last years of being in a leadership role and stuff, quite frankly, your head is always on fire. Like you walk in with one plan, and then you put out fires all day, and you're constantly troubleshooting, and you're juggling all the things. So to work from home, which my dogs love, but to work from home and not be with your people all day, and constantly see them, and you know, for me, that's really been the biggest challenge. And I went from knowing all the players, knowing who to ask for what, knowing who my IT person was, knowing who was responsible for this decision, knowing, like understanding all the systems and the processes, to not knowing any of it. So that for me has been the biggest adjustment. I think you have to go into it knowing that you are not gonna necessarily, you're bringing a lot of expertise, but you are not gonna necessarily be the expert, especially on day one, when you're trying to understand how to navigate a whole different world. Thoughts about, you know, one of the things that we talked about earlier is, you know, obviously working for a company is a little bit different than working at a hospital or a clinic, where your clinic job, you kind of know what to expect every day. And then, but what happens when your company kind of changes their operational plan, that they have to pivot with, you know, kind of their things to go align with their goals, that, you know, maybe a certain project that they're working on is not panning out and we need to pivot. So have you had to be involved with any of that and kind of how did you manage that? It's daily. If you're in a startup, you have to be very willing to change. You have to be very willing to scratch a plan and start over. And that is really stressful for some people. So, you know, when you're looking at, if you are looking to transfer, you wanna, if you're in, if you love change, if you love creating, if you love being part of every single part of the business, then a startup is for you. If, but if you like something that's more concrete and has, you know, processes have been in place, slower to change, then you wanna look at more, you know, industry, you know, larger companies that have been established. And Amber, what was that like for you? You know, kind of starting your own company, basically. I knew you were gonna ask me this. So, unfortunately I'm the one who gets to make, has to make the changes, which is really difficult. Because, you know, you put this team in place and around you and, you know, you're walking forward on this mission. And the good thing is, is that most changes are very positive. But like most of us, and Deb knows this from her prior world as well, you know, alert management and alert reduction and connectivity and all of these things matter. And so putting initiatives in place to try to optimize patient care and at the same time, optimize the business side of what we're doing and convincing everyone on the team that this is the right thing to do, even though it's a little bit more work or, you know, a little bit of a different process. Our challenge now is that we're not only convincing our team which often isn't difficult, but we also have to convince our clinics that we're partnered with that this is the right thing to do. And so it's a lot of change management, a lot of learnings, a lot of, you know, data, honestly, because that's what tells the story and that's what pushes the needle. And so sharing that information and helping folks walk along a path with us has been a learning experience, but it's been really positive. But definitely stretches different muscles than we've ever had to use before. Yeah, I mean, you need to be nimble, right? And you need to be able to pivot and flex with the environment that you're working within. So, you know, we're here at HRX 2024. It's a digital health innovation conference. And I'd like to know, how do you contribute to innovation in your role? Anybody wants to take that? So at CV Remote, we're very focused on providing data. So we had two abstracts here on the international survey that was done on the 2023 consensus statement and how practices are taking that information and incorporating those recommendations into everyday practice. I think there is a huge data gap that remains still today in device clinic management and best practices for device patients. And so we're actively working to fill that as I know others are as well. I think that's the biggest contribution, you know, Robin and others have, you know, technology contributions that are incredibly valuable. And it's just a little bit of a different take than, you know, our current focus. But Robin, I'd be interested to hear what y'all are doing as well. Yeah, I mean, you know, we are taking our ability to embed our analytic platforms right into the patients, our customers' dashboards on their PaceMate system. And see, now I'm doing it. And, you know, and empowering them to understand the clinical and business operational needs that they have so that they can make the decisions to move along. You know, how to change workflows, how to improve workflows, how to adhere to workflows, how to adhere to programming guidelines. And at the same time, with the technology that is in there, how does that improve those clinical and operational efficiencies so that, you know, that may help provide the much-needed efficiencies in the event that the staffing isn't optimized according to the guidelines. And I just wanted to jump into, so I have, prior to nursing, I have a software engineering background. I was a software engineer first. And so I think I kind of bring a tech focus that not every clinician has. And so I think that that's how I can really affect change at companies like this, is by utilizing and leveraging my tech background. And it helps me to identify inefficiencies and improve upon those, make recommendations based on the software we're using, and identify what might be a really easy change that would affect everyone and make everyone's lives a little bit easier versus what's a massive lift, what's gonna be the huge development. I have enough knowledge to know the difference. And so I can insert some of those easier changes that still improve efficiencies. That's great. Anybody else? So for me, anybody that knows me knows that I love to push the envelope forward. I always think we can do better. I always think there's a better place to go. So innovation, pushing things forward is my thing. It's what drives me. In this role, what I get to do, it's really about collaboration and me bringing 30 years of experience working with patients, leading a large clinic, understanding how you have to pivot, what the issues are and workflows, those kind of things, and working with things like the usability team, who knew that was even a thing that existed. I didn't. But yes, you work with the usability team. I get to work with engineers. I get to provide feedback on the next generation of home monitoring or the home monitoring platform or the next programmer. But for me, it's all about collaboration. The other thing that has helped me with innovation at Biotronic is my relationships. So years and years of being at HRS, developing networks, and understanding a lot more about how different clinics work and how they have different needs and they have different skills levels and things like that. Bringing those relationships in too also helps me help Biotronic with innovation. So I think innovation can be different for a lot of different people, but I do think it's important to really think about all the relationships that help you also. You don't have the expertise on everything, but you probably know somebody who does. And that's where I think people like us can be so valuable to industry and to a company. Yep. Yeah. I'd like to add to that. I mean, innovation too is when we're at conferences like this, it's all about the new product, the new... I like to call them the new toys, right? But the innovation that we're doing is we're really bringing class 1A recommendations or treatment to cardiac patients. And how every single cardiac disease state is about lifestyle risk reduction is class 1A, but who does it? How do you do it? And so that's what we bring is a way to provide that to your patients with the hope of chronic disease remission, decreasing medications, and decreasing the burden on the healthcare system because we can't keep going the way that we're going today. I mean, that came up during one of the roundtables yesterday that, you know, as allied professionals, one of the things that we focus on are patient education, risk factor modification, and, you know, how many times have you seen your patients come back with, you know, they're still overweight, they're still drinking alcohol, they're still having episodes of PAF and yet you're trying to treat them. And so I think, you know, having something like that, very innovative idea to have something that can help to counsel the patients is a wonderful idea. And you know, we're here, we had a presentation yesterday on allied professionals as innovators and I think that that's something that we do every day in our practice, right? We see things that need to be fixed and we fix them. So I think, you know, I'm glad that you're still bringing innovation, you know, and I love this. What I love about this conference is the collegiality with industry and clinicians because we are a team, you know, Martha and I were talking about that, that we are all on the same team working towards the same goal and I love that. So I love that we were able to have this particular session. So let's talk a little bit about kind of your work-life balance. What does a typical day look like for you and how, you know, how is it different from what your clinical practice was like? I'll have each of you answer this. Well, like I said before, I was used to getting in the car, driving and then having my ass on fire all day long. I came in with a plan, maybe 30% of it happened. You know what I'm saying? Like it's just, but very busy, very, very focused on what we had to get done that day, those kinds of things. I don't think I ever had a work-life balance, to be honest with you, for the first 30 years. I think at this point, it's such a big swing in the other way that it is, my typical day involves, you know, there's meetings, there's a lot of collaboration, but there's also a lot of time that I spend working on projects, whether it's putting together PowerPoint presentations for education that we're doing, doing a lot of research on something that we need to improve or present or provide, develop education materials for clinicians on. The dogs love it because I let them in and out on a regular basis. And then in between that can be some pretty heavy-duty traveling as well. So I don't know that there is a typical day, you know, and I work with a company that most of the people that I meet with are either in Portland, Oregon, which is a three-hour time difference or they're in Germany. So there can be some 6 o'clock meetings at night and that kind of stuff. But that's pretty much it. You have to create it. It's the only way. Otherwise, it will be violated all day long. So, you know, the first thing when I start a job is I block the calendar so that my company, you know, they're across the country. So I start later and then end later so that I can meet all of the time zones. My daughter was 10 when I switched from the clinic. And she said that, yes, you work from home, but I see you less. And I'm like, that's not true. But in her, you know, when I'm home, my commute is down the stairs. And I don't use that room unless I'm working. I don't go down to do anything else. So I try to keep it very separate. But like Beth said, there's travel. There are going to be times when you have to violate your own, you know, personal time. But I think as long as you really try to stay to that, you know, for me, I'm lucky I start at 10 in the morning so I can get up, do the whole go to school thing, do my own workout, and then I start. But once I work, I don't stop. There is no stop from the time I start to the time I end. And I don't mind that. So Julie and I were meeting with the LEAP ladies team. I guess there's more than ladies on there on Wednesday. And this question came up. And work-life balance, I'm not sure, exists anywhere. But one of the things that we were talking about on Wednesday was the fact that whatever you choose to do in your life should make sure that you're gaining some intrinsic value for that and you're not doing it for some sort of extrinsic validation or motivation. And so I think as long as you love what you do and you're doing it because you love what you do and you feel passionate about it, it makes it much easier to do the extra and go the extra and be the extra. So I don't think any of us have a normal day, but it's, you know, some days are easy and some days are hard. And that's startup life. And so it's, you got to love it and we love it. You know, it's what we do and we're here to take care of patients and take care of clinicians and be that bridge. But the days are difficult to define. It's much less structure, which for me is good. I hated, like, needing to show up at clinic at a certain time. And then in other times, I'm like, I wish I just had 15 patients to see and I could be done and go home. And so, you know, there's pros and cons to all of it, but my encouragement is just find something you love and you're passionate about and that you can get that intrinsically satisfaction from. Yeah. So I've never mastered work-life balance. I still haven't. As a nurse practitioner, as an allied, we all know that we're never going to say no to a patient. So as a nurse practitioner, I was always adding one more patient to the schedule. And that meant doing my charts later and later in the evening or on the weekends or whatever it took to get those done. But I think that we, I think maybe intrinsically, we also all are gluttons for punishment and we all kind of have that drive to always be doing more. And so now, yes, I don't have to drive to work. I can roll out of bed. So if my alarm doesn't go off, then I'm not in trouble because I'm not going to miss that first patient visit. I have to walk about 15 steps to my office. But I also have team members all across the country. And I represent clinics that are all across the country and all across the time zones. And so I, as an associate manager, feel like I have to be available to all the team members, even if they're three hours behind me or four hours or five hours behind me. And I have to be available for the clinics until they close. And so my Pacific Coast clinics, a lot of times they're still, it might be 7 or 8 p.m. my time, but they're just wrapping up their days. And so I feel like I have to be available. That's a me thing. That's a me problem. There are some people that can do that better. But it's just not my nature. But as Amber said, I have such a passion for what I do that it makes it worth it for me. If I didn't love what I do, then I'd like to think that I wouldn't be doing that anymore and I'd find something else. When I was the clinical service line director for EP at Sanger a few years ago, there was no work-life balance. I was there on time and was probably one of the last people to leave on a consistent basis at 7 o'clock at night. Absolutely no work-life balance. When I made the transition to Pacemate, I promised myself that I would do better with that. The flexibility that I have working from home and the type of role that I have has allowed me to do that. Not to say that I don't work hard and I work all day, I do. Sometimes I'm needed to be on calls later in the early evening or have customer calls that are early, but I make sure that it all works out at the end of the day or the end of the week. I'd like to say that my work-life balance has greatly improved since I've moved to industry and that I work remotely. When my mother was ill, I was able to travel out of state, help take care of her, yet still hold a full-time job and work. That was a wonderful opportunity for me. That's part of life and it enabled me to do that. I may be the aberrancy here, but maybe I've just been doing this for so long that I just can't keep up that pace anymore, but I feel like I still do what I need to do. I just want to add something to that. I think coming from healthcare, we're so used to being everything has to happen right this second. When I transitioned, one of my CTOs said to me, listen, we're not saving babies from burning buildings. That really put it into perspective for me because even if we got an alert, most times we're looking at it the next day, but it allowed me to step back and say, okay, is this really something I need to address right this second? It's also helped me mentor my team too. We're not in the hospital. We're not running around. Let's just take a breath. Let's think about it. You have the time to do that. It's a mindset and you have to, for some of us who are type A and came from the hospital, we have to remember that we can slow down. I want to thank Robin for mentioning flexibility because for me, the flexibility of this role has been fantastic and it has improved greatly my work-life balance. The flexibility to be able to work from different places, for example, if you have a sick family kind of things. To Deb's point, it's true. It's not that same urgency that you felt every day in the clinic and that's a relief. We learned a lot from it and it makes us appreciate how important it is to improve clinical workflows, to support clinicians that are under that pressure, but it has definitely been a great gift to have a lot more flexibility in my day. I did want to remind the audience if you do have any questions for any of the panelists that you can go ahead and put that in on your app. I did get one through. It says, you all have great experiences, but practices and patient issues can change. Do you interface your customers into planning changes to meet their needs like an advisory board? Yeah. One of the things that Biotronic allowed me to do was to establish a new allied health professional advisory group. I knew they were going to be fantastic and they totally proved it. Some of the people in this room were actually on that advisory group because I have stepped out of the clinical role. The only way for me to really, truly represent what's going on in the clinics today and their challenges is to be actively engaged with them and pull them in to collaborate. Yes. We have both a medical advisory board and an operational advisory board. I have learned so much from the operators on the ground, from my clinics. No one clinic is the same. When you're bringing in your offering, it's making it fit into what they already have. I have found just such tremendous operators across the board that we're like, we need to bring them in so that we're all on the same page and working together and facing those changes that come along. Yeah, I would just add that to your point, you're right. Practice changes, circumstances change, staffing changes. I know that we often, our team and I will help really try to meet them where they are. If you've seen one clinic, you've seen one clinic. None of them are the same. They each face operational challenges and taking a consultative approach with a team of people who have seen how other practices work and bringing those new ideas to new clinics and things to try has often benefited the customer, as well as helping to better tailor their technology and the customization to what they need also will help their current situation and help develop new workflows that better suit their needs. You mentioned advisory boards, bringing people in, talking with them was a great way to stay up to date with things. What are other ways that you use, because you're kind of a little bit removed from clinical practice, the day-to-day operations. Things change so fast within our practices, and so what are other ways that you stay up to date with things going on in the field? HRS, right? Coming to meetings. Coming to meetings, coming to conferences, but also reading. I still love PP, so I'm still going to read articles. I'm still going to read research. I'm going to participate in the journal clubs. I'm going to continue to be involved and hear what the guidelines are, but I also talk to my clinics, and I talk to them to find out what's going on, what's changing, because we wouldn't be in business if we didn't take care of our customer. And so HRS, especially, has been a game changer for me, just because the amount of great content that is put out, either online or at meetings, and then getting to be involved in other opportunities like Leap. That was a huge, huge opportunity for me just to grow and advance my leadership skills, but also hear from other people who are still in practice and hear what's going on out there. Those are the bonds that we have with people all over the country. We forge these bonds when we come to these meetings, and we have friends everywhere. We have friends that are still in the clinics, and you're telling me the stuff that you're dealing with on a daily basis. I stay in touch with all of my former colleagues and all of my HRS friends, so that's one way, for sure. I'm glad that you brought up the Leap program, because Amber was a chair, Rebecca participated. We have several Leap participants out here. If you're not familiar with that, it's a leadership program through the Heart Rhythm Society. Aileen Farrick, sitting here in the front row, is the current chair of the Leap program. It's a one-year commitment, but it's comprised of a couple of in-person meetings, and then there's usually monthly webinars providing education and support, learning skills to be leaders within your organization or within the company that you're working. If you're not familiar with it, there are some Leapers here. You can talk with them about it, you can talk with Aileen about it, or Amber or myself. I just wanted to bring that up. Shameless plug. Yep. You know it. I don't think it's shameless. I think it's an awesome opportunity, and had it been available earlier in my career, I would have jumped on it. I would encourage anyone who's ... I think for clinics, it's true things change fast, and they don't. Some things never change. We're still sometimes fighting the battle to get people to believe in remote monitoring, which seems very hard to believe this far in, but the technology changes are real. The new devices, the new algorithms, all of those things. It's incredibly important to leverage other industry partners, Biotronic. We have Dr. Hayes, who will jump on with our team sometimes and have conversations with us and leveraging other industry to make sure, because it's real. If you're not in the clinic seeing it, then it's difficult to make sure you're up-to-date with all the new technology. Every week, I join what they call our clinical call. Even though I'm not part of the clinical team, kind of an adopted member, if you will, case studies, education, every Friday morning. And to me, it also helps me stay connected to my clinical side, kind of feeds my soul in that way. But it keeps me abreast of some of the changes and challenges that are happening in the clinical world. And I enjoy it. Yeah, absolutely. It's so important. Yeah. So in my role, one of the things that I also do to really understand what's happening on the front lines is I get to engage with our sales team and our clinical field specialists, because they are the ones in the ER, in the MRI suites, in the different, you know, some of them are doing all the clinical checks for clinics still. I mean, it's just the real world, right? So they've helped me a lot. And I get a lot of great feedback from them, too, about what's happening in the clinics that they're working with and their struggles. And the other unique thing that's happened just in the last few months is that Biotronic has brought back their patient day. And what that means is we have patients that come in and they tell their stories, and it allows all of our folks that work, like in the plant in Lake Oswego, that put together the pacemakers and everything, to really hear patient stories and how that device has impacted their lives. It was fantastic. But I also had the opportunity to sit with these patients and really get a better perspective on our educational materials. What kind of support do they really need? What is impactful to them and what isn't? What are they like or not like about their home monitoring system? So again, I think for all of us, it never stops. You just have to find different avenues for getting that feedback and staying relevant. I think there's plenty of avenues for it to keep you successful and relevant. Absolutely. So one of the other questions that came into the audience was about salaries, payment. Obviously, no full disclosures here, but in today's economy, it's an important consideration in terms of how was that when you made the change, and was that a deciding factor for you? Well, I think if you go back to startups again, you usually start lower. And then once you become profitable, you come up to market value. And then if you have shares or equity or ownership in the company, and they sell, that's a bonus. And then so that's, you know, what happened with Geneva. And then with this company, we're just, you know, as the executive team, we don't take any sort of raises until we are profitable. So it, you know, you don't have that same sort of growth, you know, as you're starting. But then once you hit profitability, or if you sell, then it's, you know, it's worth everything that you put into it. I think some of the value of, at least for me, because I work remotely, so the salary is different. But I also save a lot of money not driving to work and not putting miles on my car and not putting gas in my tank. And so there are ways to make up that difference by keeping in mind those things that you are saving that that made a difference in my world. Yeah, that's a great point. Anybody else have any comments? I think it just goes back to, you know, when you do decide if you decide to move to industry is selecting an organization that has the right culture. And part of that culture is one that recognizes the value that you bring to that organization. And anywhere, you know, anything from a brand new startup to, you know, a well established company, that's going to be it's going to be different, but making sure that you're in a position to share what value you bring, and, and making sure that that's recognized through your compensation is, you know, and you have to be comfortable with it. So actually, one of the questions, which I think we already kind of addressed was the biggest challenge you faced in transition to industry, but I'm going to kind of flex this a little bit, because I liked Deb's comment that she made to me about when you made that transition, what did you give up and what'd you get? So if we can everybody kind of talk about that a little bit, what'd you give up making the move? What'd you get making the move? For me, the biggest challenge and what I felt like I gave up was working with a team of people who did what I do. So being in a group of people that are sort of in the trenches with you understand everything that you're going through, you know what I mean, the challenges, you're in it together. So I gave up that and I gave up a much more structure that I was very comfortable in. What I got was flexibility and the ability to really take my expertise and do something more creative with it, be able to affect change in patient care and improve clinician workflow in a much different way outside of my clinic, you know, something that's a lot more hopefully far reaching. So I think what I got was, and I'm developing so many new skills, like for me, if I'm not learning and I'm not a little uncomfortable and it's not challenging, then I'm not going to enjoy it. So I'm not going to feel engaged with it. So I definitely got that with this new role. Yeah, I love that the challenge. I mean, I think that's so important for all of us in our lives that we need to challenge ourselves every day that, you know, because it's, that's how we grow and move on. So thank you, Deb. Yeah, I would look at, you know, what do you love about what you do today? And then what of that are you willing to give up and what you're not? So again, going back to the kind of startup versus established company, are you someone who likes to have, you know, everything in line, everything already spelled out for you? Or are you someone who likes to touch every aspect, change rapidly, grow? So there's, it really, you have to align with what works for your personality. And for me, you know, what I, I didn't feel like I was giving up anything because I, as a nurse, I'm like, if it doesn't work out, I'll just go back. So I really didn't think I was giving anything up. I gained so much. I just, again, it's that same thing about not feeling like you just constantly learning and growing. That to me is, is probably my favorite thing of what I'm doing. And sometimes, you know, it's, it can be exhausting too. Like I'm done. Like someone said, I just want to go back to my 12 patients and be good. But that's so rare. So just knowing like what your personality is, what drives you and finding a company that has that culture. And then I think you'll never feel like you gave anything up. You'll always feel like you're gaining. There's an interesting exercise that might be fun to do. It's, you know, fear of loss and hope of gain. So, you know, what are you afraid of losing and what are you hoping to gain with any move or any transition in life? And I'll never forget the day I quit. So I, you know, we've been, I've been doing CV remote, you know, after hours and weekends and running this company with Dr. Allred and I got, I was sick and I didn't feel well. And I got this nasty gram about one more CBL that needed to be done. And I said, that's it. I quit. And it was all of this just corporate stuff that healthcare has turned into that makes it so frustrating and so difficult to feel like you can enact change. When we built our AFib clinic years ago, we were in a position where we could present an idea and have people buy in and make that happen. And it was fun and it was exciting. When we built our device clinic, it was the same way. You could say, this is what I need. And they said, okay, let's do that. And it was fun and exciting and it's just changed over time and it's just not the way it is now. And healthcare is, it's getting more and more difficult to work in. And so for me, what I gained was control because it is my company and we can do what we want to do. But also the ability to impact other lives, like Beth said, in a way that you never could have before. So the team members that come and work for us, we can pay them really well. We can give them, you know, a quality of life that they've not been able to have before in a clinic setting. We can take care of device clinics in a way that feels really, really good. And we're able to affect people across the country. And you know at the end of the day that you've made a difference every single day. And I knew that when I was in practice too. It just feels different now because it's on a much broader scale and in a way that I was never able to do in one practice in Greensboro, North Carolina. I think the thing that was the hardest for me to say that I gave up was the relationships with my colleagues and the physicians and getting to roll my chair over in a workroom and leech the knowledge off of everyone, especially I was in an academic center. And so I got to just absorb and learn so much just from listening and being around them. So I learned so much about EP and my clinical practice that way. But as Deb said, I remain a nurse practitioner. And so if it doesn't work out, you know, I'll just go back to being a nurse practitioner. You have a safety net there. I do have a safety net. A psychological safety net. But at least with academic medicine, you know, change takes a really long time. And so what I gained is that I work somewhere now where if I make a suggestion, not only am I heard, but it's often I get to see that change happen in a matter of days or weeks and not six months, nine months, two years, five years. So that's something that I really I do enjoy is that it's not this giant machine that takes so much bureaucracy to get something to happen. Turn on the Titanic. And you know, as I said earlier, at the beginning, you know, my situation was a little bit different in that my position had been eliminated. So I lost it. I lost it. It was it was a loss to begin with. And so at that point, there was nothing but having something to gain, at least in my opinion. And I could have very well went back into a similar position with a different health system. And I felt like I gained, I recognized the courage within myself, something I had thought about doing for years. I mean, I had thought about making that transition to industry for years, but was always afraid to leave what I knew, what I was good at, what people recognized me as being good at. It's kind of, you know, it was like, you know, big fish in a in a big pond and jumping in to be a little fish in a little pond. And but you know what, I I have no regrets at all joining joining Pacemate. I have thrived there. I love it. Every I love the fact of every morning I wake up, I'm looking forward to what I'm going to do that day. Yep. You have to pivot. You have to be flexible. Yep. There's going to be days where things don't go the way that you expect to do, but it's like, okay, that's fine. Well, you know, we'll take it on and go with it. I work with people that are brilliant and talented and innovative every day. And that feeds me. And it fuels me. Like what I always like to say, be in the room with who you want to be. It sounds like you all have that opportunity. So we have a few minutes left. I just want to kind of finish up by talking a little bit about what would you be, what would be your recommendation to others here in the room that might be considering making that transition from the clinical world to over to industry? Whoever wants to start. Yeah, so I'll start. For me, when I decided that the first thing I did was really start thinking about what was good. What was my intent? Was my intent to go out there and grow? Was my intent to try something completely new? Did I want to stay in the specialty that I liked? What was, what was my intent? What was my, what did I really need? And then I did a ton of discussions. I talked to a lot of people and I had the benefit of like talking to Robin and saying, okay, what's it like on the outside? Cause that's the way it felt like just, is this, you know, but I did, I did talk to people and I talked to different clinicians that had left to go work in industry. But I also talked to a lot of the connections I had within industry. So give yourself time to research it, really think about it and don't be afraid to really sell yourself as far as your experience and what you can bring to that role. And and understand that you, it may not be EP, it may be something else, but your years of experience and expertise in this very, I think highly, it's, it's a highly complex field means that you have a ton of skills and expertise that could be valuable in, in many different areas of healthcare. And you can still affect change that's purposeful, that makes a difference in patients' lives. So, but do your research, give yourself time and make sure too that you're not running away from something. If the job that you're in now is you don't like it, you're burned out. That's one thing, but it may not mean it's not the right fit for you. Doesn't mean you need to leave clinical care, right? It may be that you need a different clinical role. So I always worry about people that are burned out and mad about maybe they got a new boss or something like that and they're going to go to industry for that. No, make sure you're doing it because you're looking, you're going towards something, not running away from something. I agree with everything Beth said. Just know that find a company that has a culture that fits with you. People who challenge you, but that you also look up to and want to emulate. I thought that for me was when I met my CEO, it was just this instant connection. It was like, this is someone I can work with. And when we would work together in front of a customer, it felt magical. So silly, but it's like we had such a good back and forth conversation. He was very down to earth. That for me, I knew this was someone that I could learn and grow from. So that to me was the most important is feeling like what you're bringing is being heard, is valid. And that everything that we learn in health care, whether, you know, nurse, whatever your role is, a lot of what you do can those skills can go into different roles. So just, you know, be confident in everything that you know and what you've already done. Learn how to sell yourself. And especially as women, you surround yourself with other women leaders is very important. But don't don't sell yourself short, I think is what I'm trying to say is no, know the value that you bring. Amber? I think I don't have much to add. I think those are good recommendations. And just make sure that, you know, you're doing it for the right reasons. It's a different it's a different game, you know, and it's it's got different pressures. Every job has pressures, you know, so just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. But the reality is, we still need people to take care of patients in clinics, so everybody don't quit tomorrow, because that would really suck. So maybe stagger them a little bit. I love what Beth said, don't don't run away from something, run toward something else. When I when I, again, didn't necessarily choose to not be practicing, you know, I did look into doing maybe telehealth nurse practitioner roles with all these telehealth companies that are out there now, but I didn't necessarily want to write weight loss medication prescriptions all day or hormone replacement therapy or things like that. That wasn't really my my passion. I still wanted to be with NAP. But I did I did talk to industry reps as well. Some of them are some of my closest friends. And when I was talking to one of them, he said to me, you've done the NP role. So so go try something else. You've actually done it don't you know, so you can't say that you didn't put that education to use because you did. So so try something different. And again, I've got my safety net, I can always go back if I need to. But um, but yeah, but if you've done your thing, and you're really considering talk to some other people, but but it took it took him saying that and telling me, no, you didn't you didn't waste that education. And education is never wasted, ever. And so you've done that thing, go do something else. And give it a try. Yeah, that's great advice. I would say whether or not you're even contemplating a possible entry into industry in the future, I would say cultivate relationships along the way with others, right through professional society, things like the LEAP program, but also with industry, and within your practice, and with leaders outside of your practice, learn from them, you know, garner multiple mentors for different places, because when you get to that point, it will help you understand what you know, and who you know, and it's going to help you make that next step. Well, I want to thank each and every one of you for an outstanding program this morning. Thank you so much for sharing your experience about, you know, how we bridge this gap between clinical practice and industry that again, we're all have the same endgame here to the patient is always at the center of whatever it is we're doing, whether we're clinic focused, or industry focused. So I thank you for your time and sharing that. We are going to continue the conversation this afternoon. There is a roundtable that Jill Schaefer is going to moderate on this very topic. And it's going to be at 245 again at the roundtable one. So we hope that you'll join us to continue this conversation. And thank you and enjoy the rest of HRX this afternoon.

healthcare professionals

industry transition

clinical experience

company culture

patient care

flexibility

work-life balance

continuous learning

relationship building