Dr. Christopher R. Shafer is the Director of Program Management with Quest Diagnostics, a Fortune 500 Company, and leader in the laboratory and medical diagnostics space. In this interview, Dr. Shafer discusses his views on the future of work, the state of public health, and pragmatic business decisions every leader should evaluate, both in times of uncertainty and of stability.

Generally following a crisis, our fellow human beings have a lot of patience and empathy when things do not operate as smoothly as they once did. If you own or operate a business, the following are just a few of the questions you should expect to address in the coming weeks and months to prepare to return to delivering great customer experience (CX) and employee engagement (EE).

As an industry, healthcare is committed to providing expert care with as much certainty in outcomes as humanly possible. Millions of dollars are invested each year to create “zero-error” environments, precision medicine, and other equitable practice measures. Yet, how does an organization in an industry that relies on certainty and precision, navigate uncertainty and instability in the marketplace? The answer is seemingly simple: Precision in Decision.

The Stonehill strategic communications team sat down with Teddi Barber to discuss the disruption in healthcare and how leveraging Design Thinking can establish a sustainable and thought-provoking dialog on its impacts on mature industries.

At Stonehill, we have the privilege of working across industries to help innovate and implement process improvement strategies. We are seeing increasing trends toward business-to-business partnerships in standardizing pricing structures and ensuring quality services. In the insurance industry, this translates to preferred provider networks. These have a proven track record in the auto and health insurance industries, but very little presence in other insurance sectors. This missed opportunity for many insurers is poised to radically change the insurance landscape.

Like all doctors, her office has a reception desk and waiting room, so recently, while I was waiting to see her, I began to process how Design Thinking could improve a visit to the doctor’s office. As a Design Thinking consultant, someone who helps businesses grow by focusing on customer empathy and prototyping innovative concepts, I couldn’t help but envision changes. We've become an experience-centric society, and what could be more human-focused than a visit to the doctor?

Healthcare is complicated. The Affordable Care Act alone is 600 pages (at 400 substantive words per page) with over 20,000 pages of supporting regulations. Healthcare is big. There are some 800-pound gorillas in the room. Or more specifically, there are some $208-billion-McKesson, $200-billion-UnitedHealth, $185-billion-CVS, and $130-billion-Cardinal-Health gorillas in the industry. Healthcare is dynamic. Every day, companies try out disruptive innovative delivery systems, business models, and technologies.