Strive Health’s SVP of Market Operations Named Among Top 25 Women Leaders in Consumer Health Tech
Author : Strive Health
Renee George, Strive Health’s Senior VP of Market Operations, was recently named to the list of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Consumer Health Tech by the Healthcare Technology Report. The list recognizes women for their longevity in the healthcare field, professional achievements and dedication to advancing their companies.
Since joining Strive in 2020, Renee has directed Strive’s efforts to improve the delivery of kidney care in 10 diverse markets around the country. We talked to Renee about her work and what it means to earn industry recognition in a male-dominated field.
Q: How is the market operations team helping to transform kidney care?
A: Strive data models help our team to prioritize the right patients for intervention at the right time. But it is brought to life by our clinicians on a patient-by-patient basis. It’s all about building relationships with patients and identifying the factors that are going to help prevent this specific patient from progressing in this disease. It’s very high-touch and time-intensive. That’s what our team loves to do. They are building rapport and relationships and, together with patients, they are seeing that progress is being made. Sometimes it’s really about helping to coordinate better with other providers because there is often a gap in care that these patients experience. Strive helps look out for them and makes sure all the dots get connected. That is a big part of what we do.
Q: Why does your team want to change the way kidney care is delivered in this country?
A: There is no question that the way it has been delivered for the past 30 years is broken. The incentives have not been in the right place. Across the board the focus has been on end-stage disease and dialysis and not as much on preventing people from moving to dialysis. It’s important to us to impact how care is delivered. We see that as the number of patients we are engaging grows, we are delaying disease progression and improving care for patients with kidney disease.
Q: How does technology impact your work?
A: The technology piece is what makes this so exciting for me. We have some amazing predictive models that help us know with a high degree of accuracy which patients we need to target. We know with a high degree of confidence that these are the patients at risk of a negative event or with a high likelihood of hospitalization. So, let’s see what we can do to avert that situation. It’s taking that data, harnessing it and turning it into actionable interventions our clinicians can take with patients. On the back end, we use data to help us understand which interventions are working and should be expanded. Or we look at something and discover it’s not giving us the results we expected. That information helps us monitor how we are doing for continuous improvement of our models and our patient’s care.
Q: What does it mean to win this award?
A: It’s humbling. I’m certainly honored. I’ve spent my career in the finance world and the operations world and, oftentimes, I have been one of the very few female leaders. It’s important to me to not only try to be a role model for other women leaders, but to also look within the organization where I am working to make sure I am available for mentoring or coaching. I think that’s extremely rewarding. I love to see the women I work with do amazing, successful things. I hope this can help me continue that journey of bringing people along and raising awareness that women can be formidable leaders in the tech space.
Q: What do you think makes a great leader?
A: I think it’s the ability to listen, act courageously and communicate effectively. Leaders don’t always have all the answers and never will. That’s why being a good listener is so important. You must listen to your team, your market, your leadership and the industry. But at the end of day, you have to be able to make a decision and go with it. Leaders must also be able to communicate clearly and set a positive tone for the team.
Q: What advice would you give to others wanting to follow in your footsteps?
A: Ask a lot of questions. Be open to going outside your comfort zone. I have not always been fully prepared for the next position I have taken. There have been many times I stepped into roles and learned on the job. I am comfortable with ambiguity and figuring it out. I can’t say my path was always purposeful; it was more of me looking to an opportunity, knowing I could grow into it and giving it a shot.
