#Innovidual Patrick Gardner

We’re a company full of innovative individuals, or as we call them, #innoviduals. This recurring series highlights some of our best and brightest employees, providing insights about the scope and depth of talent throughout Leidos.

This month’s #innovidual is Patrick Gardner, Vice President of Solutions Management for Leidos Commercial Health.

Tell us a little about your job role and responsibilities, and/or something you’re currently working on.

“I lead a team of healthcare solutions managers charged with the pursuit of growth strategies for Leidos Commercial Health. These strategies are fueled by a market-focused approach that prioritizes investments based primarily on customer need, customer definition of value, and total return to the business. While we are focused on all sources of revenue, we are plotting a course to define the next generation of technology and professional services that help our customers achieve success during a time of unprecedented change in the healthcare industry.”

Why is innovation important in your role?

“Our ability to compete demands Leidos continues to differentiate itself in the market. To this end, the portfolio of solutions that we deliver must solve current and evolving customer needs in ways that deliver value faster and more efficiently than ever before. As we think about the ways our customers make buying decisions, commercialism and availability of data is pervasive and informs the customer’s decisions long before we ever arrive. Studies suggest that customers have completed more than 67 percent of the total work needed to make a buying decision before vendors are even considered, meaning customers have already defined ‘value’ and how they expect to receive it before the first sales pitch is delivered. As a result, we have to constantly look for innovative and provocative ways to create commercial insights that force customers to think about their businesses and value in ways that were not contemplated prior. In doing so, we have the real opportunity to recalibrate the way in which the customer defines value and, therefore, which vendors are considered relevant in the buying decision. 

“Innovation, then, is at the heart of altering the customer’s mindset and their prescription of value and the manner in which vendors will be expected to deliver it. If we have truly innovated, we should stand apart from the competition because we have created a true differentiated value proposition that improves win rates.”

What’s your definition of innovation?

“Merriam-Webster defines innovation as a new idea, method or device. This seems to make good sense.  But to varying degrees and depending on who is asked, we tend to align our concept of innovation to technology or technological advancements. As an example, many would argue machine learning or artificial intelligence are innovative because they bring the power of computing into what was otherwise a human decision and/or thought process. And while I would agree this is truly innovative, I would argue there is more to innovation. To me, the coefficient of innovation is underscored in creativity, which may very well leverage a core competency or a new technology. But in many cases, innovation is more central to a philosophical viewpoint that aligns thought processes and/or problem-solving in ways never before considered.

“I tend to think about innovation in terms of people, process AND technology where we help our customers achieve success by challenging conventional thought or drawing insights in ways that create a more informed viewpoint from which to make a decision. Because we focus heavily on services, we think about innovation in terms of data and the use of data to help align best practice to improved standards of performance that optimize clinical processes to improve patient outcomes, all while simultaneously improving the business of healthcare. We are attempting to do this in innovative ways that have never before been considered. And because of this, we feel we are on the path to creating a truly innovative and differentiated value proposition that creates an unfair competitive advantage for Leidos Commercial Health.”

What does innovation look like? Any recent examples from your job?

“Fueled by stimulus focused on the adoption of health IT, Leidos Commercial Health has spent several years playing a pivotal role in helping our customers achieve success in the implementation of their EMR. With the market reaching upwards of 85-90 percent saturation, new business decisions for EMRs are expected to decline to a sustained rate of approximately 8-10 percent per year as market consolidation continues. At the same time, the emergence of alternative payment models, payment capitation, risk-based contracts and value-based care are on the doorstep, all of which require hospitals to provide quality medicine defined by improved outcomes under stricter cost constraints and a threatened bottom line. As a result, the same customers that have partnered with Leidos in the implementation and deployment of their EMR are now turning to us to ask for ways to improve their overall use of systems to improve their performance, both in terms of clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction and operations. 

“Today, the Solutions team is developing ways to help customers remediate to improve their performance in the areas of clinical workflows, revenue cycle, supply charging, ambulatory operations and population health and analytics. But this space is crowded and is dominated by players that have long standing in process re-engineering, change management and operations. In order for Leidos to play, we have to provide critical insights into our customers’ operations, where they are succeeding and where they are challenged and respond with tailored approaches that underscore their success while remediating their failures or challenges. 

“Leidos must draw upon experience and offer innovative ways of improving healthcare operations that revolutionize the way hospitals deliver care. To achieve this, we are turning to data analytics to uncover areas of customer performance and underperformance to help position our initial sales efforts as well as the way in which we delight the customer with consulting aimed at improved outcomes and operations. The use of analytics here not only informs our initial approach, but also defines the measurement of success and how we ultimately deliver value to the customer.  Here, our goal is to work across Leidos Health to leverage our best processes and technologies to create a comprehensive solutions portfolio that innovates the manner in which services are delivered to healthcare.” 

Meet more Leidos #innoviduals here