When Jessica Turgon, a partner with ECG Management Consultants, was named Global Head of Oncology Consulting for Siemens Healthineers in late 2023, it was a move that satisfied strategic objectives for both organizations. For Siemens, which is expanding its portfolio of oncology solutions and technology, it’s an opportunity to leverage Jessica’s expertise in developing service lines, leading strategic planning, and implementing operations improvement initiatives at comprehensive cancer centers. 对于ECG来说,这是一个将其50多年的咨询专业知识带到国际市场的机会.¹
For Jessica, 谁继续领导ECG的高级肿瘤中心,同时与西门子医疗合作, 这个新职位是我长期从事肿瘤业务咨询工作的最新成就. But it’s more than just a career milestone. 像我们许多人一样,她在很小的时候就看到了癌症是如何影响一个人和他们所爱的人的. And every step in her career has been a step toward changing that.
A Personal Mission
Cancer is a disease that, inevitably, touches every family. That’s something Jessica learned during her college years at Marymount University, when a close friend’s younger sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor. 杰西卡在儿童国家医院和乔治城大学伦巴第综合癌症中心接受治疗期间,跟随女孩的癌症之旅,当痛苦夺走了她的生命时,她崩溃了.
But that tragedy became a catalyst of sorts. 杰西卡在她朋友的护理过程中观察到的事情点燃了她对癌症中心手术的兴趣, 有机会见到一些照顾她的人,为她的职业生涯奠定了早期的基础. 杰西卡说:“她去世时,我还很年轻,不懂世故,刚从学校毕业。. “我被介绍给乔治敦医院和伦巴第癌症中心的几位女性领导人, and they asked if I would like to be a management intern. They’d move me around the cancer center and train me in running it.”
在接下来的几年里,她尽其所能地学习如何运营一家癌症中心,然后回到学校,在乔治华盛顿大学(George Washington University)攻读MBA. “在癌症中心的工作让我对临床项目的商业方面产生了兴趣,” she explains. “特别是当你看到学术医学和临床方面的内部运作时, the research side, and the education side. How does that all come together to build a comprehensive cancer program?”
After completing her master’s work, 杰西卡开始了她的第一份咨询工作——在一家名为MedTactics的小型咨询公司工作, which was ultimately acquired by ECG. 这是一个了解其他组织如何处理癌症护理和门诊手术的机会. Before long, though, she was drawn back to the cancer center business. But this time, she wouldn’t be running a cancer program. She’d be building one.
Expanding Cancer Care in Maryland
马里兰大学Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum综合癌症中心是nci指定的癌症中心,拥有40张住院病床, a 25,000-square-foot outpatient facility, and multidisciplinary clinical programs for all major cancers. 马里兰大学医学院和马里兰大学医学中心的联合实体, 它是全国顶尖的癌症治疗和研究中心之一,也是该地区癌症护理的重要提供者.
But back in 2004, the cancer program was still at a formative stage in its growth. Johns Hopkins was the dominant cancer care provider in the area, and the University of Maryland’s smaller program was still trying to gain a foothold. That’s when Dr. Kevin Cullen, a former colleague and the newly appointed cancer center director, called Jessica, knowing her expertise would be invaluable.
“The outpatient clinic was a converted inpatient unit,” she recalls, 认识到要使该组织成为癌症治疗的目的地,还需要做大量的工作. “Under Dr. Cullen’s leadership, we restructured the entire cancer program—introducing multidisciplinary clinics, creating a transplant program, restructuring the clinical research enterprise, and opening new outpatient clinical and infusion space.” Jessica served in a leadership role throughout the program’s growth, with the inpatient and outpatient services reporting to her.
The Center for Advanced Oncology
When Jessica eventually returned to ECG, 她意识到,领导癌症项目所涉及的运营平衡行为很好地转化为ECG不断增长的多学科bet8娱乐产品.
“Running a cancer center, it’s a lot of ambulatory operations,” she explains. “And because my industry experience was in academic medicine, 它很好地转化为医师小组的运作和表现的转变以及我们在心电图所做的许多不同的事情, whether it’s physician compensation, reimbursement, billing, operations optimization, scheduling, workflow—all of that is in a cancer center. We just do it all.” And while that meant could take her consulting career in any number of directions, it was clear where her heart was.
掌握了建立和运营一个综合性癌症中心所需的知识, it was time to take those lessons national. Along with colleague Matt Sturm, 杰西卡发展了现在被称为ECG的高级肿瘤中心,这是全国最大的专门咨询团队,专注于帮助组织改变和推进其社区的癌症护理.
“We have a dedicated team that works for cancer clients all the time,” she says, citing several ongoing, multiyear projects that are underway with oncology programs across the US. 她解释说,他们已经建立了这个团队,以反映对癌症战略专家日益增长的需求, performance transformation, and financial improvement. “Stephanie Hobbs came from being the clinical administrator at UT Southwestern; she’s led cancer programs before. And we recently hired Elizabeth Liebow, who spent 20 years at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and has built new cancer programs, expanded the Dana Farber brand to other regions, and brings a strategic perspective on how to maintain high-quality programs.”
Members of ECG’s Center for Advanced Oncology gather for a planning retreat.
The need for such expertise reflects an evolving care model. Demand for cancer care is growing as the population ages. At the same time, 护理途径变得更加复杂,提供者越来越短缺. Patients’ expectations are changing, too. “Patients are much more sophisticated,” Jessica says. “如果bet8网站备用告诉他们乳房x光片或CT扫描有问题,他们不会等待.
They expect that their care is going to be timely, it’s going to be coordinated, and they’re going to be connected to the best healthcare providers.”
Her team has helped more than 1,000 community hospitals, AMCs, NCI-designated cancer centers, and oncology practices do exactly that. The battle against cancer takes place on many fronts, after all. 创新的医疗技术和尖端的治疗技术可能会成为头条新闻, 但是,一个癌症项目的成功至少同样取决于其日常运作的效率和可持续性,以及患者能否轻松地获得治疗.
杰西卡在这方面的经验使她成为西门子医疗公司(Siemens Healthineers)的天然人选.
A Global Focus
In 2021, Siemens Healthineers completed an acquisition of Varian Medical Systems, the world’s the number one developer of linear accelerators. 此举扩大了该公司在成像和其他诊断技术方面的投资组合, making the German company a major player in the cancer industry.
What they needed, though, 是否更好地理解了如何在全球抗击癌症的斗争中部署这项技术. They turned to Jessica.
“这是一个为国际癌症项目制定解决方案的机会,”杰西卡说. As Global Head of Oncology Consulting, she’s taking the lessons and best practices gleaned from 25-plus years of developing, leading, and guiding top-tier US cancer centers and educating global clients.
“我能够领导其中的一些解决方案,并分享采取整体方法改善癌症治疗的最佳实践,” she says. “迪拜有一个机会,我们目前正在寻求帮助解决乳腺癌护理方面的挑战. 我们有机会将其中的一些发现与我们的马来西亚团队分享, with our Germany team, and with others across the globe.”
And while more time with Siemens Healthineers might mean a little less time with ECG, her sense of purpose hasn’t changed. “我们如何帮助癌症患者,这也是我为美国客户bet8娱乐的动力?”
The Journey Continues
That motivation has remained constant throughout Jessica’s career. 从在癌症中心实习到在大型国际组织担任肿瘤咨询全球主管, her personal and professional ambitions have been intertwined.
“When I think about when I started my career, it was really in a response to a personal connection who was fighting cancer,” she says. “And over the years, more and more of my friends, my family members, people close to me have wrestled with this disease. So when you have the opportunity to make an impact, 这是咨询的一个领域,你可以帮助改善一个项目的表现,并且知道另一端的病人因为你的建议而有积极的体验.”
Learn More about ECG’s Center for Advanced Oncology
¹ECG is an affiliate of Siemens Healthineers.
Published April 25, 2024
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