From around the world. Thank you for joining me for this session titled Valuable Insights From the Journey to a Chief Data Officer. My name is Dana D Ferdinando and I am the newly minted Chief Data Officer at GE Health Care.I've been in this role for just about four months now. Uh But I have, I have been in data for a very long time in my career. So we're going to spend the next 20 minutes together discussing an exciting career. At least I think it's an exciting career, especially for women who love science, technology and business. So let's move forward. Um So there are three things that I'd like to share with you today. First, how I became a chief data officer. Next, what the ro ro role entails? And then third, some of my many lessons learned. I'm just gonna give you a few. I don't think we have enough time for all of my lessons. So, so without further ado, let's go ahead and dive in. Ok. So I, I have some pictures to share with you as well. But first, so how did I become a Chief Data Officer? I'm not sure from your comments. How many of you even know what a Chief data officer is? Well, let me start by saying it was neither a planned nor a straightforward path for me. So I did know from a pretty young age that I was good at a few things, math biology, English, problem solving and analytics.

Also, my EQ and listening skills were pretty high and I could always under generally understand where people needed help and how I could help them. So I decided to take a path in science and technology and received an undergraduate degree in computer science. And at the time, there weren't many women. And unfortunately, I still think that's the case. And I'm, I'm hoping this talk will help more women get into a computer science and other technology fields. And then I got a master's degree in operations research. Some of you may also know it as engineering, management, management, science, industrial engineering. I went to some great schools and I I felt fortunate in that regard. So coming right out of school, I tried software programming, but soon realized that that wasn't my passion.

It was more on the business side of technology where I could help to find and solve customer problems. So I could easily spend our time together just talking about my career to date it, it did start pretty early in the 19 nineties, but I just wanted to highlight a few key pivots for me. So my first pivot in the 1990 time frame was from a software technical lead at AT&T Bell Labs at the time to an entrepreneur and general manager at Science applications International Corporation, a large science and technology company based in San Diego, California, where I was able to build and sustain three successful businesses in the technology area, which was really a great time because I had the umbrella of a large company, I could be an entre entrepreneur.

I could build teams solve customer problems and it, it was really fun. And I spent 16 years there. My second pivot was to join Deloitte, one of the big five management consulting firms and lead a strategy and operations practice for life sciences and medical device companies.

While at Deloitte, one of my customers tapped me on the shoulder for my third pivot to become a Chief information Officer for Arena Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company that was getting ready to commercialize their first therapeutic product. So my fourth pivot in, in the early two thousands was to start my own consulting company. And, and then I pivoted to nonprofits and community service. I was already on two boards and you'll see from the middle picture. I love animals. So the San Diego Humane Society was one of my favorite nonprofits. And I was able to come in and help them with their technology transformation and build their strategy as they grew in size and helped more animals. And then I made my fifth pivot uh in the mid two thousands to becoming a data and analytics leader for two medical technology companies ResMed and most recently ge health care. So why? And how did I pivot? Well, my pivots were in part driven by opportunities that were presented to me and my desire to try new things. All of my pivots though definitely had several things in common, helping people or animals solving hard problems, working with smart people and all throughout was data.

So the pictures that I provided at the bottom of this slide are are shown to emphasize that in addition to the exciting career opportunities I pursued, I made sure to do other things that kept me balanced. And that was a very big part of who I was and who I continue to be. So things like giving back to the community, it was important to me and I did that as I mentioned for several nonprofits. One being the San Diego Society being in nature. I love to hike and spend time out in, out in the outdoors. It helps to ground me and having fun and doing exciting things that were not work related. So, OK, now we're gonna move on, let's talk about my current role as Chief Data Officer and what that entails. OK, moving on, everyone knows that data has existed for ages in many different forms. And so the value of data is created when it's served in the right format and made accessible for people who need it and when they need it. So you may have heard data referred to as the oil of the of the present day, which is a hot topic given the gasoline prices currently and also the new gold.

So both oil and gold became valuable commodities once they were mined and refined and used in ways that could help people live more fulfilling and better lives. And the same concept applies to data. OK. So what is the Chief data Officer, the role of the Chief data officer or CD O first appeared in the early two thousands when capital one appointed its first CD O in 2002, there were a few organizations that followed suit over the next decade. Um And a global study conducted by Pricewaterhouse Cooper in 2021 found that only 21% of the top 2500 publicly traded companies worldwide currently have a CD O in place. And almost half of those have been appointed since 2019. While data analyzing data using artificial intelligence to basically create data insights have been around for a while. The role of a chief data officer is fairly new. So according to the co-author of the chief data officers, playbook and data driven business transformation, how to disrupt innovate and stay ahead of the competition. The chief data officer is the senior person with a business focus who understands the strategy and direction of the business, but their focus is on how to underpin that with data.

So unlike a chief technology officer, a chief digi digital officer, a chief information officer, a chief data officer focuses on the value of data and and how to extract it and and apply it across the business enterprise. So the CD O is an integral member of the C SUITE and has many functions including overseeing data management, data analytics, and data governance, ensuring data quality and spearheading data and information strategy. So my, my and my team's goal at ge health care is to extract value from healthcare data to help patients receive the best care possible. The data needs to be protected, clean, consistent, governed properly and used ethically, especially in the case of personal data. As CD O I help to oversee the use of this data and provide technology solutions to enhance decision making through data insights and an analytic solutions. OK? Now I'd like to talk to you a little bit about my journey and my lessons learned along the journey. So first and foremost, be open and willing to explore opportunities that may not be in your immediate plans. I never had a chief data officer in in my plan for the future. Uh in my vision board, I thought I was going to get more into strategy and operations, but this role enables me to flex different parts of my career, which was really exciting for me. The technology piece, the science piece, the mathematics and analytics, the business portion.

And so it it really all came together for with this opportunity. So stretching yourself to try out new roles that are interesting and challenging can really help you flex in ways that will prepare you for even better opportunities in the future. Always stay true to yourself and listen to your inner voice that will not only help guide you but will also help you avoid opportunities that may be enticing but not in line with your passion, getting, getting a job that pays good money and long hours if you're not passionate about it will just drain you.

So please pay attention to that as well and then keep learning and maintain your network. Many of my opportunities presented themselves through my professional and personal networks as you progress. Remember to help those more junior than you and pay it forward and I, I try my best to do that as well because those that came ahead of me did the same for me. And then finally, and, and as important as all the others have fun and don't be afraid to make mistakes. Some of my mistakes have given me valuable skills that I have applied to other roles and also to my personal life. So in the short time that we had together, I hope that I was able to provide you with a basic understanding of the CD O role and have interested you enough to learn, to want to learn more. It is a great career for those who want to enable data driven decision making and derive value from data to help people. OK? I I'm gonna stop here now. Thank you very much for your time and turn it over to Anna to see if there are any questions. Thank you.

Thank you so much Dana for this fantastic presentations for so structuring your journey and also sharing valuable lessons. And it was really interesting to learn about your journey and how you mentioned that you didn't really plan it and you worked hard but still had fun. And I think it's so important to have fun, you know, along the way and my questions are what, what, what, what does a CD organization look like?

Sure, you know, it really varies from company to company and, and even when I was doing a little bit of research for the role of a CD O different companies, financial institutions have organizations that look different than health care companies, et cetera. So I can give you what what my organization looks like. So I have three basic pillars to my organization. One is the technology and we're developing a platform that enables clinic clinical data to be aggregated across the patient journey. So we're helping with clinical workflows.

So when a patient enters the hospital and uh is going through many different types of tests and are being diagnosed for maybe multiple conditions, being able to help that patient understand at different points in their journey, what their data is, what what their full persona looks like from, from a to a clinician and helping them and the clinician to manage their patient care until they get back to their home.

So that's one piece is the technology piece. Another piece is the data insight generation and the data services. And then the third piece is the governance. So making sure that data is u used ethically across GE health care. So I have a pretty large global team and we all work together in order to ensure that the data is used appropriately within GE health care.

Fantastic. Thank you. Um Here's a question. Uh What were some of the challenges that you faced in your career?

Oh boy. OK. So where do I start with that one? Thank you. So I actually started my career in uh the defense world in the government area where I was one of few women. I work with a lot of military men who this was their second career and just understanding how to make your voice heard. And I didn't come from the military. I, I was a woman in a group of a lot of men. And so I, I had to quickly get up to speed on the technology and hone my skills in ways that my voice wouldn't be drowned out by bigger louder voices. And so that was one and then the other was just being authentic and true to yourself. You're not gonna know all the answers. You never will surround yourself with smart people. Be willing to admit when you don't know something, be willing to pivot when things aren't working for you or it's just not part of your passion and then trying new things. It, it seems change can be scary sometimes but I, I will tell you change is good. It, it helps you to flex and grow. So those are a few and then you'll probably see the legs of, of one of my, my furry Children in the background surround yourself with things that you love and enjoy and, and it helps take the edge off of a off of frustrating days sometimes.

Yeah, that's really great piece of advice. Here is the question. Thank you so much, Dana. What are your favorite books or podcast today? Inspired in your role?

Ah, in my role. There, there are several really good uh podcasts that talk about data and chief data officers. But frankly, the, the podcast that really helped inspire me are, are ones that, that get me motivated. So, jeez, now, now I'm trying to think, I'm, I'm doing a lot of podcasts on different medication, staying grounded. Uh I, I like to read for pleasure. You know, let, let me, um if you wanna reach out to me on linkedin,

we'll drop you on linkedin. I'm sure you will receive so many messages today after this session.

Yeah. So there hasn't, there hasn't been what hidden brain is one of my favorite brain paths. And and that's not necessarily for a cheap data officer, but it gives valuable insights for being a leader and, and learning new things that, that help you expand your horizon and then also being a good communicator. Right?

Here's a question from someone who is still a student, a computer science student. How should a computer science student with specialization in health informatics start a journey? What could be one of the directions?

Great question. Yeah. You know, if they had bioinformatics and health informatics when I was going to school, I would have jumped on that career instead of computer science. So that's that's a great career if you want to get into the intersection of health data and technology.

So there there are so many different ways you can go with a career like that. You could get it start in the analytic space. You could start by being in an intern at a health care company and and informatics and analytics. You could start by even going into computer science. You could work with one of the business organizations just to learn how I came from a respiratory care company and just working as an intern in one of the business learning about sleep medicine, learning about cardiology and helping to apply informatics to that business could also be a great way to go.

So, yeah, there, there are many ways with, with a career in, in health informatics and it's a great career. So I applaud you.

Thank you so much for sharing this and just share it also. Uh Dana's profile on linkedin. So if you want to ask more questions, you know, or follow her on linkedin, make sure to do that. How hands on are you in your current role and how important it is to stay hands on?

Ah That, that's a great question, Barnett too.

So I delay a little bit but I just wanted to make sure I would take this one

as a chief data officer. There's a balance, right? You, you can't get too down to Louis. I have some spectacularly smart people who work for me. I have a chief technology officer. I have senior very senior folks who run large teams. So you need to be hands on enough to understand the business and to be able to and the technology and to be able to communicate that upwards to the to the CEO who is not technology focused, but you can't be too hands on where you're doing the work for, for people that you've empowered to do the work for you.

So it it's really a balance and, and sometimes I find myself pulling up a little bit and, and because I'm fairly new to ge health care, I had to get pretty hands on. So that I understood the imaging technology is fascinating at ge health care. I needed to learn enough about that to be able to understand the data associated with it. So it's a balance but but the higher you get in the organization, the less hands on with the technology you you really need to be.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's very, thanks for a great answer. And it was really great to take some questions from the audience, you know, to keep it also more interactive because you have such really incredible experience and a great join.