Today, in our Employee Spotlight Series, we have Hannah McGurk, associate product manager. Hannah joined the team in 2019 and has advanced her career at Medchart from the fulfillment team to the product side.
What brought you to Medchart?
Having recently graduated university with a BA degree, majoring in Political Science and Sociology and minoring in Legal Studies, I am interested in legal issues especially as they pertain to access to justice and the rights of citizens.
What drew me to Medchart in 2020 was their focus on solving a problem that addresses patient rights and access to their health data. Moving on the fulfillment team, which is responsible for retrieving records from healthcare providers, was a great fit.
How did you transition to product management?
While I was on the fulfillment team, I requested medical records directly from healthcare providers, managing their record retrievals. My experience working directly with customers and managing consents allowed me to identify ways to improve our processes, which influenced my work on the product side. The ideas I generated to simplify the data collection started specific to the customer experience and then transformed into ways we could improve the product. The transition to the product team was the next natural step, and within a year I will become a full product manager.
Even in the short time you’ve been at Medchart, what are you noticing as the future of health tech?
Since health tech is a newly emerging market and there are so many moving pieces - including the abundant availability of data and the regulations in place - it is a complex industry to navigate. At the same time, there is a ton of opportunity. With all of the data being collected by providers, insurance companies and health networks, I think in the next 3-5 years we will see these organizations opening their data sources, making it easier and less expensive for healthcare stakeholders and consumers to request and access their medical records.
What do you see as the biggest challenges in the health tech industry?
Currently, it is expensive to request medical records and our decentralized system of setting regulations around the country makes retrieving data in a standardized way a challenge. These regulations will always be changing and updating, making it hard for not only providers, but also consumers, to navigate.
Another challenge we see is that when we request records, some providers might send a rejection from one of our consents and a reason as to why they cannot release the data. We then have to take a non-legal lens to figure out how to adjust the consent and expedite the process. The traditionally manual process can delay operations leaving patients and healthcare stakeholders waiting on critical medical information. But the industry is heading in the right direction and will eventually become more connected to streamline data sharing for all involved.
What do you like about working at Medchart?
At Medchart, our corporate culture is keen on growth, building peoples’ skills and knowledge base. Medchart created a way for me to develop a targeted career path by providing me with an opportunity in a role I never anticipated to be working in. I am deep in an industry I never anticipated I’d be working in. And due to our cross-disciplinary approach, I can learn new roles and skills, while building upon my experiences. It’s a win-win-win for me, Medchart and our customers.
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