From Pills to Pixels -My Journey in Healthcare

My healthcare journey began behind the counter of a small Philadelphia pharmacy in the early 1990s. Between counting pills, checking prescriptions, and greeting regular customers, I learned my first and most enduring lesson about healthcare: at its heart, it's a deeply human business built on trust and understanding.

Those early interactions – explaining medications to elderly patients, helping young parents navigate insurance forms, working with local doctors to clarify prescriptions – laid the foundation for everything that followed. Each conversation reinforced how critical clear communication and genuine empathy are in healthcare.

As my career evolved through roles at Medical Broadcasting Company and Digitas Health eventually to senior leadership positions at Havas Health Network Deloitte and Publicis Health the scale changed but the core principles remained the same. Leading healthcare marketing agencies and consultancies taught me how to amplify these human connections through technology while navigating the complex regulatory landscape of pharmaceutical commercialization.

Through those years, three fundamental insights emerged that still guide me today:

Patient understanding is everything. Whether you're counseling someone at a counter or designing AI systems that process millions of interactions, success comes from truly grasping patient needs and their healthcare journey.

Build trust through every touchpoint. At the pharmacy, trust meant clear communication and reliable service. In agency leadership, it meant delivering campaigns that educated and empowered patients. Today, it means ensuring our AI systems enhance, rather than replace, human connections in healthcare.

Stay focused on outcomes. Technology should solve real problems. The most sophisticated AI is worthless if it doesn't help companies bring better treatments to patients faster. Our work at Axonal.AI has shown this – we've achieved 40% improvement in marketing efficiency and 40% faster compliance review times through AI that's purposefully designed for life sciences.

Looking at healthcare today, I'm more excited than ever about how new technologies can scale these foundational principles. At Axonal.AI, we're using AI to help pharmaceutical companies accelerate commercialization while maintaining the human touch that makes healthcare work. Our goal is simple: help get life-changing treatments to patients faster while preserving the trust and understanding that I first learned about behind that pharmacy counter.

The tools and scale may have changed dramatically from my days as a pharmacy clerk, but the mission remains constant: improving how pharmaceutical companies connect with patients to deliver better health outcomes.

Which core principles from your early work experience still shape how you lead today?

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