Dialogue with Stephen 0 0 1 269 1538 Duke University 12 3 1804 14.0

In July this summer I separated from my employer and enrolled in the Masters of Management in Clinical Informatics (MMCi) program at the Duke Fuqua School of Business.

Stephen, who was the VP of Marketing and Sales at one of my startup companies, noticed this change and dropped a note recently. The communication (edited for brevity and relevance) follows.

Dan,

Normally people go to grad school to become what you are, not the other way around. What was your plan here? What do you do next and why that?

Stephen,

The program I'm in runs for 12 months. It's not an MBA program, but a mix of business classes and classes on medical informatics. What's medical informatics you ask? It's the set of techniques involved in the keeping and use of electronic heath records. Lots of privacy issues, lots of opportunities for data mining that yields insights about cost reduction and better outcomes.

Dan,

Interesting plan...what made you decide to go that route? You were/are a distinguished network security and Grid computing man...is this about Obama's interest in digitizing medical data? Privacy and compliance is huge. Just where are you inserting yourself? Consulting for PwC?

Stephen,

Obama's stimulus has created a surge in consulting opportunities. I have some interest in going that direction, but don’t yet know if that’s my direction. The larger motivation is local opportunities are much greater in the new area. Two academic medical centers, all the pharma in RTP, SAS, Quintiles, and several others. RTI has a large group that has been working in this field for 10+ years. Networking has greatly diminished as a local option. Lots of former Nortel and other employees are competing for a few local jobs. My goals are to keep learning and working, but stay challenged and local.