Since his days as a student and emergency medicine resident at Yale School of Medicine (YSM), Dr. Ying Ho, Class of ’96, MBA, has carved out a fluid career path as an executive, entrepreneur, and health IT advisor. “I’ve worked as a CEO in everything from startups to publicly traded companies,” she says.
Throughout her career, she has worked to improve the country’s flawed health IT infrastructure. Her goal is to build health IT solutions that more effectively support physicians, researchers, and patients and improve patient outcomes. Mr. Ho is currently focused on ensuring AI and its responsible application in health and medicine. Her recently published book, Going headlong: The legacy of health IT and the path to responsible AIis a call to action for physicians, executives, entrepreneurs, and patients to change the direction of health IT.
Severe impact of YSM
YSM had a huge impact on Ho, both personally and professionally. This is where she met her husband, Henry Shea, MD (’96, RES’02), now a professor of surgery (plastics) and biomedical engineering at YSM and founding director of the Yale Regenerative Wound Healing Program, and some of her closest lifelong friends. “Many of them had other careers before coming to YSM, and they gave me a broader perspective, for which I am forever grateful,” she says.
Ho remembers that one of her friends, a former Wall Street trader, taught her how to use data to frame arguments even when challenging authority, a valuable lesson that has stayed with her.
“YSM also provided me with a kind of freedom, allowing me to consider questions in different ways and believe that anything is possible,” Ho says. “That was probably the biggest influence of all. YSM shaped much of my thinking about medicine, people within medicine, and medicine’s place in the world.”
Pivot to make a difference
Two forces influenced Ho’s transition from medical practice to advancing health IT. First, she was troubled by the lack of a prominent role for physicians in policy discussions about health and medicine.
Second, in her third year, Ho realized that the advent of the Internet was beginning to eliminate the asymmetry between health information available to doctors and the general public. This is what she thought. “I really need to be a part of this…I need to be the one trying to figure out what the new system of the world is going to be like.” That’s when she decided to change direction.
At the end of his second year there, Ho attended a board meeting, took the GMAT, and applied to business school. She then headed to Harvard Business School. “I stepped into [to the business world] I gave 100 percent and never looked back. My philosophy was, if you’re going to change the system, change it 100 percent. ”
Driven by a desire to support physicians, researchers, and patients, she set out to build and improve health IT. she says: “I didn’t leave medicine. I just chose to leave medicine and take a different path.”
Path after MBA
For several reasons, Ho joined a startup after completing his MBA. she says: “I was very excited about what this startup was trying to do, which was to help patients find clinical trials, and what was possible.”
I was also worried that if I joined a traditional company, I would be stuck with a fixed mindset. “Most companies had no idea what to do with doctors with MBAs,” she points out. Ho recalls an HR representative at a pharmaceutical company telling her that she could become a medical director, a position that would never rise to executive level, or that she could start in sales or marketing and work her way to the top. In any case, she should be on a certain path.
In contrast, she says: “The great thing about the startup world is that if you’re smart and you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and get to work, that’s all that really matters.”
After his first job, Ho remained flexible, jumping into diverse roles in both small and large companies, and later becoming an entrepreneur himself. She led eHealth at Pfizer, served as interim CEO of Veradigm (MDRX), founded and led Context Matters (acquired by Decision Resources Group), and held executive positions at Aetion and Medidata. She currently serves on the board of Segmed and is an advisor to Lighten AI and Novellia.
“What I’ve found most fulfilling is the amount of amazing people I’ve met who truly work on a mission. These problem solvers come from a variety of fields and have come together to build this field.” [health IT] space. ”
Excitement about AI
AI fascinates Ho, and he calls himself an “AI humanist.” She believes that AI needs to be applied to improve human life, especially in the medical field where humanism is the driving force.
“My interest in AI has a lot to do with my disappointment with what has happened with health IT. Health IT was supposed to help doctors and patients, but it ended up being a disaster. IT was optimized for transactions and made doctors the most expensive recorders of care. Their judgment was not valued as much as their ability to document. The result was physician burnout and an infrastructure that was not patient-centric.”
Ho was excited about AI. The reason for this was not only because AI is a technological breakthrough, but also because it “can rebalance and empower doctors and patients.”
We feel an urgent need to tell doctors, business leaders, and patients that: nNow is the time to drive change and ensure the responsible use of AI in health and medicine, Ho wrote and published this book Going headlong: The legacy of health IT and the path to responsible AI.
She describes the book as “a historical book about our harrowing medical IT journey and a kind of roadmap for the future.” She says doctors and business leaders need to think about what they want to achieve with AI, ask the hard questions, and don’t rush implementation. she says: “It was important for me to publish this book now, because this is the moment when dialogue is needed and our only chance to reclaim any kind of agency.”
“I especially like talking to physicians, because for so long they have felt powerless within the health care system, forced to use EHR (electronic health record) systems that don’t take user preferences into account. I wouldn’t be surprised if a group of physicians decided to start the next company, the next product. The tools are there, the speed is there. Why not use AI to build mockups of the next EHR? Say, ‘This is it.’ What do I want to see? ”
devoted slut
Mr. Ho cherishes his time at YSM. “The education I received at YSM remains one of the highlights of my life,” she says. YSM is also where she formed deep friendships.
She immersed herself in the school community because she loved YSM and its classes. Early on, he served as class president and student body president, and later as class representative, alumni co-chair, AYAM board member, and alumni participant at admitted students and other events.
she says proudly. “I have to brag a little bit. I have the honor of being part of the class with the highest number of alumni attendees. We are very excited about this. We hope to break the record at our upcoming 30th reunion. I think it will be a great opportunity for everyone to come together in person. That moment will never come back.”
