Spotlight Interview: Shawn Murphy, Board Vice President, TLI and Laura Carabello, CCO, CPR Strategic Marketing and Communications and Fellow, TLI

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Shawn Murphy
Board Vice President, TLI 
Shawn Murphy, Board Vice President, is an experienced leader and certified Project Management Professional with an impressive history of driving organizational growth in information technology and services industries. Passionate about improving the human condition, she implements innovative ideas to improve patient care and education within communities. With her leadership and guidance, she has managed health information technology and financial management programs for the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and commercial enterprises.

Shawn’s work in commercial satellite communications, telecommunications, clinical support systems, medical logistics and financial industries is testimony to her ability to leverage new, advanced technologies. A consummate project management specialist, she uses best practices to implement enterprise-level business process transformation, manage inter-agency systems interoperability, cybersecurity and software integration programs.

About TLI

The Thought Leadership & Innovation Foundation (TLI) is a not-for-profit organization that works at the nexus of science, technology and public health, innovating for superior prevention, treatment and outcomes for those facing life-altering medical diagnoses.TLI helps patients across the country and around the world find better healthcare outcomes. Visit www.thoughtfoundation.org and follow us on LinkedIn.

Laura Carabello

CCO, CPR Strategic Marketing and Communications and Fellow, TLI

Laura Carabello is an entrepreneur and strategy consultant in both domestic and international businesses.  Her areas of expertise are related to healthcare, life sciences and medical devices, information technology, telemedicine and digital health solutions, medical travel and managed care/benefits.

Laura has been instrumental in the growth and development of multiple companies and organizations both domestic and worldwide. She currently serves on the International Committee of the Self Insurance Institute of America (SIIA) and authors monthly articles for its publication The Self Insurer. As a volunteer, she serves as a Fellow to the Thought Leadership & Innovation Foundation (TLI) and special advisor to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF). Recognized for innovation, she was on the founding team of Teladoc, the world’s leading telemedicine company.

About CPR Strategic Marketing Communications

CPR, a full-service strategic marketing firm, serves emerging companies, non-profit organizations and other healthcare-focused entities to effectively position them for growth and expansion, industry leadership and market success. Specializing in healthcare, life sciences and medical devices, CPR partners with an array of clients, from local to international and throughout numerous industries and markets. Using a multifaceted approach, we develop integrated strategies around communications, creative solutions and global connectivity to drive results through targeted messaging, brand management, public relations, networking, social media marketing, consulting, research and reputation management. Visit www.cpronline.com.

Shawn Murphy, Vice President, Thought Leadership & Innovation Foundation (TLI)

Medical Travel & Digital Health News (MTDHN) Can you share a bit about your background and what inspired you to become part of TLI?

Shawn Murphy (SM): My career has been focused on information technology (IT). I started in commercial telecom and satellite communications software where I then pivoted into health IT for the government supported military and VA clinical care support systems.

Working in the government space for active-duty military and veterans led me to become very mission focused and that is what drew me to TLI.

TLI gives me the opportunity to maintain that laser focus that’s needed to improve healthcare and people’s lives, and I get to do that using my experience in information technology, designing and developing enterprise level systems in a way that they can be impactful to the communities we serve.

MTDHN: As Vice President of TLI, you mentioned the importance of transformative change in healthcare. How do you see the role of TLI Fellows, including yourself, in driving this transformative change?

SM: I see the TLI Fellows as a force multiplier of the foundation.

TLI is a small organization and having our distinguished Fellows lend their expertise and insights into the communities we serve helps the company stay focused on what matters most to the community and keeps us grounded. Our Fellows drive TLI’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovative thinking and action and envisioning a world where health outcomes are significantly improved through innovation and data-driven solutions.

We encourage Fellows to offer new ideas on how we can develop programs to benefit the communities we serve and to be an active participant in driving that transformative change that’s needed to improve quality of life and inspire hope for so many patients and families confronting challenging health conditions.

MTDHN: TLI is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of innovative thinking. Can you highlight a specific project or initiative you are particularly excited about, and how it aligns with TLI’s mission?

SM: One initiative that is the furthest along—and is really exciting because of the community—is our work with the Limb Loss and Preservation Registry (LLPR). This is the first hospital systems and orthotic/prosthetic (O&P) practices collaborative database that focuses on both upper and lower extremity acquired and congenital limb differences, as well as limb preservation populations.

The initiative focuses on the integration of data from hospital systems and O&P practices into a collaborative database focused on the acquired and congenital limb difference, as well as limb preservation populations. It addresses a substantial public health knowledge gap for a population that has no current reliable data repository.

The LLPR will help to prevent limb loss, influence clinical practice guidelines, refine rehabilitation approaches and guide development of more optimal care plans for people undergoing limb preservation procedures and living with limb loss.

One issue this community is facing currently is the lack of reliable evidence. Any evidence on care and clinical practices for the limb loss and limb difference community is over 20 years old. Our goal with supporting this community is to provide reliable evidence demonstrating patient outcomes for more than four million people in the U.S. living with limb loss is vital to supporting the prescription of rehabilitation and prosthetic devices and improving the quality of life for this population.

We do this by taking data from hospital and prosthetist electronic medical record systems, and outcomes measuring systems and integrating it to create a longitudinal view of a patient’s journey. The data is encrypted and stored in a cloud platform accredited at the same level of security and privacy as the Federal government defense systems.

These analytics will be made available to researchers studying limb loss, limb preservation, and contributing medical conditions such as diabetes and vascular disease. They are uniquely designed to standardize, measure, and report patient outcomes data, support evidence-based decision making, enhance health care delivery and inform best practices.

MTDHN: In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, what challenges do you foresee, and how do you think TLI, with its Fellows, can contribute to overcoming these challenges?

SM: Because it is ever evolving and new things come out every day in healthcare and IT, our small organization can’t possibly keep up with all the changes in policy and law as well as emerging technologies.

Our Fellows act as our eyes and ears out in the world. They’re a dynamic group of thought leaders with an amazing breadth of experience and depth of knowledge in their fields. They bring a lot of insights to the foundation on how we can better shape our programs to be more effective in the community.

TLI’s core values, encompassing innovation, integrity, partnership, impartiality, intellectual curiosity and excellence, drive its efforts to integrate science, technology and strategic thinking for the public benefit. This approach creates a dynamic platform for meaningful change while effectively navigating the complexities of our ever-changing world. Together, our organization is determined to harness the power of thought leadership and innovation to address the most pressing health challenges of our time.

MTDHN: As a thought leader in the healthcare sector, what advice do you have for emerging professionals who aspire to make a significant impact in the field of healthcare innovation?

SM: I think the best advice is just have an open mindedness to new ideas, thoughts and new ways of thinking.

You can also consider emerging technologies, but they’re not always the answer. A lot of times it’s just rethinking how we do things to be more efficient and how we think outside the box on how you approach something.

Sometimes you need to think about what result you’re trying to get and work backwards into a solution.

Don’t let the technology, current policy and law dictate how you do something, necessarily. Those things can be changed and worked into the solution, but you have to keep your eye on the result you’re trying to achieve.

Laura Carabello, CCO, CPR Strategic Marketing Communications and TLI Fellow

MTDHN: How do you see the intersection between your role in healthcare strategic marketing and communications and your involvement with TLI?

Laura Carabello (LC): TLI really exemplifies the spirit of awareness and understanding of the challenges and unmet worldwide needs to ensure quality, access and cost effectiveness of healthcare services. These are the pillars that we strive to emphasize on behalf of all our healthcare clients and certainly throughout the content of the newsletter.

It’s been said that healthcare has a lot of data.  As a key leader of TLI, Shawn reinforces that we have a lot of data, but what we really lack is information that’s usable for not only providers and patients, but also for healthcare decision makers to really make decisions, including health plans, employers and plan sponsors, benefits consultants, brokers, captives and everybody who’s in the self-insurance industry,

It’s the data that is the groundswell of information, but we need to translate that into usable data, information and thought leadership that this Foundation brings.

I am very passionate about volunteering for this Foundation and encouraging others to take their roles as leaders of the next generation of healthcare.

MTDHN: What motivated you to join TLI as a Fellow, and how do you see your role contributing to the Foundation’s mission?

LC: The mission is so well defined in three areas – limb loss, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) – and exploding into other areas.

I believe my background in communications and marketing for healthcare entities dovetails nicely with what the Foundation is doing. I aim to support TLI in several ways:  articulating its mission, its purpose and its programs, and also taking part in fundraising and bringing additional resources to the Foundation so that it continues to grow in order to take on other projects.

I am involved in several other projects in healthcare that I think would be appropriate for TLI which includes developing programs that address food insecurities for marginalized populations. There are so many people in this world who are underserved or need answers.

In addition, my particular interest in AMD has significantly grown. As I mentioned, AMD is a focus of TLI— and we are currently developing a portal that is going to serve all stakeholders in AMD, including the pharmaceutical companies, the payers, the providers and the patients. I’m very excited about working on that project as well.

MTDHN: TLI places a strong emphasis on integrating science, technology and strategic thinking for the public benefit. Could you share an example of how this integrated approach has been pivotal in your work or a project you’re involved in?

LC: One of our major focuses is on autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We are developing and will be premiering The Autism Knowledge Gateway, a dynamic resource in development which will provide clinicians, parents and educators with a repository of peer-reviewed research, comprehensive information on available programs and resources dedicated to supporting ASD families. A collaborative chat room within the Gateway facilitates in-depth discussions of case studies and current research among clinicians.

I believe the opportunity there is incredible for world leaders to really tap into the current thinking and the current research going on in autism and to make informed decisions about how patients (and their families) are treated.  It will be a valuable resource for people to access the right level of support for their children, relatives or whoever else is diagnosed with autism.

Consider even the diagnosis of autism—how do we get that to a place where the doctors, the pediatricians and the specialists are all working together? That’s what the TLI project is all about. I’m really excited about boosting the opportunities for that particular sector.

MTDHN: The TLI Fellows are described as visionaries at the forefront of fueling innovation. In your opinion, what is the most exciting aspect of healthcare innovation today, and how can it improve patient outcomes?

LC: I go back to the purpose and the mission of TLI, and I think the Fellows really exemplify that mission because they bring all new aspects and perspectives of the challenges that are facing world populations. This is not just the United States unto itself. This is a community that is going to grow.

We’d like to grow it to over 200 Fellows in the near future. We’re looking for motivated people to make good on our promise to boost research and activities of all who are involved, including stakeholders throughout the healthcare ecosystem, and to bring in more Fellows who have ideas and want to generate and grow their particular interest levels and also boost the image of the TLI.

This is really an opportunity for visionary thinking. This is not a static organization. This is not a static group of Fellows. We’re not there just to glorify our own names. We’re here to bring together the best thinking in the world. I have to give Bill Oldham, chairman and the founder of TLI, credit for really imbuing this sense of excitement and adventure. Healthcare really is an adventure.

As Shawn said earlier, this is not an area where we remain happy with the status quo. We’re never happy with the status quo. The status quo is old thinking. We’re always looking ahead, and I think that’s what Bill has brought to this Foundation.

MTDHN: As someone deeply involved in healthcare communication, what role do you think effective communication plays in advancing healthcare innovation and addressing the health challenges faced by patients and their families?

LC: Communications are at the core of thought leadership, and we are all about thought leadership.

Whether it’s an article that appears in a journal, a TV segment or social media posting, the communications channels in the United States and worldwide are now the channels that allow us to get this messaging out to the people who need it most: the patients, families, providers and payers. This includes everybody who is involved in making decisions that affect the health and quality of life for millions of people worldwide—how else would they get this information?

It’s the communications channels that accomplish it, and that’s what we’re looking to accomplish with our Fellows—to get them even more opportunities for spotlighting their thought leadership and driving our mission forward.

Quote from Bill Oldham, CEO and Board Chairman, TLI

“Our TLI Fellows are a distinguished cohort of industry leaders who exemplify the spirit of innovation and thought leadership in healthcare. At TLI, we believe that innovation is the key to driving meaningful change and enhancing global health. Our Fellows, who are drawn from throughout the healthcare landscape in the U.S. and from around the world, play a crucial role in pushing the boundaries of innovative thinking and action. Together, we envision a world where health outcomes are significantly improved through innovation and data-driven solutions.”

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TLI Fellows:

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