Dr. Charu Arora, HealthTech Enthusiast & Cardiologist
She grew up wanting to become a doctor and practice medicine as she saw it as a very noble profession. Dr. Charu Arora thoroughly enjoyed and found it gratifying to relieve someone of pain and misery. At the same time, she is also very experimental and likes doing new things. She was always keen to understand how hospitals function outside just clinical practice and what more can be done within healthcare delivery.
Post her MBA, Dr. Charu joined a healthcare consulting firm where she worked on improving patient experience and day-to-day operations for hospitals. Startups excite her a lot and Dr. Charu cherished her stint with Portea in the high-speed environment. Her passion is (and has always been) to optimize healthcare delivery and make patients’ lives better.
“We are at a stage where technology is assisting traditional healthcare delivery models in improving access and quality of healthcare delivery like never before. Artificial intelligence and data mining are going to play a big role in the next few decades” says Dr. Charu.
Team ABT reached out to Dr. Charu Arora to know more about her professional journey; captured below.
Her Greatest Inspiration
Women leaders in general inspire me especially the ones from an Asian/Indian background. Indra Nooyi is Woman I look up to, the most. Being an Indian woman and having to constantly juggle between personal and highly demanding professional lives is not a cakewalk. I pick Indian because I believe there are more expectations from and pressures on Indian females as compared to western, though I will not take away any credit from Western women leaders. Let us be realistic – successful women leaders have a harder path to glory!
Circumstances that led her to join Healthcare
After practicing in India and Singapore, I decided to switch to MBA because I felt I could make a bigger impact through this route. Medicine though very rewarding and challenging can be very hierarchical and thus, frustrating. I saw people doing awesome unparalleled stuff in healthcare technology which encouraged me to make the switch and be a part of the biggest ever revolution in healthcare.
Her views on the Changing landscape & Healthcare markets across geographies
The healthcare markets are quite varied based on geography. The market in India is very unique and has its own nuances. The best thing is it provides is a very wide range of options to a consumer based on his financial status. Singapore is more structured with better insurance penetration and better use of technology throughout. The US market is very complex with the payers playing a big role, with different problems especially the sky rocketing costs.
Challenges faced & tackled
One challenge is quickly adapting to a new market when you change geography. Another one is being updated with the latest technologies and developments. Both can be managed by staying active in your healthcare professional network and reading up the latest stuff. I regularly do both.
Leadership Style
My leadership is style is very simple. I like to keep my team involved and updated, give and take feedback at frequent intervals, prioritize my task list every morning and delegate things so that I make the best use of my time.
Something she would have done differently
I am currently working on my Data Analytics skills and doing courses & projects as this is the path I want my career to stick to. If I could go back in time, I would take these electives during my MBA. The reason I did not, was that I lacked much clarity at that time about my interest in this filed and probably because these were not as big BUZZ words then, as they are today. 🙂
The journey ahead
I would want to be a crucial part of revolutionary organization/start up in healthcare technology/AI that is into population health management and is improving clinical outcomes by reducing readmissions or controlling chronic diseases better or predicting an episode and thus reducing morbidity/mortality. After some hands-on experience, I would like to build something of my own on similar lines.