Her Story
About Diana
I'm currently an MBA student at MIT Sloan, where I'm focused on learning as much as I can about healthcare and technology and how those two intersect. I've been working in healthcare for about 6 to 7 years now, and I've always been passionate about the delivery side of care. I started my career at the largest health system in New York, where I spent a few years really understanding operations and finance, and I became very passionate about the transplant area, learning about organ transplantation. After that, I worked for a health tech product at a startup that was a subsidiary of Google, which was a very interesting experience and where my interest in healthcare innovation really started to grow. That's what brought me to my current place, going back to my studies and accelerating my learnings one last time before finishing up my MBA next year. This summer, I'll be at BCG as a consultant in an internship role. Beyond my coursework, I'm very active in clubs and organizations from a leadership standpoint. I'm currently the co-president for the MIT Sloan Christian Fellowship, and I'm also very involved with the MIT Healthcare Annual Conference, which hosts more than 350 industry leaders every year. We actively plan and hold that conference in Boston at the beginning of February. I grew up in Brazil, which has shaped my perspective on healthcare challenges and social mobility. Even though I'm not clinical and wasn't gifted to be a physician or nurse, I know that wasn't my calling, but I very much know that there is a very direct impact in what I do. I grew up in a family where healthcare challenges were talked about every day because of my mom, and so going into a field where no matter what work you do, you're improving the lives of people who are very sick and who are struggling, that was something that I really wanted. I like knowing that the ripple effect of a business plan at the end of the day might change the way that we deliver care at the hospital at a macro level. That's just very rewarding, and I like knowing that I'm in the right place for those reasons.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Diana
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've received is that in any place, role, or job you take, you should reflect every day on three things: What knowledge am I gaining? What skills am I building? And what people am I serving? I think the summary of these three core things - your knowledge, your skills, and your relationships - is just so simple, but we often forget and get caught up in the day-to-day putting out of fires. Every role and opportunity I've had, just re-centering myself and mapping those three things out, and how I'm going and how I'm serving and building relationships, allows you to be more intentional. To summarize in a more succinct way, be intentional about those three things each and every day, and really push yourself to understand what your goals are in each of those three areas.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the biggest challenge is obviously the huge challenge with rising costs in healthcare, which is talked about time and time again for many reasons. There's also a very unfortunate delay with the innovation and the technology that we have. When we walk into hospital systems and different places, sometimes it's very lagged. The wave of technology, it's just so difficult to innovate and disrupt for different reasons, some of them very fair, like regulatory. But I think that's a challenge in terms of how can we really better automate and improve patient care and patient experience in a way that decreases costs. With the tools and the AI changes that are coming today, I think that can also be an opportunity for sure. AI is being talked about in every industry, but I think it's especially sensitive in healthcare for many different reasons, and so I really see AI as a challenge and as an opportunity.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are, number one, service, and number two, integrity. If I were to mention a third, it would be determination and just having the grit to follow things through. But the number one for me is always having a servant leadership style. That's something that resonates with me through a lot of role models and experiences I've had, just growing as an employee. How are you serving your organization? How are we serving patients? How are we serving the employees as a future leader? And also in your personal life, serving my parents and family. So I think that's the summary of the three core values that I really appreciate.
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