InsightsOut_Dr Raji Akileh: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Natanya Wachtel:
Brands that can connect with their audiences more viscerally and more authentically will always be successful. With the Insights Out podcast, you will get access to deep and detailed conversations with the heads of leading organizations to understand how they are making their customer relationships work best and how we can all become more aligned to deliver strong value exchanges and better realize the benefits. I’m your host, Dr. Natanya Wachtel. Welcome.
Natanya Wachtel:
Hello! Welcome to another episode of Insights Out, a spotlight on modern solutions to put customer data to work. We unearth game-changing intelligence, predict customer needs, and seamlessly connect insights into measurable action everywhere your brand touches your customers. Today, I have a special guest, my friend Dr. Raji Akileh, who’s going to talk to us about some of the things that he’s done and faced and his journey into doing some really innovative things for the future of medicine. Welcome, Dr. Raji.
Raji Akileh:
Hi! Nice to meet you, and thank you for setting time aside for this podcast, I appreciate it.
Natanya Wachtel:
We’re so happy to have you here. So you have a really interesting story, and I was wondering if you could just tell us a little bit about your background and how you kind of came to where you are now in these new adventures that you’re going to tell us about.
Raji Akileh:
Yes, so after graduating medical school, I made the decision to pursue a startup venture in the midst of going on to residency. I joined up with Global Health Impact Network, which is a global network of doctors driving innovation in the medical field. I’m on the Board of Advisors, and I guess I will go on with the rest of my journey as we continue this podcast.
Natanya Wachtel:
Awesome, awesome, yeah, so you kind of went off the traditional path, and really took a leap of faith to do something different and to break, to be a disruptor. And I think it’s an amazing story and one that can inspire many people on two levels. One, what you’re actually doing as well as maybe igniting something in others to take that leap of faith and kind of go the road less traveled. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that time and what you’re trying to do and why you’re trying to do it.
Raji Akileh:
So yeah, so when I went into medical school, the original goal was to enter clinical practice. And prior to medical school, you have this preconceived notion that medical school must be operating on all cylinders, so to speak. Within medical education, though, I came to find out that there are fundamental gaps that are currently missing inside of medical school, you know, topics like nutrition-driven curriculum, economics of medicine, business practices, and so forth, as well as what I noticed to be unfortunate was mechanisms that weren’t retaining students that would fall out due to life circumstances as they were progressing through medical school in the face of this physician shortage that we have not only here in the United States, but globally as well. So one of the things that I am working towards is basically to improve the whole delivery of medical education, fill in these fundamental gaps that are missing, and to ultimately train the next generation of physicians as we move forward in this new landscape of innovation and restructuring the medical industries.
Natanya Wachtel:
Yeah, which is incredible and honestly almost difficult to fathom, the impact that can have in global medical approaches practice and sort of the whole journey from that early ideation of a young person who wants to become a clinician in some way to how they can be prepared to do so on all fronts. Like you said, from the business, if they want to start a practice or just manage their personal finances, many people have considerable student loan debt. How to manage through to become solvent, if you will, and/or do the practical part, right? We know a lot about the burnout, the stressors, the mental health that, you know, COVID essentially maybe ripped the Band-Aid off that taboo, but it’s still a bit of stigma and there’s still limited resources to acknowledge that, hey, you’re people too, and you may have been pushing really hard and the pressures of everything inside the educational system as well as their outside personal life, exactly. And then, like you said, are there other kinds of resources to make sort of a 360 complete whole person through the process without burning up before you launch.
Raji Akileh:
Definitely.
Natanya Wachtel:
Incredible, incredible. So do you want to tell us a little bit about, obviously, this is public so what you’re able to share about what you’re working on today?
Raji Akileh:
Yes, so basically what I’m working on is essentially going to be this cloud-based platform that medical schools are going to be able to onboard their students with and leveraging very unique partnerships. I plan on ultimately creating this experience in medical school to address directly these problems I noticed as I was in medical education. I’m also building out new tech and components that are going to be addressing the delivery and process of medical education, as well as preparing physicians, future physicians, for an ever-changing landscape in the medical industry right now. I plan on initially going with medical education, but ultimately there will be other professions that could be impacted by this as well.
Natanya Wachtel:
Amazing, amazing. And because this is a show about insights, I’d like to highlight some of those sort of customer truths, if you will, the customers being the med students, but honestly, even the institutions themselves in terms of how they are, what the relationships are and how they continue those relationships, and how they influence how treatment paradigms and everything that happens afterwards. So do you have any examples, or even just one, about sort of that disconnect between what people need or what you experienced that you need or that others that you saw, and what this sort of new solution is going to help do?
Raji Akileh:
Yes, so, for instance, it is a very well-known fact that in the United States and around the world that our education system, from very early beginnings, is falling short with financial literacy and so forth. So you have this generation of students that are entering medical school with almost zero financial training or understanding how our economics work. And when they try and begin to conceptualize how the clinical world of medicine works, the business side of it, typically the conversations are often discouraged at that point in their training, and essentially the primary focus is on the next exam, the next board exam, passing the next clinical experience. And in the midst of all of this, everything becomes a blur, and then students find themselves about to graduate medical school, go off into residency with very little understanding of how the financial models work inside of medical school. You know, I’m not looking to make everyone an MBA coming out of medical school, but I feel that residents should have at least a core foundational understanding to be able to synthesize new approaches to novel situations that are placed in when it comes to financial considerations in the medical industry.
Natanya Wachtel:
Yeah, that’s amazing. And as we all know, if we can think of any topic like that, once you have that information, it may affect the choices that you make, where you even do your residency, what kind of clinical setting you go after, what kind of practice you ultimately are in or have. So, but instead of being at the line to make that decision, you have more time to kind of consider that sort of your light, your personal circumstances. So that financial literacy really does, is sort of tied to everything else, and yet it’s an afterthought. That’s a really great example, thank you.
Raji Akileh:
Of course.
Natanya Wachtel:
So we’re probably going to be wrapping up in just a moment, and I was wondering if there was anything you could share, and this is a little touchy-feely part of the segment, share to help others who may or may not be at that fork in the road where they have that gnawing itch to maybe do something a little differently and something that’s unchartered when they are maybe have been on a path in one direction that’s maybe more secure? And your story, and this is, we only focused on one little piece of your life and story, has many elements of this where you had some inner drive to do something that was against the grain and you honored that. And it’s a scary thing to do, and your resilience and your possibility focus is really incredible, and I was just wondering if there was any sort of tips or inspiration or anything you wanted to impart to others who may be facing that same dilemma.
Raji Akileh:
Yeah, of course, you know, when I went through medical school, I never envisioned that I would be at this fork in the road by the time I got to the end of my medical education. And it was either a decision about continuing training or going off the beaten path in pursuit of a drive that I felt deep down inside, that I felt I needed to embark on because of the potential impact it could have on future generations of clinicians. And so one of the words that I would impart is, you know, if you ever find yourself in a situation where the only thing that really is stopping you from pursuing a greater calling, or maybe even a different path that you may have never considered, that you feel you’d be able to serve a lot more people down this path, you know, sometimes you just have to almost make this leap of faith decision and ask yourself if you’re 50 years down the road and reflecting back on life, is this a decision, by not going down this unknown path, that you will always look back on and ask yourself, what if, and the regret would chew away at you throughout your life. That’s how I judge my choices, it’s that fear of regret down the road.
Natanya Wachtel:
That’s awesome. Thank you so, so much. It was really a pleasure speaking with you on these topics. We could talk for much, much longer, I know, but I thank you so much for joining us, and really wishing you the best of luck in all of your endeavors.
Raji Akileh:
Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
Natanya Wachtel:
Bye-bye.
Natanya Wachtel:
Thank you for listening to Insights Out. We hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you have a specific topic in mind and you want us to discuss, please reach out to us by visiting NewSolutionsNetwork.com. See you next time!
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