A featured contribution from Leadership Perspectives: a curated forum reserved for leaders nominated by our subscribers and vetted by the Construction Tech Review Advisory Board.
BARMER
Navigating the Digital Healthcare Landscape
MarekRydzewski (44) studied culture and economics at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, and Aston University Birmingham, Great Britain. Various management positions allowed him to acquire a high level of expertise in digitalization, customer service, sales, insurance, and integrated healthcare services. As Chief Digital Officer at BARMER, Germany’s second-largest health insurance, he is responsible for digital strategy and drives the company’s transformation. He is committed to matters of Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) in healthcare and represents BARMER as the first health insurance participating in the CDR initiative launched by the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection. Additionally, he has been engaged in the German-Polish cooperation for cross-border healthcare since 2003.
Could you provide an overview of your role and responsibilities within the company?
As Chief Digital Officer at BARMER, I am responsible for the digital strategy and the digital transformation of the second-largest health insurance company in Germany. Therefore, I am developing structures and measures to support this transformation. From a healthcare perspective, the primary aim is to promote structural change in healthcare and care with suitable digital projects, e.g., by implementing telemedicine, establishing hybrid treatment paths, or introducing electronic patient records. This also includes developing ideas on how a health insurance company can expand its preventive services through the use of data and digital communication, e.g., in colorectal cancer screening. Internally, we face the challenge of creating a suitable framework and supportive conditions for innovative and digital solutions to meet the demographic change of our employees and the changing expectations of insured persons and thus remain competitive. My focus here is on the development of new customer services to leverage the potential of digitalization by adapting and, if possible, eliminating processes that need improvement. The foundation of our actions is based on Corporate Digital Responsibility, which is geared toward inclusive and responsible digitization and is within the sphere of my responsibilities. Here, I am supporting initiatives to build the data and digital skills of our employees. Against the background of all these responsibilities, I always put my focus on systemic approaches. For example, within the last two quarters, we introduced a digital ecosystem with customer-centricity at its core while also emphasizing the importance of internal collaboration and new and defined roles and job profiles. From our point of view, this is necessary as all our digitalization activities involve a huge number of internal actors. Great teamwork and clear and defined roles are a prerequisite for real commitment and our success.
What are some of the key challenges you face?
From a systemic point of view, I would like to limit myself to what I see as the two biggest challenges for our healthcare system: On the one hand, we have a historically evolved system with a large landscape of players who have influential interest groups and sometimes stand in each other's way due to particular interests in connection with digitization initiatives. On the other hand, in Germany, we tend towards perfection and like to regulate everything down to the last detail. More courage and joy in trying things out would be appropriate and necessary, or at least more openness to new approaches would be helpful.
From a corporate point of view, a key challenge is inherent to the character of digitalization, which generally affects many if not all departments. Even though these departments align their work with the company's vision and priorities, at times departmental objectives do not align completely well with the company's digital agenda. As CDOI do have a good understanding that departments are trying to bring these different requirements together. In this context, it is my responsibility to harmonize our digital vision against the background of all these different priorities and support the departments to fulfil their objectives. Another challenge is the perception of our customers. Even though many digital service innovations are introduced by finance and insurance providers, the German statutory health insurance has not always been at the forefront of digitization and innovation. Although this has changed, we still have to put more effort into communicating our innovative services and increase visibility to the outside world. To sum it up: Do good and talk about it! On a personal level, I would also like to address another challenge. As the speed of competition, regulation, and changing customer expectations is increasing, our environment is highly dynamic and complex. This is a challenge to our staff and leadership, and a clear set of attitude and values are necessary for everybody in a management role to navigate teams through these interesting but stormy times.
Credibility in the secure handling of sensitive data in the healthcare sector is a decisive competitive factor
For me, the most important medium-term challenge is the use of artificial intelligence, which raises many ethical questions in healthcare. For this, we need to develop a binding framework for action for our own organization. This has to take place against the background of the legislative pan-European context and has to be translated into useful, secure, reliable, and, most important, responsible solutions. In this context, the foundation of our actions as one of the key healthcare players in Germany is already based on the idea of CDR, which aims to realize an inclusive and responsible approach to digitization. For us, digital responsibility means that we must not leave employees or customers digitally dependent. If we want to compete with Amazon, Apple, and Google, then credibility in the secure handling of sensitive data in the healthcare sector is a decisive competitive factor. That is why we are also participating in the corresponding CDR initiative of the German government. We assume our digital responsibility in various areas, for example with regard to transparency and data sovereignty.
What advice would you give to young professionals who are interested in pursuing a similar career, and what qualities do you think are essential for success in this field?
In my case, various management positions allowed me to acquire a high level of expertise in digitalization, customer service, sales, insurance, and integrated healthcare services. Therefore, a broad experience and understanding of processes and challenges within a certain industry or company might be a good preparation for the role as CDO. Besides, a CDO has to consolidate different points of view from all business areas. In this context, a career with frequently changing roles combined with the willingness to dive into new areas of responsibility to gain a better understanding of the business of an organization can foster flexibility and enables one to easily take different perspectives into account. Besides, I have always tried to make use of learning opportunities, professionally but also in terms of personal development. Choosing the right mentors for certain career periods and coaching can be helpful as well. The good news is that career paths nowadays have become more diverse and there is not the one silver-bullet of a career to become a CDO. In my personal opinion, curiosity, ambition, and a strong will to shape the future even when experiencing resistance and facing obstacles are essential.
