New Director of Product, Maeghan Orton, brings decades of innovative healthcare technology experience to THINKMD
If properly designed, innovative digital interventions can improve quality of care, enhance access to healthcare for those most in need and ultimately improve health outcomes at scale. This is the fundamental belief of THINKMD’s new Director of Product, Maeghan Orton, who joins the team with over 15 years of experience in healthcare technology.
Maeghan’s work in innovative healthcare technology started when working with women and children living with HIV in Uganda. After seeing the issues created by incorrect treatment, she was inspired and interested in the digital tracking and coordination of healthcare delivery in low- and middle-income countries. Her career path into product development was forged and she has done it justice ever since, designing and implementing 17 pilot-to-scale digital health implementation projects across Africa for Medic Mobile, leading R&D within maternal healthcare delivery in European, Asian and African countries for UNICEF, providing digital health and health informatics guidance to Ministries of Health for the World Health Organization (WHO) and leading a team of +20 to enhance digital capabilities for the Open Health Stack (OHS) and Google Health’s AI & ML model prioritization, among many other accomplishments.
“Even the best solutions, if not matched to the local context, are doomed to fail. My deep field experience in Africa and Southeast Asia has grounded my product development process in requirements observed through years of working alongside healthcare workers,” says Maeghan. Joining our team from Seattle, WA, Maeghan explains that THINKMD stood out to her because of its ability to transfer clinical diagnostic skills to all levels of users, instilling in them a sense of confidence that they are addressing the right issue while supporting them in reaching patients at the right place and the right time.
“This is something that hasn’t been done well in global health. There is huge potential for scale and integration,” she says. “By meeting patients where they are – work, school, etc. – THINKMD is not forcing a traditional model of care. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for this, patients are not returning to traditional healthcare spaces as expected.”
Having lived all over the world including South Africa, Kenya, Canada, the UK and the US, Maeghan has extensive experience in the nitty gritty of getting technology to work in the field. Her passion is figuring out the “so what” – the question that digital health answers, the pieces of the health system that it strengthens and ultimately, the people that it helps.
“Working within the WHO and UNICEF really helped me to understand more about how health systems operate, what it takes to scale digital health tools within this ecosystem and the value of innovative technology, which puts me in a good place to lead change at THINKMD while guiding partners,” Maeghan says. “I am looking forward to working with this team to deliver measurable impact to improve patient outcomes globally.”
Have a question for Maeghan? Reach out at maeghan@thinkmd.org