The Association of Telecom, Mobility, and IT Management Professionals

Ellen Stang, MD

Founder and CEO, ProgenyHealth, LLC

Career Choices

I knew I wanted to pursue a career in medicine from a very young age and was first exposed to HIT as a private practice physician. Our team used the EHR as an electronic repository and billing platform, but I saw the real power of technology when I moved into Medicaid managed care.

I was excited to have access to more sophisticated technology that allowed us to aggregate data and identify trends that helped inform our decisions. The ability to positively impact outcomes in larger populations was incredibly rewarding. When I founded ProgenyHealth in 2003 to provide NICU Care Management services to health plans and large employers, I knew we needed to empower our clinical teams, improve their efficiency and effectiveness, and scale our growth using technology as an underpinning.

I made the decision to develop a proprietary platform, Baby Trax,® a purpose-built, clinically intelligent platform that creates a digital footprint of the infant’s journey in our program and produces a single case record and information source easily accessible to our team and our partners. Baby Trax also utilizes predictive and prescriptive analytics informed by the nearly 100,000 cases we have managed. It includes algorithms we have developed based on analyses done in conjunction with a team of data scientists at the University of Pennsylvania.

Insights around estimated length of stay, an infant’s likelihood for re-admission and more are included in our clinical workflows. It has been a great source of pride to see how two of my passions, medicine and technology, have been the foundation for improving health outcomes, lowering overall costs of care and positively impacting the lives of the infants and families we serve.

Professional Interests & Drive

I’m passionate about building technology that supports clinical teams to work at the top of their license, make their work more efficient and effective, and help them drive better health outcomes for the people we serve. Technology has given us the ability to aggregate data, analyze it and identify opportunities for improvement.

I’m excited about the future as we continue to advance our AI capabilities for the next generation of solutions. I’m also a big advocate for mobility. We recognize that we need to interact with families wherever they are, so a continued emphasis on calls, texts, apps, and other “untethered” modes of connection are critical for all healthcare stakeholders.

Mentors & Influencers

William “Bill” Chodoff was a pediatrician by training who was the lead medical director at the Medicaid managed care plan where I worked. He was honest, smart, an advocate for quality health care for poor and working people. He taught me everything I know about managed care and the business of medicine.

He also helped me understand how to use technology and data effectively to identify population health opportunities and develop targeted programs to impact outcomes. In fact, his mentorship allowed me to lay the foundation for the work we do today at ProgenyHealth. Bill treated everyone the same and was an early champion of diverse work teams.

Mentorship Value

Mentorship is critically important. When I started my career, there were not as many mentorship paths for women as there are today. Over the years, several mentors have been instrumental in my development as a CEO and in the growth of ProgenyHealth.

Today I am frequently asked by other entrepreneurs to offer guidance or sit on their boards. I always try to make myself available in some way, as others have done for me. For many years I have also been an active member and served as president of the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) here in Philadelphia. AWE helps female founders scale their business through leadership development events, targeted resources, and access to fellow women founders, and has been another invaluable source of education and support.

I encourage women, particularly in an early career stage, to identify mentors within their company or industry organizations, and tap into their wisdom and experience. There is no better way to accelerate success than to build on the lessons learned from those who have gone before you.

Admired Leaders & Trailblazers

I have met many women entrepreneurs over the years who have founded companies and grown them to scale. It is not an easy task, and all of them have vision, grit, and tenacity; they simply do not give up.

The Ernst & Young EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women program connected me to women entrepreneurs throughout the country, and several of those women have grown businesses into the billions in valuations. I have found this community of peers to be true role models for those of us who continue to work hard to grow our companies at scale.

Though we represent different industries, we share similar challenges and opportunities, as well as a common understanding of what it takes to achieve a vision. Many of these women have been tremendous mentors to me, and I continue to tap into their expertise and positive energy.

Realizing Gender Parity

One of the biggest challenges we must overcome is getting young women interested in technology and coding at a very young age. While schools and non-profit organizations have recently focused on achieving this goal, we must continue to expose young women to the opportunities associated with a technology career, get them excited, and help them recognize their leadership capabilities.

For too many years, technology has been a male-dominated industry. While there has been movement, there is still a long way to go. In my own personal experience, the further I advanced in my career, the fewer women I saw at the table or in key executive roles. Leadership teams have been unaccustomed to seeing women CEOs, and while that is beginning to change, it will take an influx of women rising into these roles to help transform the culture within the technology industry.

Leading the Next Generation

First, recognize early on that you may need to work harder to get recognized than your male peers; go the extra mile and make sure you are ultra-prepared for any meeting or opportunity. Secondly, make sure your voice is heard and that you insist on a seat at the table, including taking on project leader roles or heading up a committee to showcase your skills and talents.

Third, get comfortable with risk and stretch yourself, even if you think you may not be ready for the next challenge or job opening. Finally, and this goes for men and women, a positive attitude will be key to a successful career. When problems arise, work toward a solution, be a can-do person who lifts people up, and embrace the opportunity to create and work towards a better future.

Bio

Dr. Ellen (Ellie) Stang is a board-certified pediatrician and in 2003 founded ProgenyHealth® to address the need for improved care management and health outcomes for premature and medically complex newborns. Today, ProgenyHealth works with thousands of NICUs in all 50 states and is a recognized leader in deploying evidencebased neonatal care management services.

Prior to founding ProgenyHealth, Dr. Stang spent her career dedicated to the pursuit of providing high-quality health care to pediatric patients. Her career has spanned working in private practice where she was co-director of the newborn nursery to working as a regional pediatric medical director for a managed Medicaid health plan.

She received her undergraduate bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College and her MD from The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.