Learning to Pivot in a COVID-19 World

As the GM of GE Healthcare’s Oncology Solutions business, I didn’t expect to be writing my first article about our work like this. Just a few weeks ago, my life had its usual routine of office meetings, telephone and video calls, travel (lots) and meetings with customers.

Then came COVID-19.

Now, like so many others, I’m holed up in my home office spending longer than usual days on calls, still meeting with customers - abeit virtually - and with our extended team defining what it means to be an oncology services provider in a COVID-19 world. It's clear our response has to be two-fold. First, the immediate impact of the pandemic on our patients, customers, and business. Second, how our patient and customer needs will change and how our business needs to respond when the crisis abates and we enter a new normal. We know we will never go back to the world as we knew it last winter; but what will the new normal look like?

Here in Oncology Solutions we had just finished building our team and implementing a new strategy when the pandemic hit. So we had to pivot from just executing that strategy to asking ourselves what also makes the most sense in this new world? What can we do for our customers when they’re also fighting COVID-19? How can we help them and still maintain our purpose to improve cancer patient outcomes?

The reality is that the entire field of oncology has been totally upended. Over the last month, we’ve seen significant reductions in the elective use of PET, CT, and MR imaging; with lung, breast and prostate screening programs either vastly reduced or halted. We’re also seeing maintenance chemotherapy paused and most elective surgeries delayed because of the high risk of infection. [i]

So the question for us becomes: How do we help? How can we use the machinery, talent and scale of GE Healthcare Oncology Solutions to provide, in a safe and responsible way, what our customers and their high-risk patients need at this time?

That’s what’s driving us now. Our end goal has not changed, but our course has shifted to focus on what makes sense for our customers and their patients at this time. We’ll get through this. But, we are beginning to ask, will we ever steer back to our original course or chart a brand new one?

That’s the theme I plan to explore in this space. Both from the perspective of GE Healthcare as well as the oncology industry as a whole.

I’d like to hear from other business leaders about how your business is changing in response to COVID-19 and what you foresee for the future.

[i] Cancer Research UK. How coronavirus is impacting cancer services in the UK. April 21, 2020. https://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2020/04/21/how-coronavirus-is-impacting-cancer-services-in-the-uk/.