The ongoing dialogue about healthcare in the United States has neither stymied anyone’s need for care nor resolved many of the issues around accessing it. Seeing an opportunity to promote preventative care and connect patients with the most suitable providers, Pager is leveraging mobile technology in the telehealth market to move the ball forward.
The drive to improve healthcare through its digital app is not a theoretical exercise at Pager: The company has recruited teams with diverse healthcare experience and technical expertise — all deeply committed to generating positive patient outcomes.
In conversations with several Pager team members, we learned more about the company’s passionate, collaborative culture, as well as the crossover between healthcare and tech.
FOUNDED: 2014
EMPLOYEES: Nationally, 70; locally, 50
WHAT THEY DO: Pager offers a mobile-first, AI-powered connection between healthcare patients, providers and payers. Through the Pager app, users have access to a variety of essential care features, including 24/7 chat with healthcare professionals and assistance in seeking appropriate and cost-effective care.
WHERE THEY DO IT: NYC.
IDEAL CANDIDATE: An inquisitive applicant with an impressive skill-set who is eager to learn; a clear communicator who is passionate about healthcare and willing to challenge status quo solutions.
PERKS: Unlimited PTO, 401(k) match up to 4 percent, free annual CitiBike membership.
Ballori Sengupta, Senior Product Manager
In charge of enterprise products at Pager, Sengupta gathers requirements from the market, and her operations team determines what the company should be building next to improve service to customers.
BEYOND WORK: Sengupta is a trained classical Indian dancer; she's written articles about how her dancing prepared her to be a leader in her career.
What about working for Pager is exciting to you?
Something I love about Pager is the openness to change. Yes, we all fear it, but change is inevitable for a company growing so quickly. The leadership team has been incredibly supportive. At a previous company in my career, we had to fight to do what was necessary without much leadership support, so it’s refreshing here that everyone wants to do the right thing.
How did your journey to Pager develop, and what inspired you to join?
I worked in healthcare for a short period of time after undergrad and it changed my life. After grad school, I landed a job with Intel as an engineer. Soon after, my career took off as a product manager, which is what I always wanted to do, and Pager presented an opportunity to get back into healthcare. My current team was in a growth period and looking for someone to come do exactly what I was doing, but in a different industry. Discovering how welcoming everyone was to different insights and passionate about their work made the decision to accept the offer a no-brainer.
Open communication is key, and I think that’s definitely something we have ... that makes us successful."
What sorts of challenges does your team face?
I am on a relatively new team at Pager. Our development team has been doing an excellent job managing its own work and filling in gaps for a missing team. As we expand and prepare for the future, we’ve had to make some structural and procedural changes. We’ve made these changes relatively fast and everyone has been adapting to the new way of doing things. Of course we run into obstacles here and there, but the team is very open to discussing what’s working and what’s not in order to create the best path forward. Open communication is key, and I think that’s definitely something we have at Pager that makes us successful.
Lizzy Blanchard, Operations Associate
In her work as an operations associate, Blanchard coordinates project and process implementation both within her department and cross-functionally across departments. She also oversees enterprise events and closely supports the tri-state market manager.
BEYOND WORK: Blanchard is enthusiastic about running and committed to living a healthy lifestyle. In her free time, she surrounds herself with friends and family, gets outside, cooks, explores the city and travels.
When did you know that Pager was the right fit for you?
I knew early on that Pager was a good fit based on the attitude of my superiors and the work ethic of my colleagues. There is a positive energy circulating around our office, and you can sense that everyone is hard at work on individual and collective endeavors. That really feeds your sense of purpose at this company. It’s exciting to work for a company where you feel like you are making a difference in your work and helping carry out your team’s mission.
How would you describe the culture at Pager, and how is it helping you meet challenges in the U.S. healthcare system?
Whenever I think about the culture at Pager, I think of a team of people in a rowboat rowing together, even when it gets hard. We’re here because we want to make a difference and are willing to challenge ourselves. We are up against a societal paradigm in which most people are very reactive to their healthcare, only seeing doctors when they get very sick. To reshape how and when patients access healthcare, we are finding ways to encourage patients to proactively engage in their healthcare and improve long-term outcomes.
We’re here because we want to make a difference and are willing to challenge ourselves."
What does your typical day look like in the operations department?
I like to be organized, so the first thing I do in the morning is access my calendar, email and our team’s project management system. The great thing about working at Pager is that as a tech company, we utilize other cool and tech-forward systems and suites to operationalize and improve efficiency in our workflows. Day-to-day, I work independently, in one-on-one collaborations, or in team settings to complete projects. My coworkers are truly brilliant and offer a wide array of skills sets, helping me not only do my job but also learn and grow as an employee and person. It’s a really cool dynamic in which people from different backgrounds and specialities work closely together.
Joe Martinez, Nurse Manager
As a former ER nurse, Martinez provides clinical support to nurses and gives the product team his clinical perspective during development. He also participates in building clinical policies and processes, including clinical safety and quality assurance
BEYOND WORK: Martinez has stayed well-versed in telehealth since graduate school, and enjoys reading current trends. His reading helps him stay up-to-date on best practices, he said, which is important since the field is expanding so rapidly.
Having worked extensively on the provider side, what about Pager speaks strongly to your experience?
In my 6 years as an ER nurse, I saw the results of patients not seeking care. They can be devastating in terms of health and cost. Understanding that our app is designed to be used early in the disease process to prevent ER visits brings a lot of meaning to what we do.
Has your role been what you thought it would be?
The role has involved much more than I expected. I am able to utilize my clinical skills and knowledge in different ways. One of the challenges of my job is sharing the nursing perspective to different departments like engineering, and I've had the opportunity to learn from them as well. Everyone takes something new away from each interaction, as we all have different points of view and considerations, and we challenge each other to look at things from each other's perspective.
One of my favorite parts of this job is that everybody has a voice in the company."
What is your favorite part about the culture at Pager and how it relates to your work?
One of my favorite parts of this job is that everybody has a voice in the company. Anybody can offer a solution and have it taken seriously. Many of our processes and improvements come directly from our care coordinators and nurses. I spend a significant amount of time working on special projects with engineering to help our app develop with nursing implications in mind and ensure we are providing the safest care to our patients. There is an incredible amount of change at Pager, and everybody always rises to the occasion. This energy and work ethic is so contagious; it really feels like we push and motivate each other. It's a constant source of energy.
Jaime Castro, Data Analyst
Due to the large volumes of data required and produced by Pager’s app, Castro focuses on producing reports and generating insights from the data across the company. His goal is to automate data reporting processes as much as possible, and ensure that operational and clinical data analysis contributes to better understanding and service.
BEYOND WORK: Castro is a long-distance runner and road cyclist. Right now he is training for the 2018 NYC Marathon — his first — and he recently completed his first Gran Fondo, a 100-mile cycling race.
How did the onboarding process prepare you for your current role at Pager?
I have been working at Pager for 2 months, and found my transition onto a team within the company to be very easy and smooth. The week of onboarding consisted of a deep dive into understanding the setup of the tech stack, as well as different product functions. I worked one-on-one with coworkers in various roles, who provided me with a personalized learning experience of the diverse aspects of the company. Getting to know my future colleagues personally during my training period helped make the transition even more seamless.
How is this role different from previous ones you’ve held at other companies?
Before working at Pager, I worked in hospitals as a researcher and electronic medical records analyst. Hospital department structure is siloed, and I had little interaction beyond the small groups of employees I worked with. By comparison, at Pager there are about 50 employees in the NYC office, and in my first couple months, I collaborated with everyone in the office. The work environment is tight-knit and supportive, and has helped me better understand my role and ability to contribute.
The work environment is tight-knit and supportive, and has helped me better understand my role and ability to contribute."
What is one of the biggest data challenges you face, and how is your team collaborating both within and cross-functionally to overcome it?
As Pager’s data analyst, I am working with both the engineering and the operations departments. As our client base expands, the data analytics platform has to evolve and keep up with the fast pace of a growing company. Growth is not only about numbers and quantity, but also efficiency and improvement of services. I find that as the volume of data increases, so does the need for efficient automation of data and key performance indicator reporting. This is a challenge I focus on greatly in my role at Pager, and I hope to contribute to the development of a successful suite of dashboards and automatic reporting tools.
