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This week’s Making Rounds spotlights Claire Dougherty, an experienced consultant for healthcare and life sciences at digital services firm West Monroe.
Dougherty shared some misconceptions people have about healthcare consultants and the work they do. She also discussed the trends West Monroe has seen among clients seeking mergers or acquisitions.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about the work you do at West Monroe.
I focus specifically on mergers and acquisitions. We do all sorts of different things from buy-side diligence—helping with a private equity firm or a buyer that wants to buy another healthcare company and seeing if it would be a good fit for them. We’ll do sell-side assessments, as well—a company wants to go up for sale and we’ll help them gather everything that they need to just make that process go well.
After a sale has already been made, we’ll assess a lot of different road map options—just areas where that company could improve or they might need help merging their technology or other parts of their business. We help with that, as well.
What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job?
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All my friends who are involved in day-to-day care—either as nurses or physicians—are very confused about what consultants do since we aren’t necessarily working in hospitals. Healthcare consultants are just a big group of people who really want to make a difference, but are not as skilled in being a nurse or being with patients. It’s kind of our way that we can help with our skills.
What trends are you seeing from companies that seek out your help?
A lot of the trends that we see generally flex with how the economy is doing. One thing that we’re seeing, since there’s a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace right now, is that they’re looking for value identification: Where can we find value in what we have and in the companies that we’re acquiring? Another is cost takeout, so they are looking to cut costs.
We are seeing different things, like the commoditization of protected health information, the commercialization of generative artificial intelligence, and gamification in healthcare. Behavioral health has definitely been a trend, along with clinical trials and specialty pharma.
What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
Being able to use my skills for people who can’t necessarily afford them otherwise, like a nonprofit, is extremely fulfilling—working for an organization that prioritizes that [pro bono work].