The vast amount of data that can now be acquired from each person, even online via smart watches or other gadgets, enables tailored medicine to be used in both treatments and prevention. They also enable quick access to regional health data in order to make fast judgments. Large amounts of data, the ability to process data quickly, and the use of artificial intelligence allow for predictions and the generation of far more knowledge in a shorter amount of time.
“Knowledge in health sciences is growing at a dizzying pace. It is another challenge to ensure that this knowledge reaches health personnel in a timely manner,” says Cecilia Camillucci.
Cecilia is the CEO and President of TIPS Salud, a software firm that works at the crossroads of informatics and health. It began in 2011, when the Hospital Privado Universitario de Córdoba’s IT Department was separated.
Cecilia’s role as President of Tips Salud is to guarantee that the firm achieves its goals and objectives by imprinting a culture of growth and innovation, and that its products are practical and accessible to Latin American health organizations.
Cecilia says that development and innovation projects delight her work. She enjoys working in a group and exchanging ideas. It excites her to see brilliant ideas or good results come from people she has watched rise through the ranks of business. She likes to see motivated and participative people.
Tips Salud
The company employs around 200 people in areas such as software development, implementation, and support for all solutions provided. Its primary focus is on health information systems (HIS), and it is known as “HIS Innova,” which includes an EHR, healthcare management systems, LIS, RIS, and other management and support system solutions. Clinical decision support systems (CDSS), comprehensive computerized provider entry (CPOE), telemedicine, and a terminology server and evaluation engine are just a few of the strong technologies available. For each customer, the company also has an experienced team of consultants for software deployment, system maintenance, and support.
Prior Life and Experiences
Cecilia felt it was a rewarding option to specialize in the use of ICT as support tools for healthcare operation and management systems. Around the year 1994, she came across two noteworthy challenges in this regard:
- Being able to make information technology available to people in need (patients);
- Being able to develop software that provides solutions to such a complex system as health care.
With those objetives, Cecilia always developed her work within hospital settings, both in ITCs and healthcare management. And that has been the case for the last 28 years.
Passion to Improve Healthcare through Innovation
Back in the 1990s, Cecilia’s motivation for entering in healthcare information systems profession was the joy of being able to deploy technological solutions to assist better people’s lives. She shares, “the company continued its development as the software created by TIPS followed different stages of growing institutions where our solution was implemented.”
The evolving process has gone through several stages, with the idea that the tools that TIPS creates are just that: enabling tools that help people accomplish better results. Cecilia has always been fascinated by processes that are organized, safe, controlled, and efficient. “Technology is the perfect ally to achieve these results, and it was the first phase I worked on,” she says.
It set the groundwork for a second phase, which focused on efficiency and continuous improvement, once order and control had been established. TIPS’software aims to eliminate waste, increase the quality of care offered, and maximize resource performance in this area.
As this work mechanism matured and was maintained over time with little effort, Cecilia began to concentrate on the use of data as a new source of information, on virtually bringing patients closer to health centers and providing them with remote assistance, and on adapting processes and information systems to a new care reality that was less hospitable and reactive, and more delocalized, proactive, and personalized.
A View on Leadership
Cecilia believes that a good leader is someone who leads the organization to the desired position using a team of capable people who also know how to lead teams. Good leadership is found in people of all ages, sex, religion and race. I am glad to see that more and more organizations give the same opportunities to everyone, which is nothing more than respecting the natural and complementary order of a harmonious society.
Women are frequently portrayed as being more creative, productive, responsible, and so on. According to Cecilia’s experience, these characteristics, or others, can stand out in both men and women. What matters is that they understand how to complement one another, regardless of their gender.
Cecilia believes that the most difficult challenge she has faced is adapting her engineering and perfectionist mindset to the realm of management, delegation, and faith in others’ efforts.
She has never considered her gender to be a barrier, and it has never deterred her. She considers herself as the last generation where gender issues should be addressed as an issue. She says, “I am glad to see a large number of women in decision-making roles, and I am pleased that gender complementarity in decision-making is becoming more and more frequent.”
Following a Simple and Productive way of Living
Cecilia describes herself at work as a person who likes challegences. She enjoys forming work groups in order to complete projects. And she is continually thinking of more initiatives beyond the ones that are currently being developed. She also enjoys taking a peek back every now and again to see how far the company has come thanks to the efforts of heterogeneous teams.
She says, “I do work most of the day, and I enjoy what I do. I consider myself a fortunate person given that I’m able to work on what I like, and I truly thank those who allow it.”
Cecilia enjoys spending her free time with her family, being in touch with nature, and travelling. Her greatest moments of the day are spent with her son, playing the most basic games imaginable.
A Message for Future Leaders
As Cecilia sees it, vision is what modern leaders need, and even more, make it possible. Leaders, she argues, must be able to shatter paradigms, be visionaries, be open, and dreamers, as well as listen to and work in groups. The leader is a person that others try to imitate and follow, which is why Cecilia emphasize the importance not only of their technical competence but also of their ethical attitude.
While advising the next generation of female leaders, Cecilia says, “Let them develop as they are, without worrying about showing that they can do it. That they carry out a leadership that is perceptive of the needs of others, empathetic, with clear objectives, knowing that achievements cost effort, giving space to the development of other people regardless of their age or condition. That it be a motivating leader for others. All this without losing sight of what the company is and what it needs.”
Written by Steve Sanchez.
