2021 Women Leaders in Digital Health: Lana Solberg

Lana Solberg, Health Care Solutions & Partnerships Western Canada, Boehringer Ingelheim Canada Ltd.

In a system that can be difficult to navigate and slow to adopt innovation, Lana has proven her ability to effectively move initiatives forward that have a significant impact on the Digital Health landscape and overall health system that show works within. I have witnessed first hand the willingness of all stakeholders to work with Lana as they know that her contributions are genuinely tied to her desire improve outcomes of patients that these initiatives are there to support.

Lana is a broad thinker who is passionate about making tangible impacts in the Health Sector. She has taken her unique role at her company to truly look beyond traditional areas that the pharmaceutical companies typically engage. One key area that Lana has made impacts in this year is digital health.

In digital health, Lana and her company have been exploring opportunities with platforms such as Blockchain, IoT and virtual care. Specifically, in virtual care Lana has led an initiative in Alberta focused on implementing home health monitoring (HHM) for patients with chronic disease. An interesting approach for a pharmaceutical company that is looking at a role in prevention in addition to therapeutics. This project has implemented an innovative model of care with a particular focus on providing better access to rural patients.

Lana successfully brought together partners that include: Central Zone Primary Care Network (care provision via 12 PCNs for half a million people in Alberta), TELUS Health, Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd., Ministry of Senior and Housing, Alberta Innovates, Alberta Health Services, and Health Cities. This project has been recognized provincially by Alberta Health Services leadership, the Ministry of Health, and provincial MLAs. The health outcomes of this initiative have been recently published in Healthcare Management Forum and has influenced other ministries in Alberta to rethink how they serve their populations more effectively and has resulted in a scaling of this approach to other projects in home assessments and monitoring for children and other target populations.

Lana has successfully brought attention to this project within her organization both at a national and international level that has resulted in initiatives like these emerging in other Canadian jurisdictions and around the world supported by Boehringer Ingelheim. From a Health Cities perspective, Lana’s leadership on this initiative has catalyzed a new way at looking at models of care using virtual platforms and has spurred numerous discussions and other projects using this model. From my perspective, Lana exemplifies what this award is about and is an ideal candidate to be a recipient of this year’s Women Leaders in Digital Health Award.

Learn more about the Women Leaders in Digital Health Award here.