Episode 108: Solving the Healthcare Workforce Crisis – What Biotech Leaders Need to Know

From lab bench to bedside, the missing link isn't always funding or science. It can be people. Let's talk about solving the workforce crisis in healthcare today. You're listening to Bio from the Bayou, empowering biotech leaders with the tools, assets, and expertise to improve healthcare outcomes.

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Serving the entire Gulf South, but recorded in the heart of New Orleans. Welcome back to Bio from the Bayou. I'm your host, Dr. Elaine Hamm, the executive in residence at Tulane School of Medicine, and today's guest is Von Tonne Quinleven. She is the CEO of Futuro Health, which is a nonprofit with a mission to improve the health and wellbeing of communities by growing a network of allied healthcare workers and empowering them with the resources, credentials, and qualifications. She also hosts the Workforce Rx podcast, where she interviews leaders and innovators for insights into creating future-ready workforce. Welcome to the show, Von.

Thank you. Thanks so much, Elaine, for having me here.

Yeah, I'm excited. All right. Well, so when people think about biotech innovation, they, they often focus on the areas of science and investment. We do a lot of that on our show, but can you explain why focusing on the workforce behind the care delivery is just as critical to ensuring patients actually benefit from these innovations?

Well, Elaine, as you know, top of mind for all the sectors is the 100K new fee in the H-1B visas, which will be affecting the PhDs, engineers, and—

Oh, definitely.

Scientists, of course. But even before that occurred, there were many structural issues in the workforce that we have concerns and should be concerned about. And let me just give you some of the startling statistics. So according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, they projected a shortfall in the US of up to 124,000 physicians Wow. 34. That's a lot of physicians.

That's a lot of doctors.

Yes, a lot of doctors. We all know about the shortage of nurses because that's been in the news a lot. And then there's a whole layer underneath the doctors and nurses called allied health workers. And this is the 65% of the healthcare workforce that's in all of our backyard. In the healthcare field, I explained it by saying, for example, if you were to get into a car accident, Elaine, it would be The emergency medical technician that arrives to get you, or the medical assistant that checks you in, or the X-ray tech. So, the technician level. And over in the biotech life sciences, they may come in the form of like a clinical research associate or a med lab tech, pharmacy tech. So, there's a world of these technician-level workers that support all of these industries.

Really the foundation of our healthcare industry.

Yes. And one of the things that we see, and I'm on the California Healthcare Workforce Education and Training Council, one of the things we see is where there are shortages of especially these higher-trained individuals like the doctors, then you have to actually compensate by surrounding them with a team instead. And some of those duties and responsibilities are spread out, changing the structure of care.

Yeah.

So we're on the trend to these major shortages. And actually, The other thing that is really going to be pressing in healthcare is the fact that our nation is aging.

Yeah.

In the 65+ population, right? And so, when you're older, 65+ are bigger consumers of healthcare. And maybe about 30 years ago, there were roughly 12 working-age adults for every person over 65. That's dropped to 7. And in about 2040, the number is expected to shrink to 4. So, the pool available to care for those who are older, it's going to be very competitive. So we've got all of these trends happening in addition to H-1B visas and—

On top of everything.

75% of healthcare facilities right now report critical workforce gaps. So even before we saw the things that are in the news today, there were these underlying trends that make us need to think about healthcare, its workforce, where would they come from, and how to have intentionality in terms of building that workforce with the right skills.

So how, how do we stop this? How do we address this? How do we fix this before it becomes too late and a huge problem that we will all feel? I'm sure that we already are seeing that even as patients, but especially those that are already in the workforce, I'm sure are having to struggle with carrying the burden of people that are, you know, having a shortage of workers. So how do we address this?

You know, when I first began in workforce development, it was in the private sector. And frankly, one of the first use cases that I learned about workforce development came from Genentech. And so, what's interesting for Genentech was there was a layer of these technician-level roles where what they were experiencing as they were hiring bachelor's students was that they wouldn't stay very long. They were using it as a stepping stone.

Right.

And so, they began to shift their strategy to consider how to cast the net wider, For example, think about associate's level trained graduates and bring them in. And they found that they stayed much longer. So, some of the early learnings in workforce development actually were seeded in the biotech sector. And so, there's going to be many more tools available to us. But I think the thing that is hardest to overcome is awareness of many of these occupations, right? I mean, Elaine, if you think about, like, when you were growing up, Yes, we sat around the table. Maybe we talked about doctors and nurses. Some talked about becoming police person, right?

Yeah. Yeah. All these archetype Barbie-type career professions of just Barbie that is an astronaut and Barbie that's a lawyer. And there's sort of these, yeah.

Yeah.

Nobody talked about being a, you know, a medical lab technician, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

When I grow up.

Yeah. So there's a lot more work that needs to be done and intentional work done to expose individuals. Yeah, not only those in high school, because that's a shrinking and flat population, but also to adults who are thinking about transition, right? Yeah, that's a wider net and bring them and bring their awareness of these great roles, and then setting the path so that they could enter. Now, traditionally, in the past, we went straight for the degree.

Yeah.

Not every— especially in this time of high death, There's a lot of reticence to go and commit to that pathway.

Absolutely.

And so, the concept introduced is called stackable credentials. So, how can you have a smaller bite, like a certificate, an industry-recognized certificate, so that you could try out some aspect of that role?

Yeah.

And have that role pathway into the degree pathway if that's needed for that world of work. So, let me just give you an example. We have a big deficit in terms of the mental and behavioral health, which is a subset of healthcare, right?

Very much so.

To become a therapist is actually a master's level.

Yeah.

Right? A master's level, a master's in social work, for example. So if you don't know what mental behavioral health is, it's hard to commit to that path. But now even states are beginning to look at certificated ways for you to come in and try that occupation, like A peer support specialist.

Yeah.

You're— let's say if I had alcohol recovery issues, drug recovery issues, now I can go and coach fellow individuals who are going through that process. So if I get a certificate in that, I can enter the field. If I like it, I can stair-step into the Bachelor of Social Work and then go on to the Master's of Social Work. So it's a strategy using stackable credentials to get people going, building their skills, In ways that they can have bread on the table.

Yeah.

Continue your pathway on.

That's a great way to think about it. I mean, I feel like I built my career in that, but I've just like, you know, I don't, I mean, I knew I wanted to be in science, but I didn't know what aspect of science. And you don't really understand all of the possible ways your career can go in science because we sort of have this pre-prescribed pathway that we're in, we're supposed to follow. And there's a ton of different careers that you can pursue. We used to call them sort of the non-traditional. I think now those are not so non-traditional. I think they're becoming a little more mainstream as it's harder to get into these sort of professorships that we're trained to be a part of, or, you know, becoming a CEO of a pharmaceutical company, that there's a ton of different things that you can try. And it would be great to have— when we were in grad school, we rotated through labs to see which one we liked. It'd be great to have that same opportunity earlier in life of just saying, you know what, do I like this? Or later in life, do I— I don't— I know, I know I don't like this. But what else is there?

Yes, yes, yes. Well, you know, Elaine, in the founding of Futuro Health— and Futuro Health, our nonprofit work is to address some of these critical shortage areas, especially in allied health roles. So we had been approached by Kaiser Permanente to help the industry in these areas. And when we had done the focus groups specifically for adults, how do you bring untapped talent in the communities to get the credentials and qualifications to begin these roles, right? And interestingly enough, sort of the number one obstacle as we learned across the focus group, was, of course, method of delivery. People had very complicated lives, especially those with children, and it was very difficult for them to reenter education.

Absolutely.

But the second one, which is what we also have to pay attention to, is that even if the idea for a life science role or a healthcare role sparked their interest, navigating from where they are to actually getting that connection is a total mystery to most people. Right? I mean, we have very complicated processes. And so simplifying that is important. And then what we also found was, the third was that even for those who broke into healthcare in these entry-level rungs, they were so laden by debt, they were stuck on that rung.

Yeah.

So, I mean, these are, you know, very similar. And I think especially as our financial aid structure is being changed right now, our wish or our love for being able to transact for talent, oh, it just is there and I'm posted and the talent is there. That may be a little bit more converting to post and pray, where you're not exactly sure if the talent pool exists out there. And none of us want that. So therefore, having to do some intentional workforce development, even though it is more work, will be more reliable.

Yeah, it's hard when you're on— you sort of have this idea of, like, when you're hiring people for a certain type of job within your company, that it has to be this level. You'd have to have PhD with 7 years of experience or whatever. It is, but you're actually really limiting yourself as to what type of person you can hire. And then you get kind of stuck, and it's a very small pool if you're looking for a PhD with 7 years of experience in your industry. And there's a lot— I mean, honestly, one of the companies I worked for, the one of the best scientists I ever had, had a high school education, and she was just incredibly well trained at the bench. And my whole job was to keep her happy, honestly, because she was such an incredible asset to our team, and more so than some, some of the PhDs, to be quite honest. And so, she was such an important piece of it, and I was really pleased to see that we thought outside the box of, like, what a scientist is, you know. And the piece of diversity is a really big challenge on top of all that. How do we get more diversity in our workforce? So, what strategies have you found to be effective to, to help with that? Because we all know that diversity—

Yeah.

helps science and that it helps us become better entrepreneurs and helps us to build better products. So, what strategies have you found to be effective?

So, there are many ways to approach sort of casting the net wider, and of course, the most reliable is if you can grow your own, right?

Sure.

Especially in— if you're located in a geography that is not commonly visited or that is less like Silicon Valley, for example, where there's a lot of So, knowing that they want to live in that geography, and there's a fit for the geography, there is value to growing your own talent. So, that will be upskilling—

And keeping them there.

Yeah, sure. Yes, yes, yes. Upskilling them there, and then exposing them to new options. You know what? It's interesting. I was sitting many moons ago with a room of 15 CHROs, and they were all, even in Silicon Valley, and they were talking about How the movement over to cloud computing, it required them to fire all of the engineers. This one gentleman was talking about how he's going to have to fire all his engineers and how difficult it's going to be because the cloud engineers were commanding top of the market, right? And the suggestion I had for him is, have you considered, for example, working with a university or college that had a program close to what you want?

Yeah.

And then working with them to create a certificate that closes the gap on the knowledge, skills, and abilities that you need. And then having— inviting your engineers to be able to take that so that they're already a fit for the company. They just need to upskill for that sequence. And then those that don't want to do it, then, of course, they could exit the company. But then you're growing not only your internal pool, but you're seeding that skill set in the university system, and it will repeat itself and naturally— start growing more talent. So those are examples of collaborations with education institutions that could be easily done.

The geography is such an important piece because, I mean, we're in the Gulf South. There's a lot of rural communities. Right now I'm in Oklahoma and we, you know, our health science center is located in a very challenging part of the city where the people that actually live and work around the health science center Are not employed by the Health Science Center. They're historically more impoverished. They're minorities of the city. And what we did with the— we were lucky to receive a grant from Biden's Build Back Better program to actually build a program that helps solve that bridge so that they're not having to drive a car 20 minutes away to get a job. They can walk across the street because they now have some skill sets in biomanufacturing. They have some skill sets on the lab technician side. So we started working on curriculum that can actually connect literally the neighbors. of the Health Science Center system to those jobs. And, but it takes a lot of infrastructure and it takes money and it takes that intentionality that you're talking about. Well, and let's, that kind of leads into sort of this aligning education with employer needs. You know, what are some of the best practices that you've seen in creating these types of partnerships?

Well, one myth for employers that is that they think they need to address workforce challenges all on their own. I'm sure in life sciences, just as in healthcare, while it looks very friendly on the outside, it's very competitive on the inside.

Very.

Yeah. So there were investments, for example, I'm— I don't know if you were familiar with NextFlex, like the National Science Foundation had put out these centers of excellence with different technologies. So there was a NextFlex set of grantees where they were incubating basically technology embedded in fabrics.

Yeah, sure, sure.

Part of it was inviting also the community colleges to play, not limiting it to just 4-years, right? So intentionality and bringing those systems to bear. And they also incorporated concepts like Shark Tank. So there were teams of high school students, teams of community college students, team of 4-years, where they were invited to pitch a concept. And students came up with fantastic things like compression socks with the technology that regulates, you know, the pressure, or baby outfits that would be able to detect SIDS, for example. Yeah.

Yeah, sure.

Super creative. And you could just— and they invited industry to come judge. I was a judge from the education side. And you could just see the twinkle in their eyes, you know, as they recognize— as they're doing the pitches, you can see some of them are going to become PhDs.

Yep.

Some of them will become the engineers, and some of them will be— some of them become the technicians.

Yeah.

And that's early career exploration in—

Yeah.

In a way that is broad, inclusive advice, the local community to join in. Now, I would also say, Elaine, some employers think they have to work exactly with that one institution in their backyard.

Yeah.

Actually, these days, there are many, many more options. And so part of it is finding the education institution that has the competency, but also the capacity to want to play and dance in this partnership. And usually, you need 3 parties to come together. for effective workforce development. Clearly, you need the employer, preferably a group of employers, who can articulate what they need and what would they hire against. The second, of course, is the education institution. Their job is to close the gap between where the population is and what the employers need. And then the third is the set of community organizations that can cast the net much wider, because it's really not the day job of the employers to be able to cast the net that wide. Yeah, sure, sure.

Right?

It's effort and intentionality to invite the awareness for the programming and doing the handholding that is needed in order to navigate, as I mentioned, when we first opened. So 3 parties coming together makes for an effective workforce development strategy.

Well, and just knowing that you don't have to think internally, that you're not alone. You could just go through and collaborate with another similar company to your own and start there. How do we address this problem together? And then build out to include the other 2 pieces that you mentioned, and I think That, that's, it's kind of reminding us to look outside a little bit, that you're, we don't have to do everything ourselves. We want to, we, we're a little bit, you know, control freaks like that, but it's important to look outside.

You know, that's interesting. Like when we had a shortage in engineers back when I was in the private sector in an energy company, it took all of us because we were dealing with such new state-of-the-art technology. It was a consortium loaning different employees to teach one workshop each in order to get one course taught because none of us could loan anybody in whole.

Yeah.

That. And so that's an example of collaborating. I tell folks, if you're dealing with a talent puddle, then you want to collaborate to build the pool. I like that, the puddle.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a good analogy.

Compete at the point of hiring.

Yeah.

But collaborate to create the pool.

I like that. Well, looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunities for biotech to collaborate in solving the workforce crisis?

Oh, I would invite biotech to think not only of the patient and the providers, but really the caregivers. You know, there's a lot of trends where, you know, for one, we don't have enough caregivers for those that are aging, including ourselves. And as care moves into the community and out of the big facilities, Yeah. it's a conundrum on who will provide the care And how do we make it more digestible and more supported to be a caregiver? I'll just give you a story. I have a mentor who was a VP of this big, big, big shopping mall. And his mother was aged and had a fall. And she fell again. And so finally, because he was the only child, he ended up having to actually quit his job for a whole year to take care of her.

Wow. Yeah.

Because there was no other alternative. And so when we think about how impactful this is on the caregiver, whether they're the immediate family or those that we have to hire, I think this is a big area where just for the public good, I would invite, you know, biotech to step in.

That's great. Well, thank you so much for joining us and talking with us about this really important problem, Vonne. We'll be sure to keep an eye on what you're working on in Futuro Health and your work in the future. Thanks for joining us.

This was a lot of fun. Thank you, Elaine.

As always, we will have Von's contact information and informational links posted in our show notes. Make sure to check them out to learn more, and thank you once again for joining us at Bio from the Bayou.

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