Our Consultant Spotlight series is an opportunity to better meet our team at Honeydew Consulting. Laura is one of our experts in molecular and genomics functionality in Beaker. She has been pushing the capabilities of Epic Genomics with the team at Stanford Health and is a tremendous resource to other community members as well. Whether you have questions on how to build your FISH test, interfacing variant results into Beaker, or wanting a second pair of eyes to analyze the pros and cons of the many different ways to implement your workflows into Beaker, Laura is here to help!
| Areas of expertise | Molecular, Genomics, Printing/Hardware |
| Location | Pittsburgh, PA |
| Current role | Genomics project manager at Stanford Health Care |
| Past organizations worked with | Atrium/Wake Forest, Emory Healthcare, Trillium Health Partners, Alberta Health System |
What’s your background?
Laura Gay: I studied biomedical engineering with a focus in instrumentation and bio-physics in school. Right out of school I started working at Epic as a project manager on the Beaker team. While at Epic I really touched all aspects of Beaker doing molecular, AP, CP, and even genomics installs. My favorite area to apply myself was process improvement for the entire team – working to create tools and developing standard processes so organizations weren’t having to make things up as they go and had a better starting point when it came to challenging build and testing efforts like clinical content validation.
What was the transition into consulting like for you?
I went into consulting about a year after leaving Epic. It honestly was a great transition for me. I love the variability in the work I get to do, the flexibility, and being more hands on in the build and overall project. It’s great to be able to work with analysts and SMEs on a daily basis and really build strong relationships.
What’s the best thing about your job now?
I really love that I can have such a positive impact with the groups I get to work with. With my prior Epic experience, I’m always able to hit the ground running with the health systems I work with and make an impact early.
Any cool build you’ve recently accomplished for a client?
What comes to mind is Genomics in general – Genomics is a relatively new application that not many people in and outside of Epic know much about. It’s been really fun to work with the genetic experts and Stanford to highlight the capabilities of this new application but also pair it with the clinical expertise. Genomics really is a fascinating field for me and it is awesome to see the patient impact it can have with personalized medicine.
Describe your ideal client to work with. What characteristics make an organization an ideal role for what you offer?
Always easier said than done – but the most successful groups are the ones that are able to spend the time providing clinical input and review of the EMR. I really enjoy working with clinical folks whether it is lab techs, pathologists, genetic counselors, etc and hearing their feedback and ideas. It’s really fun to push the limits with Epic software and build out fancy logic in the system so workflows function more efficiently and those clinical folks can spend more time on what really matters which is the patient care. Also, if I get to travel to somewhere sunny and great food – I am not complaining!
What is the “next big shift” you foresee in the industry, and should we be doing to stay on top of it?
Personalized medicine with genetic testing is only going to become more and more common. So much research is going into this and its really exciting to see that research getting applied in the software to have better patient impacts.
Any words of advice to others?
Don’t be afraid to ask questions – one of the biggest things that can derail projects is making assumptions. Its important to take the time to ask questions, get clarification, make sure everyone is clear on the decisions being made, and make sure everything is well documented. This will always save you time later on in a project!
Outside of work, what are the things you like to do?
I’m an avid golfer and skier. Despite playing golf for about 20 years, I’ve never had a hole in one 🙁 But I have holed it out from 150+ yards which was pretty cool!
