Randy Bradley, PhD, CPHIMS, FHIMSS    

 

Assistant Professor, Information Systems and Supply Chain Management, University of Tennessee  

Joined AHRMM in 2006

As a professor, Randy Bradley is accustomed to shaping people’s thinking, but as an AHRMM member, Randy is interested and actively engaged in shaping the future of the healthcare supply chain. In fact, that is what drove him to become more involved in AHRMM. “My philosophy is if you are going to be a part of something you should contribute to its success. As an AHRMM member, I don’t want to only take from the organization, I want to give back and help shape where the organization can go.” Randy is doing this through service on AHRMM’s Education Committee, which is a natural fit for him as a lifelong learner and educator.

Randy’s expertise is IT and supply chain management, and he is dedicated to advancing the field of healthcare through supply chain innovation. His dissertation for his doctorate degree was entitled The Strategic Valuation of Enterprise Information Technology Architecture in Healthcare Organizations. Randy’s research for his PhD focused on the use and leveraging of technologies within healthcare. “I looked at IT strategic planning across the United States – how hospitals and health systems were managing technology and innovation, and how organizations can and do leverage IT for strategic value. I explored why two similar organizations could have the same technology, but it costs two to five times more in a healthcare setting. What makes healthcare different? I’m still exploring that!”

While his day-to-day teaching at the University of Tennessee (UT) is not specific to healthcare, Randy is still very much interested in and passionate about healthcare supply chain. As a faculty member at UT, he teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate level. At the undergraduate level, Randy helps students understand and appreciate the role of IT, and exposes them to emerging topics and what they could mean for the future of supply chain – things like robotics, 3D printing, Blockchain, etc. He paints parallels for students between the traditional product-based supply chain and the healthcare supply chain, and initiates them to hospitals’ internal supply chain operations– the art and science of leveraging products to deliver health care and services. He knows healthcare supply chain has a significant impact on patient care, and he strives to communicate its viability as a valid and satisfying career path to his students. At the graduate level, he teaches supply chain courses in the executive-level MBA programs. UT has an executive MBA program for physicians and other healthcare leaders such as CNOs, retired physicians, pharma, and CEOs. They launched the programs in 2014 using the Baldridge quality framework as a guiding principle for the curriculum. While a number of schools have similar programs, Randy notes that UT’s was rated the #1 referred MBA program exclusively for physicians by Modern Healthcare/Modern Physician magazine for more than ten years. “We didn’t want it to be an MBA with a concentration in healthcare; we wanted to start with healthcare, and connect business acumen and transformational leadership with the issues and challenges facing healthcare.”

Randy is passionate about many aspects of his work, but he especially enjoys bridging the gap between theory and practice, and working to strengthen ties between industry and academia. He likes to keep a foot in both worlds, garnering the respect of peers through academic research, but then translating that and getting feedback from professionals in the field. “It’s especially gratifying to have your work recognized in associations such as AHRMM because that’s where the rubber meets the road.”

As is often true, what Randy finds most rewarding is often the most challenging aspect of his job – managing the demands of academia from a research perspective, and keeping tabs on advancements in industry. Applying research in the field and then, in turn, bringing those advancements into research in addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses keeps his calendar full.

Randy is a sought-after speaker outside the classroom as well; actually that is how he first came to AHRMM. He was asked to speak at a Georgia AHRMM chapter (i.e., Georgia Society for Healthcare Materials Management) annual conference and became aware of the national organization through that opportunity. Since then, Randy has presented at the AHRMM annual conference and AHRMM webinars. Randy is also a HIMSS (Health Information Management Systems Society) member and speaker, and has served on a number of task forces for that organization, as well as on the HIMSS North America nominating committee.

Highly successful by anyone’s account, Randy didn’t get where he is today without some help. He cites several mentors and/or key influencers in his personal and professional life:

Professionally: Dr. Jeanne Ross (MIT Center for Information Systems Research [CISR]); Dr. Terry Anthony Byrd (Professor Emeritus Auburn University); and Jim Green (former supervisor at CSC) all shaped Randy’s development and thinking.  “Jeanne, through MIT CISR is heavily involved with industry. She and her CISR colleagues try to answer questions that many companies have trouble formulating. She told me, ‘The day will come where you will have to make a choice. Practitioners aren’t always interested in academics and vice versa – if you follow your passion you will always be comfortable with the decision you made.’ Jeanne’s years of experience and shared wisdom sharpened my thinking and helped me find my place at the intersection of academia and practice.”

Terry was Randy’s PhD advisor and dissertation chair. “Terry encouraged me to follow my passion to do work that interested me. He said, ‘It’s hard enough to do research; it’s much harder if you’re not passionate about it.’ Terry was supportive of my healthcare focus and encouraged my involvement in HIMSS. In addition to fostering a rigorous approach to research, he served as a father figure to me – he was very encouraging throughout the doctoral process.

“Jim Green is the type of leader who is willing to get down and do the work with you. He didn’t stand on side and give instruction.” That style and level of level of leadership rubbed off on Randy and influenced his desire to serve as a mentor to others when possible.

Personally: “My primary influencers are my wife, Valerie, and our two sons, Caleb and Judah. Each day I’m motivated to be the best husband and father I can be, and that means excelling professionally and spiritually so that they have access to all they need and desire, while also having a pattern of godliness. The pursuit of excellence is the best demonstration of an ideal work ethic. I want to instill the notion that things don’t happen to you, they happen for you…when you’re prepared and take advantage of the right opportunities as they present.” Randy also cites his parents and aunts and uncles as personal mentors, “each one has poured into me at different times in my life, so my success is also their success. I don’t simply view success and what you attain or achieve, but rather how you go about attaining and achieving. From them, I’ve learned that failure and quitting are not options.”

AHRMM’s mentor program is one of Randy’s call outs. He values the relationships he has developed over the years at AHRMM and believes all members collectively mentor each other. “AHRMM feels more like a community than an association,” says Randy. “The leaders of AHRMM are all approachable, visible, and eager to interact with you. There is a great diversity among supply chain professionals, yet, regardless of one’s role and background, AHRMM feels like a community united in a mission: we all want to achieve the triple aim. And if healthcare is going to be transformed, it will be through the supply chain; supply chain is the seat of innovation within healthcare. We touch everything…impacting change in products, services, and processes.”

Randy feels strongly that there needs to be more executive officers in supply chain. “We need more CEO positions and Chief Supply Chain Officers – and not just the titles, not just ‘a seat at the table’ – we need to have a voice.” To that end, Randy was happy to see the CQO movement generated by AHRMM. “If we are going to move forward in healthcare supply chain we can’t treat it as a commodity, we must be strategic.”

Among AHRMM’s resources, Randy appreciates the AHRMM newsletter, and finds great value in the local and national AHRMM conferences. The conferences provide networking opportunities and allow for a robust exchange of ideas. “For me, the primary benefit of membership in AHRMM is the power of the relationships and friendships you build within the community. By being actively involved in the association, we collectively shape the direction of the organization and ensure it has value for all members.” Asked to describe his AHRMM membership in 10 words or less, Randy says, “Membership in AHRMM is fulfilling, rewarding, exciting, and empowering.”

An addition to his teaching and volunteer work with AHRMM and HIMSS, Randy is co-owner (with a Urologic Oncologist) of a healthcare IT company, Q-Leap Health. They have developed a healthcare professional collaboration platform and a telemedicine platform focused on disenfranchised populations, with patient decision support and clinician decision support solutions in development. They look at chronic diseases in general, but their primary interest is in prostate cancer. The collaboration platform brings together researchers, administrators, physicians, public health professionals, etc., so they can discuss chronic diseases from multiple perspectives and co-create innovative approaches to address such diseases. Taking an “essential team science approach” Q-Leap Health helps individuals make informed decisions and choose a definitive course of treatment. The company was formed in 2012 and is funded through NIH’s Small Business and Innovative Research arm, which encourages novel and innovative solutions that have the potential to have a positive impact on health disparities.

As you may have surmised, Randy doesn’t have a lot of free time, but he does have some interests outside of supply chain! He’s been a musician since the 6^th grade, having played the tuba and trombone from middle school all the way through college. Currently, Randy sings in choir as part of a praise and worship team at his church. He also writes songs. Songwriting serves as a creative outlet for Randy, mostly during the summer when he’s away from the university. A little known fact about Randy is that he was ordained through a non-denominational Christian ministry in 1999. Since then, he’s been an active speaker in church, leading classes and an occasional service, and even conducts premarital counselling, weddings, and funerals. He treasures time with his wife and young sons.

His mottos to live by…

• Be for others what you wish someone had been for you
• Every day is an opportunity to fill someone else’s cup
• You are more a product of your decisions than you are a product of your environment

…are not surprising for someone who spends so much time in service to others. Randy is often inspired by others, but clearly he is a source of inspiration to many within and outside of AHRMM and the healthcare supply chain.