We sat down with Lyndsay O’Brien, Product Owner, to find out what makes her tick. In this interview, Lyndsay shares her background and passion for healthtech, her day-to-day responsibilities, and her thoughts on the future of pharmacy in the healthcare and healthtech space. She also talks about her exciting work at Phlo Connect and our commitment to enhancing patient and clinician experiences.
Almost a decade ago I left my job as a Nursery Nurse and transitioned into the technology industry as an Apprentice Software Engineer at BT. Once my apprenticeship concluded, I chose to specialise in testing energy, power, and cooling hardware and software systems. I loved working in this space and was fortunate to work alongside an exceptional team that mentored me and provided numerous opportunities for my professional growth. During my time at BT I participated in the development of many successful software applications and hardware solutions. Ultimately, as Test Manager I built and led a brilliant Glasgow and India based test team.
After nine years at BT it was time for a change. My objective was to work in healthtech and transition into a Product role. As someone with type 1 diabetes, I depend on healthtech round-the-clock. I strongly believe that healthtech should be used to enhance patients lives and eliminate obstacles for healthcare professionals in their day-to-day operations. It would be a waste not to use healthtech for the greater good.
The Product Owner opportunity advertised by Phlo was too tempting to ignore as I felt I could move into an area that I was passionate about and make a difference to the lives of others through my work.
At Phlo Connect, each day is fast paced, different and exciting. As a member of the Partner Experience team I currently hold the position of Product Owner. The Partner Experience team focuses on the development of Phlo Connect, the market-leading API-driven pharmacy infrastructure platform that delivers enhanced patient and clinician experiences. As a Product Owner my aim is to ensure we are always building the next most valuable feature and product iterations so that we meet the needs of our patients, pharmacists and partners. This helps Phlo to thrive as a digital health company and experience sustained growth.
My day usually starts with catching up with emails and reading through reviews and Slack messages. Following this, I review my to-do list from the previous day to gauge if any new items should be added or if the priority of any items has shifted.
The first call of the day is usually the daily Partner Experience stand up which gives me the chance to touch base with the team on work in progress, identify any obstacles, and identify any work that requires review by product, design, and engineering team members before being deployed for testing. The rest of the day can involve refining our Phlo Connect backlog, reviewing and testing new product features, creating Jira tickets for new work and lots more.
To ensure that everything the team is working on enhances the experiences of our patients, pharmacists and partners, and make sure the team have a shared understanding of the product vision and related value add. This involves keeping in touch with the team regularly, getting hands on with testing, contributing to technical discussions and being available for product reviews and to provide input when needed. It's crucial that I understand the needs of the end-users and that I can translate these into product requirements for the team to work on.
I believe that the future of pharmacy is likely to involve increased use of technology and data to improve patient experiences and outcomes which will improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery.
I can imagine this including the use of AI to offer more personalised patient experiences. I think there may also be further focus on interoperable systems in pharmacy to further integrate various healthcare technologies and data to improve patient care, safety and medication management. However, this is just my guess and I’m sure there will be many more exciting things on the horizon in digital pharmacy.
I am excited to see the team’s ideas for the Phlo Connect products come to life and these products being used by more and more partners.
This will result in further valuable insights into our partners’ experiences with the products, allowing the Phlo Connect team to improve/enhance the products and meet the needs of our partners. This feedback is key to helping us make informed decisions about future product development, prioritise features and functionality, and ensure that the products provide value to our end users.
Since beginning to work at Phlo in January, I have been starting to build up strong partnerships with our partners. I enjoy being able to collaborate with our partners to understand the challenges they face when prescribing and then trying to figure out what we can do to make their lives easier and improve their patients’ experiences using the fantastic technology that Phlo offers.
I love that every healthcare partner is different and enjoy working with the Phlo Connect team to offer them a solution that best fits their needs and opens up opportunities that would not have been possible without health technology.
Working with the Partner Experience team to enable skindoc to integrate and go live with the Phlo Connect prescribing API and Advanced Digital Signing. This was one of the first items I worked on when I joined Phlo and helped to test the solution, identify new V1 feature suggestions and check that the solution was fit for purpose. I am really proud of what the team achieved and can’t wait to see skindoc continue to progress as a cutting-edge dermatology provider.
I have two young sons, aged 1 ½ and 3, so when I’m not working I love to spend time with them and my husband. The boys love the outdoors and are obsessed with trains, so a lot of my time off involves trips on trains, visits to model railway shows and playing outside.
I also love to read and listen to audiobooks in my spare time. I love a good fantasy story to get lost in.
Contact us to discover more about Phlo Connect and how we can work together to create integrated digital pathways for your clinicians and patients.
