In this episode of Friends of Project Healthcare…
Jillian Wright, CEO of Onsite Women’s Health, joined host Eric Thrailkill and Project Healthcare colleague Lauren Hatcher to discuss her background, the company’s mission, and the future of women’s healthcare. The conversation delved into topics such as the importance of convenience in healthcare, the role of technology in improving patient outcomes, and the power of partnerships in driving innovation.
“You can’t go it alone these days,” Jillian shared. “You can’t go fast enough if you’re trying to go it alone. So I say that this is our year of partnerships, and I mean that.”
Onsite Women’s Health was founded in 2008 with the goal of improving breast cancer screening compliance rates. Recognizing the barriers of convenience, knowledge, and financial concerns that prevent women from getting regular mammograms, Onsite partners with OBGYNs and primary care physicians to offer in-office breast imaging services.
“The key barriers to obtaining a screening mammogram are typically convenience of the service, knowledge of needing the exam, and the financial concerns around it,” Jillian explained. “By putting the services where the patients are already visiting for a provider visit, we’re saving the woman time.”
By delivering service at the point of care, Onsite aims to save time, educate patients about the importance of mammograms, and reduce the financial burden of screening.
One of the key issues Jillian and her team at Onsite believes is necessary to tackle is the lack of awareness, especially for young women, on the importance of regular screenings. Jillian offered that only about 67% of women between the age of 40 and 49 are compliant with breast cancer screenings every other year and compliance with the recommended annual screening is much lower.
“As a country, we have a ways to go. I think that there’s a lack of education on the need for screening mammography,” she shared. “Some of our most impactful markets are when we go into a rural setting and we find that the population is just woefully under screened.”
Educating all women on the importance of starting early detection is something that Onsite takes great responsibility for. “We also want the patient’s providers to take a lot of responsibility for that because I believe that just education and awareness has a lot to do with that low compliance rate number.”
Jillian is proud to report that by putting their services where the patients are, connecting the dots between patient and provider at the time when it’s most convenient, they were able to exceed 85% compliance rates.
Onsite is leveraging technology to improve patient outcomes by utilizing AI-driven software to assess breast density, allowing for immediate recommendations for additional screenings such as ultrasounds.
“In many locations we offer screening breast ultrasound for women with dense breasts. And because we are assessing that density at the point of care, we’re not having to wait for the mammogram to be read, receive that information from the radiologist, and then call the patient back,” Jillian reported.
“We’re able to offer that ultrasound right then and there for the patient. Again, convenience drives compliance, we see it when we have to wait for that and the patient leaves, we are far less likely to get her back for that supplemental exam. So that’s one where we’re already seeing an impact.”
Onsite is piloting the use of AI as a supplemental tool for radiologists to assist with interpreting mammograms in hopes of reducing false negatives and false positives. “We all know that there’s a workforce shortage out there, and the radiologists that we have are overburdened,” she said. “Some of these platforms are able to shuffle the work list to put the most suspicious cases first when they’ve got fresh eyes to look at them.”
Jillian believes that partnerships play a crucial role in Onsite’s mission. With collaborations with companies like Myriad Genetics, they plan to enable individual risk assessment tools to offer a more personalized approach to patient care, including genetic testing.
“We partnered with Myriad to pilot offering a comprehensive risk assessment to every patient walking in the door,” Jillian reported. “We’ve learned through that pilot that about one in five women under the age of 40, between the ages of 30 and 39 are at high risk of breast cancer. And most of these women, if they’d not done this type of assessment, wouldn’t be aware of that.”
Jillian also expressed excitement about future partnerships and the potential for value-based care contracts to further enhance the company’s services. “I’m having a lot of fun learning about what some of the other players in the industry are doing to disrupt the paradigm,” she said. “We’re looking for new partners that are focused exclusively in value-based care and showing them how we could help them achieve some of those goals.”
Jillian encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs in healthcare to focus on excelling in their current roles and to embrace being underestimated, as it can be a powerful motivator to exceed expectations. She also expressed her admiration for the healthcare innovation happening in Nashville and the city’s supportive community.
“I think it’s what I’m most proud of about this city. I think that the innovation here, the buzz around healthcare, the excitement around it, and the investment and time, resources and community support, what happens here at the EC, is unparalleled. And I’m just very grateful for the healthcare family that I’ve got here.”
About Jillian Wright Jillian Wright is a seasoned executive and the current Chief Executive Officer of Onsite Women’s Health – a leading provider of convenient, in-office breast health services. Prior to joining Onsite as the Chief Operating Officer in May 2023, Jillian spent over a decade with AMSURG rising through the organization as a vice president in operations, concluding her tenure as the vice president of strategy and transformation. Throughout her time with Amsurg, Jillian was engaged closely with gastroenterology and colon cancer screening operations. Bringing her experience in screening compliance to the forefront at Onsite, Jillian is responsible for more than 115 partner locations and leading a team focused on operational excellence and delivering a best-in-class patient and practice partner experience.
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