Spotlight: Darragh Wright, SVP & GM of Health Insights and Data Solutions

Based out of our Atlanta office, Darragh Wright is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Vanderbilt University. An engineer by training, she focused her career on tech and management consulting, which ultimately led to her current role helming the health insights and data solutions team at Sharecare, alongside her co-general manager, Tim Husted.

Historically referred to as the “Provider” division within Sharecare, this team facilitates the transfer of about 6 million medical records a year on behalf of more than 8,000 providers, practices, health systems, and health plans. As a trusted partner, Sharecare is also evolving to help these organizations utilize data to provide higher quality, more personalized care to patients – and enable them to deliver value-based care, which can produce improved outcomes at reduced costs.

Enthusiastically congratulating her entire team for their efforts over the last year to respond to today’s dynamics while evolving for the future, Darragh also explained one of the upcoming transformations she’s most excited for: using what we’ve learned in this business segment to augment our Enterprise platform to empower members with more direct access to insights from their own medical records, beyond the claims data that’s currently available to them within the Sharecare app.

Creating a frictionless experience and connecting patients to all the insights related to their health has always been a part of our company’s long-term vision. According to Darragh, now is an exciting time in our transformation as a company and industry; with new and changing regulations, ideas, and developments across the healthcare continuum, providers are eagerly seeking vendor partners with comprehensive digital capabilities — which Sharecare is uniquely positioned to deliver.

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Can you tell us a little about your role, Darragh?

So, I’m the SVP and co-GM of the part of our business we now refer to as health insights and data solutions; a role I share with my colleague Tim Husted. Historically referred to as our “Provider” division, health insights and data solutions is one of Sharecare’s three primary business segments, and it was essentially built from a few acquisitions our company has made over the last decade. Our main offering within the division is ‘release of information,’ and essentially it’s a service to help deliver and transfer medical records on behalf of providers.

There are many use cases when you think about all the different stakeholders who need access to medical records to perform a service for patients. For example, say you go to the doctor, and you need your medical record for a follow-up appointment, or when you’ve been in an accident, and you need to share your medical record with an attorney to file a claim. To manage these records, providers often hire vendors to transfer and manage records on their behalf – which includes ensuring medical records remain secure according to the appropriate legal restrictions and regulations surrounding protected health information.

Sharecare facilitates the transfer of about 6 million medical records per year to patients, attorneys, life insurance companies, and other providers; basically, any entity who needs access to a patient’s record and, importantly, has the legal clearance to receive the record.

How is this part of Sharecare’s business evolving?

As a trusted facilitator of this sensitive data exchange, we’ve also started to consider how we can enable providers to maximize the information within the records on behalf of their patients and start to use the data to inform decisions with additional insights. As a valued partner of these providers, the next logical step for us would be to help them utilize the data contained in medical records to provide better, more personalized care to their patients – particularly those who have the highest needs – which leads into the idea of value-based care.

Our expertise of properly abiding by privacy regulations and using data — or even de-identified data, depending on the use case — opens up bigger opportunities to enable providers, health systems, and health plans to take on risk and drive value-based care, which improves the patient experience by placing the focus on quality care and provider performance, which can produce improved outcomes at a lower cost.

What’s it like working with your team?

We have a great balance on my team, because Tim and I have such different, but complementary skillsets. A lot of my day-to-day work is related to product and technology and managing existing clients, whereas Tim’s day-to-day role is more focused on new sales and operations. We work in our respective areas but come together to partner on our overarching strategy. 

I’m also starting to work more closely with our head of product, Toni Pashley, and her team, to integrate medical records into the Sharecare app, by using what we’ve learned in release of information over the years to better empower patients and individuals with their own records. Creating that frictionless experience and connecting patients to all the insights related to their health has always been a part of Sharecare’s long-term vision. Now is an exciting time, with many new and changing regulations, ideas, and developments across the healthcare continuum, which have providers more eagerly seeking vendor partners with comprehensive digital capabilities to help improve the outcomes of their members and patients.

What’s an achievement you’re most proud of?

I don’t know if it’s a personal achievement necessarily, but something I’m very proud of is my team. I want to give a shout-out to everyone working across our health insights and data solutions.

Tim and I have implemented a lot of change this year, from new leadership, to a new organizational approach, new technological capabilities, new KPIs and metrics, etc. – and our team has taken all these changes in stride. They’re continually focused on providing exceptional service, and I couldn’t be more proud and grateful for how they’ve navigated this big year of change, while still focusing on delivering the best experience to our 8,000+ provider clients. We can’t do this work without them.

You said this is your third role at Sharecare, what was your first?

I joined Sharecare in the middle of COVID-19, when one of my former colleagues knew that I was looking for a new opportunity and connected me with Sharecare. At the time, Sharecare was rapidly innovating to respond to the dire need to coordinate and schedule COVID vaccinations across Georgia and Florida. Building out that offering was challenging, especially given the incredibly fast turnaround, but it also made a meaningful impact. We essentially stood up that whole business in like three months. Just think back to the early days of COVID – everybody was trying to figure out how you get a vaccine, how to register, and where to go. 

I remember when I joined, I thought it was a great opportunity, but I also knew that one day the virus would hopefully be contained and controlled. I was reassured there would always be plenty of new ideas and opportunities within the company, and after working on our vaccine business for about a year, I moved into what was then more commonly referred to as our Provider business — which today more broadly encompasses Sharecare’s health insights and data solutions.

What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?

A couple of years ago, a mentor’s advice was to never stay in the same role for more than three years, especially when you’re just starting your career journey. That doesn’t mean that you should change companies or positions necessarily, but whether you’re pursuing a promotion, setting your sights on a new project, or taking on responsibilities in a different area of your team, you want to pursue growth.

You should always be learning, seeing new things, and gaining new experiences. If you find yourself in the exact same place doing the exact same things three years later, give yourself a kick and try something else that broadens your experience and your contributions. That advice has stayed with me – which probably is evident in the different roles I’ve held in my time at Sharecare.

What’s something about you that not many people know?

Before I went down the rabbit hole of management consulting and tech consulting, I thought I was going to work in undergraduate admissions. I went to Georgia Tech for my undergraduate degree, completed my master’s at Vanderbilt, and I love just being part of student life. I just find when you’re around young professionals at that age, there’s so much energy, excitement, and innovation that it’s kind of contagious. I wanted to — and maybe I still will one day — go back and contribute to higher education.