Aimée Madden: Healthcare is Changing with CliniShift Technology

Healthcare has lacked technology for a long time; however, times are changing now. The healthcare field too is adapting new and advanced technology to help cater to patients needs faster and efficiently. Healthcare consists of numerous departments that need to flow in sync with each other to ensure that the patient is treated well with utmost care and comfort. Be it treatment, housekeeping or administration, technology can foster smooth and effortless operation of every department. With a view to making a difference in the field of healthcare, Aimée Madden CEO of CliniShift set out on an incredible venture of her own. She started CliniShift which is a communication platform that enables hospital managers and their staff to ensure that every shift gets filled. As she shares some wonderful insights with us today, we are sure that her resilient journey will inspire and motivate us with passion to bring about a change.

A New Thinking to Change the Conventional

As Aimée comes from a family where healthcare and its challenges were frequently debated in, it seemed like a natural direction to move in. Her father is a physician and Aimée learned a lot from listening to his stories about how his patients really struggled to receive high quality healthcare. Also, being the youngest of the three she did not want to follow the same footsteps of her sisters who are lawyers. From a very young age Aimée had an inner determination that she had a specific challenge to solve in an industry in a specific way.

The answer that came to her as a 12-year-old girl was focused on the healthcare crisis that she heard so much about from her father, around the dinner table. She decided to create her own health technology company to solve these problems globally. Aimée also toyed with the idea of becoming a doctor, but the thoughts of blood and needles didn’t appeal to her as she is rather squeamish. When she got to University level, she had a lightbulb moment where she realized she could have a bigger impact on the industry through technology solutions and dynamic strategic thinking instead of being a doctor amongst millions of other medical professionals worldwide. Aimée knew that she was a problem solver which led to the foundation of CliniShift. To this day her brain works in a very engineering way. Basically, she loves to interrogate and question processes. Finding a much more efficient and cost-effective way of performing tasks in a healthcare environment is really where she gets her energy for her role.

A Seed of Passion Bore Successful Fruits

As a teenager Aimée loved having conversations with her father about commerce, what makes businesses succeed and how can you become a good CEO and her father would reply, hard work, strong leadership and never taking no for an answer are the qualities of a good CEO which stayed with Aimée forever. Undoubtedly, Aimée’s entrepreneurial journey was not plain sailing. It came with ups and downs however that thing that got her to this level of success or at least a sense of having a broader impact was focus and passion. She was so determined to find solutions for all these healthcare problems that she was reading about in the newspapers how healthcare was being poorly delivered, coupled with her aptitude for process reengineering made her career pathway decision seamless. 

The best part of Aimée’s journey so far has been the recognition the CliniShift technology gets at National competition level. Winning three high profile competitions back to back in 2018 is the highlight. Another proud moment for CliniShift was being presented with a plaque by the Irish Minister for Finance for winning the PwC Bolton Trust award last year. One of Aimée’s major rewards is seeing positive results generated by the CliniShift software in the healthcare Organizations where it facilitates the users work at an ease of use.

The Services of Excellence

CliniShift is an e-resourcing software suite providing an information and communication platform which enables healthcare managers to reach out to their own internal staff to ensure non-scheduled shifts are filled at short notice. It encompasses both the CliniShift App, which is free to download by staff (both clinical and non-clinical) and the CliniShift Manager. The CliniShift App allows staff to publish their availability and accept shifts seamlessly and the CliniShift Manager sends out requests to suitable candidates instantly using your Organisations own cohort of staff. Using their unique queuing system, you will be able to canvas staff in a conventional and seamless manner.

Their algorithms produce powerful request queues based on staff members’ booking patterns and their engagement with the app. CliniShift not only provides an effective way to communicate with staff around shift management, but also their broadcast functionality enables managers to send out short bulletins of information to groups of staff.  CliniShift is a disruptive technology that was designed to challenge the current over reliance on outside agency staff.

Ultimately customers are always skeptical until they have the software or technology implemented and up and running in their facility. Its only at this point that CliniShift clients really start to offer them positive feedback because CliniShift has a unique implementation methodology and product adoption approach. 

The Passion, Perseverance and Power of a Successful Leader

Aimée studied History and politics at university followed by a commerce degree and then a Master’s degree in International Business. Her life before CliniShift was very hectic. She often describes herself as peaking very young from a professional standpoint. She was the CEO of a hospital at 27, which was a real baptism of fire although she really enjoyed the buzz and energy of not knowing what challenge she would be faced with next, as she was always a problem solver. She then went on to be Managing Director of a Dutch Healthcare IT company trying to Internationalize so by no means did she have a stress-free early career; however, Aimée has no regrets about that.

She is a passionate soul who is still away from her goal even after she has established a successful career for herself. Her list of goals, dreams, and aspirations for future products and services that she wants to bring into the market, for CliniShift, really excites her. “I don’t think we have even scratched the surface in terms of how we automate processes, onboard new technologies, and know-how to the healthcare sector. I don’t think I will ever stop trying to add and contribute to how we deliver healthcare to and for patients. I have had several moments where I have stopped and said, ‘Ok this is good validation that I am going in the right direction with this company’. Some of these moments were when we were still very much a startup and I was being presented with cheques, as we are still bootstrapping and desperately needing every cent we could get.” Aimée, shares. Positive feedback from their clients must be the most rewarding moments for her. She has always been very passionate about delivering high value service and customer satisfaction is her number one objective. She wants to know what keeps her clients awake at night so that she can help them solve those problems. On a more personal note Aimée always wanted to study MBA at Harvard, so that is one goal she is still to accomplish, which might have to wait until she finishes her PhD in Trinity College. 

Managing personal and professional life is a skill that Aimée has had to learn over time, and it is something that must constantly be worked on. She really believes in a work life balance because without that, your company can potentially suffer. Aimée really enjoys furthering her knowledge and partaking in continuous professional education. “I am staring my second year of my PhD studies after I was awarded a scholarship. I travel a lot for work, so I like to keep fit by going to the gym and playing tennis as I find it’s good to clear my mind and refocus for the next day. I also have a personal and professional life coach. This is something that I incorporated into my life about three years ago and I have to say it’s probably one of the best decisions I ever made and something that I don’t think I would ever give up.” Says, Aimée.

Characteristics of a Successful Leader from a Leader’s View

Aimée believes that, there are several key components that must make up the perfect mix to be successful as an entrepreneur. As a CEO or Entrepreneur you have to have an ability to set your ego aside, hire people around you that are smarter than you, develop a thick skin as you will get a lot more no’s from clients than you will get a yes. In order to be an inspirational leader, you must find a balance between empowering and trusting your team. To make decisions as well as mentoring and guiding them to suit the strategic vision you hold for the company. All these components become significantly more important when you make that decision to scale into International markets, this is when a lot of diverse thinking happens especially when you have a disruptive technology.

Her advice to her colleagues and employees is always think about what the best solution for the client is, not what do you think is the best solution for your organization. Being persistent and patient is probably one of the most important skills you must learn when scaling and growing a new business as its your tenacity sometimes that is the difference between surviving or not. Aimée is truly a believer in building up your network. She has lost count of the amount of times the people in her network have been of value to her.

“My advice for entrepreneurs looking to enter the industry is to be very clear on focusing on a specific problem they are looking to solve, and then to develop the absolute best solutions they can. My sweet spot is my attention towards our clients as well as staying abreast of what is happening in my industry surroundings. My fortunate experience of rapid growth made me realize the potential of this technology platform and enjoyed the pace of word of mouth. I take pride to put forth that my company has a proven track record and we are ready as a team to reveal its capability through our client’s results and successes.”

The Future of a Thriving Business

CliniShift’s sustained organic growth, strategic partnerships, and the continued release of new technology products will allow them to continue to outpace many of their competitors in customer expansion, financial growth and advanced technology leadership in 2019. These are exciting times for CliniShift Internationally. 

In today’s digital health technology landscape, it’s not enough to simply offer a robust Management System that captures workforce level data. That is table stakes. The real differentiator is the ability to provide a control tower view of a hospitals whole end to end workforce ecosystem, and to leverage data, machine learning, and AI to provide predictive analytics which create true business intelligence, drives real-time business decision-making, and provides the C-Suite and management with a competitive and operative advantage. 

Currently, Aimée will be focusing on expanding the company’s product adoption and workforce planning services. By offering smaller regional organizations across the US different packages or offerings which clients typically do not have access to, they can have a broader and bigger impact. For the larger clients, she feels excited to watch them grow and reach their best & brightest recognition. It brings great joy to her knowing the company facilitates joy and purpose through its work for clients and for the people who choose to work for them. Aimée is fully committed to embracing the future for CliniShift and trusting the process of getting it to a place of huge success. 

CliniShift is headed to a bright future under the resourceful guidance of an admirable leader. Aimée has excelled in her field with her spirit of passion and dedication exemplifying the true characteristics of a successful leader. Her journey is undoubtedly, an inspiration for each one of us who is desirous of bringing about a change.