The adoption of new diagnostic tests, new enhanced technology, and new commercial approaches have all improved the lives of patients. Lisa Wikstrom is one of the difference makers who helped make it all happen.
Throughout her career, Lisa Wikstrom, senior director of marketing in Abbott’s rapid diagnostics business, has never lost sight of the fact that diagnostic testing can make a foundational difference in a patient’s health.
“The information the tests provide is important” said Wikstrom, a member of this year’s Medical Distribution Hall of Fame class, “knowing that every test has a human on the other side of it and knowing how critical that test result is to that patient, has kept me grounded.”
Indeed, while lab typically only makes up a small percentage of the spend in healthcare, it informs 70% of clinical decisions.
“It really is of profound significance to healthcare, being able to look at the results and ask, ‘What’s the best path forward for the patient?”
A global experience
Wikstrom’s career path did not start in healthcare, but she feels very fortunate to have found the med/surg industry early. “It was very serendipitous.”
At the time, she was living in Phoenix and working at an ad agency. She would often visit San Diego to “beat the heat,” as so many Arizona residents did. Eventually, she would make a permanent move across state lines in search of a career change, “something more meaningful than the latest blockbuster movie,” she said.
In 1987, she landed a job in San Diego with the “granddaddy” of all biotech companies, Hybritech. Founded in 1978, Hybritech would later be acquired by Eli Lilly in 1986. The biotech company played a significant role in the early development of diagnostic tests, particularly in immunoassays, and is known for its work in the development of monoclonal antibodies used in diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
From that starting point, Wikstrom would go on to participate in some of the most groundbreaking product launches in the lab diagnostic space over the last three decades. In 2001, while working for Biosite Incorporated (founded by Hybritech leaders), she was part of the team that introduced the Triage BNP test, the first rapid diagnostic test specifically designed to measure BNP levels in blood samples. The test made it easier to assess patients in emergency and outpatient settings.
“Launching a new and novel diagnostic test doesn’t come around often,” Wikstrom said. “Biosite commercialized the first blood test for clinicians to use to tell if someone had heart failure – and its severity. With the foresight to fund robust clinical trials – including the New England Journal of Medicine landmark trial – it created a standard of care.”
Biosite launched BNP two years before anybody in market. While Wikstrom said it was great to be first to market, getting buy-in from distribution, physicians, and laboratorians meant educating each stakeholder on the revolutionary technology involved in the testing. So Wikstrom traveled the world with thought-leading cardiologists to do just that.
“That global experience and understanding that we had information about a new test they yet didn’t have any visibility to, and we were educating them and creating a new standard of care was incredible.” That experience shaped how Wikstrom has since approached selling diagnostics. “It’s clinical first. Unless you have a clinical reason for your test, it’s not very meaningful. That has been a very strong guiding light.”
The BNP launch would be one of several milestones during Wikstrom’s career. Once Biosite was acquired by Inverness, Wikstrom was part of the leadership team tasked with forming the POC diagnostic arm of the organization. Pulling together the companies, brands and people in a meaningful – and additive way – was at the core of Inverness’s Physician Diagnostics Group (PDG). “It was a great learning experience of coming into organizations, assessing where their business stood, where we were going, and how to bring all of that together from a salesforce and marketing perspective,” Wikstrom said.
But the process was extremely complex to pull off. “I think one of the biggest compliments as a management team we ever got was from John Sasen,” Wikstrom said. (Sasen was the former CMO of PSS and fellow Medical Distribution Hall of Fame inductee) “Six months post-acquisition, all of the acquired and legacy companies came together as one under Inverness. John said, ‘A lot of people could have gotten this wrong, but this team got it right.’”
Another career milestone for Wikstrom was the introduction of a brand-new Molecular POC Platform. Wikstrom remembers being told by a distributor marketing manager over a decade ago that there was no way Alere could introduce the testing platform to the market. She recalls the manager had scoffed at the fact they even considered it would be CLIA Waivable.
“It did seem audacious,” she said. “But my reply was simple, ‘Watch this space.’ And of course, the rest is history. We launched the platform, now known as Abbott’s ID NOW, in 2014 and created a new market along the way.”
COVID was another major industry, economic, and global milestone – one in which collaboration between manufacturers and distributors would prove critical in releasing rapid tests that clinicians were in dire need of. “On a personal note, it was so rewarding to significantly contribute and help society navigate through the pandemic with testing, regardless of whether it was with ID NOW or a BinaxNOW Self Test,” she said. “It was one of those times in my career where my family and friends really understood what I did for a living … They now know – along with much of the population – the difference between a molecular and antigen test and the value of a rapid result. Talk about a steep learning curve for all.”
Mentors
Wikstrom said several individuals have proven instrumental in the trajectory of her career. Some she worked within the same organization. Others were fellow med/surg stakeholders. They all had common characteristics, she said. Fact-based. Realistic. No ego. “They were very humanistic,” she said.
One of her first mentors was Bob Buchs. “Booksy” was instrumental in welcoming Wikstrom into the biotech industry in the 1980s. At the time, she was a young professional from the ad agency world. She had been working with Paramount Pictures and General Mills when she moved to San Diego and answered an ad in the newspaper for a marketing analyst position at Hybritech. Buchs hired her for a new POL division that he was building.
“I remember sitting in his office as he used a flip board to educate me on distribution, what GP dollars are, what GP margin is, and what to make of all this work we would be doing,” she said.
Wikstrom recalls one of the first meetings she had with another industry mentor, John Sasen. They met when Sasen was part of the leadership team working to get PSS off the ground. The new national distributor had 13 branches when Sasen visited with Wikstrom and Buchs. “Bob said, ‘We’re going to have a business dinner with John Sasen. We need to go out and see what he has to say, because we may need to bring them on.’ I’ll never forget that conversation.”
Wikstrom observed how leaders like Sasen leveraged relationships to build partnerships as well as their own organizations. “John was always fair, forthright, and understood what was going to drive the business. I really admired him.”
Another mentor, Cindy Juhas, taught Wikstrom how to be fearless. “Everyone who knows Cindy knows fearlessness is a strong trait of hers,” Wikstrom said. “But she also told me during a particularly challenging time: ‘You will never go wrong by knowing your customers and being connected to your sales team. Knowing those two things is our guiding light.’ I’ve held that near and dear to my heart, and it couldn’t have been truer. Staying relevant to what matters to your customers, relevant to the channel, what makes a difference to your sales team and to distributor partners is fundamental.”
Wikstrom followed those words of wisdom throughout her career, and the many mergers and acquisitions that affected the organizations she worked for.
During these significant changes, distributor reps were understandably nervous that they would lose the Inverness product lines and the manufacturer would go direct. Wikstrom credits the leadership team that included Ron Zwanziger and Peter Scheu with quelling the fears of industry partners.
“They went out and talked to our distribution partners and the management team before they did these acquisitions, so they knew the strength of the business in the marketplace and where they needed to lean and to lean out. There was never a decision or a contemplation of, ‘do we not use distribution?’
“In a vacuum, everybody may lean toward a worst-case scenario,” she continued. “But it was a very rewarding time where we could say, ‘Okay, how do we pull all of this together where the sum of all these parts is greater?’ I think we did that. It’s the legacy of who we are today.”
Staying relevant
Based off her experience of navigating several foundational changes to the U.S. healthcare supply chain, as well as the mergers and acquisitions within the companies she represented, Wikstrom would offer the following advice to younger professionals: “Know your products. Know your customers. Know how you commercialize your business. Be relevant – and stay relevant. Don’t fret what you cannot control. Good people and talent find a home.”
Wikstrom hopes when people think about her contributions to the med/surg community, it will be of someone who was guided by clinical needs first, business drivers second and respect for all involved in the process. “No one person or department knows it all and can do it alone,” she said. “You can’t measure all the effort in the same way – but that doesn’t diminish one over the other.
“I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunities along the way to help create new markets and adoption of new tests,” Wikstrom continued. “Looking at who is in the Hall of Fame, the Dwight Tituses, the John Sasens and John Morans, the Cindy Juhases – all these people have created a collaboration and a sense of community among our industry. All those people have done an enormous amount for this industry. To be part of that group, it really is very touching, and I’m very humbled.”
Quotes about Wikstrom
Lisa and I worked together in several different capacities. When I was at Titus, she was one of our manufacturer reps, and after Titus was bought by General Medical, she joined the team with me there. Lisa is incredibly smart, level-headed, assertive, and strategic. She has a knack for looking at a problem and crafting a solution that is a win-win for everyone. And the solution always worked to everyone’s benefit.
She is also very decisive and fair. Later in our careers, when I tried to get her to give me a line, she told me no, but explained very simply and succinctly why I could not have the line. And she was right! I always leaned on Lisa to be the level-headed, grounded one when I was getting ahead of myself. We made a great team and are still friends to this day. One of her great accomplishments was how she shepherded Abbott from being a solely direct company to using distribution to their advantage. This was no easy task. She did it so elegantly and methodically, it looked easy. But I know behind the scenes she was having to justify every step. She is so deserving of this great honor.
— Cindy Juhas, chief strategy officer for CME and Medical Distribution Hall of Fame inductee
Innovation thrives where great minds collaborate, and Lisa Wikstrom exemplifies this principle. Through creativity and strategic thinking, she has brought to life marketing programming that blends creativity and data-driven innovation which has helped redefine industry standards in point of care testing. Her passion for advancing patient care shines through in how she builds connections between providers, manufacturers, distributors, and ultimately patients. Lisa has a true dedication to partnership actively seeking ways to innovate and drive meaningful change for our industry.
Beyond her remarkable professional accomplishments, Lisa is a true partner, always seeking to bring people together to accomplish more. It is a privilege to have Lisa as a business partner, but even more so to call Lisa a friend.
— Emily Berlin, Cardinal Health