Leading Healthcare Consultant
Dr Deepa Desai has transformed from a medical professional to a Formidable Healthcare Consultant in just two decades. This has been possible owing to her vast experience in different medical verticals.
Born in a nuclear family, with an older brother, Deepa did her schooling at Bhavans and went on to become a Homeopathic physician from Smt. C.M.P Homeopathic Medical College. “At the age of 12, I was introduced to homeopathic medicine and was impressed with the amount of personalised facetime between the patient and the physician. This formed my determination to become a homeopathic physician,” reveals Deepa.
Displaying leadership qualities from early on, Deepa became the Head-Girl in school and got elected as General Secretary in medical college. For 18-20 months post-graduation, she gained extensive hands-on experience by working multiple jobs in ICUs, charitable clinics, etc. In 1996, she started her private clinic as a Consulting Homeopathic Physician. The next four years were financially challenging and led her to seek other opportunities for additional income. She branched out as an instructor at a medical transcription center and within a year launched a successful MT start-up.
This gave Deepa the confidence to explore other corporate opportunities aligning with her expertise and strengths.
Soon she began her journey at IQVIA (then Quintiles) as a Manager in their Centralized Cardiac Safety Lab. She got the opportunity to design the first automated cardiac safety centralised monitoring center. This offered a credible alternative to a medical practitioner into the mainstream Clinical Research industry.
Deepa’s foundation of medical subject matter expertise leveraged well in the corporate healthcare sector. This resulted in her rapidly growing in the corporate environment to head businesses globally in Senior leadership roles and eventually starting her own venture ‘D Cube Consultancy’, an advisory firm focused on transforming people and businesses in healthcare.
Deepa credits her success to the blessings of her parents: “They believed in me and modeled possible-thinking, for example my mom and me enrolled for a degree in medicine, she at the age of 50 and me at 19. They modeled respect for equality and gender parity which is helping me to live my purpose and help many around me to grow in confidence and inner strength” says Deepa.
Sharing how Covid 19 became a life altering experience, she says, “As a physician, the pandemic drew me into helping with triaging cases at the fever clinics. I collaborated to launch initiatives that focused on managing mental wellness via conversations that helped people to alleviate their anxieties and reduce their isolation. My work in social groups helped people fight depression and enabled them to get busy building and cocreating.”
Yet, seven months into the pandemic, Deepa found herself unemployed. It was a challenging period, however the unequivocal support of family and friends helped her get through this. She was able to spend quality time with family and volunteer at organization’s like HBA and Power Women. These opened a whole new world of connections, unexplored ideas and possibilities. The collective encouragement from these conversations is what resulted in the successful launch of ‘D Cube Consultancy’.
Sharing that her infrequent weakness includes occasional self-doubt, she adds, “I am my biggest critic and seldom feel satisfied with my own outcome, making it difficult to cherish my accomplishments. I overcome these through introspection and by reaching out to my accountability partners from my personal advisory board – The Archers.”
Deepa is passionate about taking a complex problem at hand, breaking it down to create innovative solutions. In early 2000, globalisation was taking off in a big way but was focused on data driven activities or customer support call centers. Deepa saw the opportunity to create businesses which could bring mainstream medical expertise into the corporate world. This laid the foundation of a new career path for medical professionals. Deepa believes that life is all about the choices that one makes. A good time to start is when you’re ready to start.
For such pioneering work, Deepa has been recognised by the healthcare industry for esteemed awards: 2019 Luminary Award – Healthcare Businesswomen Association ; 2020 PharmaVOICE 100 list of Most inspiring healthcare leaders – Change Agent Category; 2020 Champion Award – Ambassador Program, HBA; 2019 Mentor — EU Mentoring Program, HBA; Honorary Speaker – Building Better Business Connections (3BC Executive Event); 2021 – Felicitated by Lead India Foundation as one of the 111 Power Women; CEO of the winning Organisation Silver Comet, INSEAD, Sigma Challenge; Best Performing Business Award – Quintiles India; and Young Women Influencer by the Community.
