Originally published on PharmaVOICE.com

With his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in pharma and in digital, Gregg Fisher is driving changes in how healthcare companies are leveraging emerging media and technology.

In founding The Stem, Mr. Fisher drew upon his deep experience and strategic insight and executed his vision of building a consultancy that would offer clients efficient access to deep specialty expertise in health customer engagement, drawing on the industry’s strongest network of independent talent.

He has a passion for digital media and its ability to drive more meaningful engagement with patients and healthcare professionals, and is committed to making it work for healthcare companies.

A strategic and innovative thinker, Mr. Fisher is able to see a much bigger, broader picture where it cuts across the spectrum within the commercial world to develop multi-layered, multifaceted, and global strategies.

He has been a pioneer who has been tirelessly working at the intersection of health customer engagement and digital technology for more than 15 years. Prior to establishing The Stem, Mr. Fisher launched LBi Health as a standalone digital healthcare marketing agency, significantly expanding the practice and serving some of the world’s leading healthcare companies.

In founding The Stem, Mr. Fisher says he is proud to have built a company that efficiently meets a growing need for expertise as the pharmaceutical sales and marketing model evolves.

“I am equally proud of providing the growing numbers of independent consultants with a platform to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions and maintain a high-quality work-life balance,” he says.

He has picked some of the most talented people in the field, and assembled great virtual teams that can be scaled up or down as projects require, providing flexibility to clients as well as to consultants.

According to Mr. Fisher, digital technology in all forms is disrupting the commercial model of life-sciences firms and disrupting the care delivery model. Notable examples are remote care technologies, mobile medical devices, applications of social analytics, wearables, digitized patient support programs, care social networks, marketing automation, among others.

“What all these technologies have in common is the promise to make the delivery of healthcare and health information a more personal, accessible, and supportive experience,” he says.

The convergence of mobile technologies, diagnostics, and personalized medicine will bring about a future where it will be possible to fluidly receive the information to prevent disease and enhance well-being every day, Mr. Fisher maintains.

“I envision a future where health data and support is present at the moment we need it across multiple touchpoints,” he says. “So, with unlimited resources, I would seek to incubate companies that would accelerate the development of technologies that empower consumers and patients with information and support.”

For Mr. Fisher, innovation is best fostered in an environment that celebrates calculated risk, or “smart failures,” continuous learning, examining how new technologies alter entrenched processes, and by spending time with customers to find out what’s broken.

He engages clients not only through his conversations and ideas, but also through asking questions that lead to conclusions that might not otherwise have been reached.

He’s able to really help people dream and be lofty with their goals and strategy, but then also bring them back down to reality and focus on the nuts and bolts that are required to get them there.

Ultimately, Mr. Fisher would like to be remembered as an innovator and a change agent who envisioned and implemented better and smarter ways to engage with customers, and as an entrepreneur who has empowered fellow consultants to pursue their ambitions, and do great work, without sacrificing their quality of life.

He is motivated by the work The Stem does at the intersection of health/customer and experience/technology, and by leading a new approach to organizing talent. He inspires those around him by keeping the big picture in mind and having a sense of perspective.

“Circumstances are dynamic — today’s setback is tomorrow’s victory,” he says.