#storiesthatmatter: Navigating an unexpected diagnosis
Next from Stories That Matter: Lumere’s Joe D’Onofrio shares how an unexpected diagnosis led him to dedicate his life’s work to making the healthcare experience easier for other families and patients with similar journeys.
“When he was just five weeks old, our son, Austin, went into heart failure and was rushed to Lurie Children’s Hospital. After a normal pregnancy and a perfect first five weeks of life, we received a devastating diagnosis: Austin had dilated cardiomyopathy and wouldn’t make it home with the same heart he was born with. On June 1, 2015, Austin received a donor heart and was given a second chance at life.
“As Austin’s father and his advocate, I began to dedicate my life’s work to optimizing his health, while fixing the fragmented and costly healthcare ecosystem.”
“As Austin’s father and his advocate, I began to dedicate my life’s work to optimizing his health, while fixing the fragmented and costly healthcare ecosystem. I focus on three main objectives: prioritizing our family’s health and nutrition daily, raising awareness and funding for heart transplant drugs and experimental device research, and improving the quality, communication and efficiency of care within the hospital system to reduce the incredible burden the current system places on patients and their families. The opportunity to work at Lumere allows me to make a tangible impact on improving hospitals while simultaneously ensuring that the latest medical research is easily accessible to those physicians working on cases like Austin’s every day.”
Joe serves as the medical device solutions specialist at Lumere. In his role, Joe provides technical sales support, demonstrations, trial and data diagnostic management, and subject matter expertise on medical devices to his team and prospective clients. In Joe’s previous role as a product manager for Lumere’s category optimization product, he helped aid hospital systems in reducing unwarranted device spend while improving patient outcomes.
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