Wendy Short Bartie is passionate and excited about the contributions that she can make to the overall global D&I strategy within BMS.-By Wilfred Smith

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is a highly recognizable name in the biopharmaceutical industry, because it has developed numerous innovative medicines for patients with serious diseases like cancer. The company relies on innovation for success and deeply believes diverse people are key to both driving innovations and to the company’s success in developing inclusive clinical trials and delivering more targeted healthcare services to underrepresented communities. Wendy Short Bartie, Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO at BMS, brings expertise in business growth and leadership, and dynamic market execution to the company’s efforts. A conversation with Bartie is an opportunity to better understand what it takes to serve diverse communities in the pursuit of reducing healthcare inequities in clinical trials and improving access to treatment.

An Incredible Time for Pharma Innovations

Wendy Short Bartie pivoted to the pharma industry after seeing the impact of bias on people’s lives while working as a Criminal Defense Litigator. She started in sales, and since then has worked in many areas in the pharmaceutical industry. Approximately 12 years ago she became focused on the oncology area, after her mother became a two times survivor of breast cancer, and she also lost her father to prostate cancer. Knowing Bartie’s background explains her deep passion for bringing health equity to all people, especially in the oncology area.

The oncology space is filled with challenges and opportunities. Addressing the opportunities first, Bartie says, “There has never been more innovation that can save people’s lives than there is now. It has been an incredible time for drug development and oncology, and we have seen so many advances in targeted therapies and immunotherapies that are fundamentally transforming the outcomes of people with cancer.” She goes on to explain that some of the challenges include COVID exacerbating the oncology physician shortage. Inflation is also impacting the ability of patients to gain access to medical testing and commercially available products.

Importance of Being Intentional in the Diversity Space

The opportunities for people of color interested in the STEM industry are unlimited. To attract people of color, it is important to take several steps. One is to ensure the organization’s work reflects the people served. BMS is striving to accelerate the progress made to recruit, hire, and retain people of color. The organization is also striving to ensure people of color have opportunities to grow their careers. A career in pharma lends itself to a career in a variety of areas, including science and tech, public relations, human resources, supply chain management, sales, marketing, and more. “You have to be intentional about finding diverse talent,” says Bartie. BMS committed to double Black and Hispanic representation at the executive level and has made great progress. That helps the company’s current focus on recruiting programs targeting specific diverse groups of people, because diverse talent wants to see people who look like them.

Onboarding programs are designed to make sure people have a great first experience. Onboarding needs to be intentional like the recruiting effort, Bartie explains, “After onboarding, people need organizational mentors who can help them with career guidance and managing their jobs day-to-day and building networks.” Sponsorship is important too. A sponsor gives career advice and advocates for the person, opening doors and finding career- building opportunities.

The internal talent policies and procedures benefit communities because Bristol Meyers hires from the local community as well as from the general talent pool.

What are the challenges that BMS must overcome to find diverse leaders for all organizational levels? Bartie believes that companies tend to look for diverse talent in a unidimensional way, and she recommends using a variety of recruitment channels. Once onboard, it goes back to providing the necessary resources and support needed for success, as well as providing mentors and sponsors at all levels of the organization. Bartie herself is a graduate of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and is proud of Bristol Myers Squibb’s program called Tomorrow’s Innovators, in which the company partners with HBCUs. However, Bartie points to the fact that organizations need to tap into younger talent at the high school level, through programs like Inroads or Jack and Jill. This allows the company to find talent, start developing them, give them exposure to the organization, and learn the many opportunities in the biopharmaceutical industry. When they go to college, they have connections already developed and are assertive about finding summer internships.

Increasing Participation of Diverse People Bristol Myers Squibb makes a large investment in patient awareness programs, to make sure communities have the information needed and patient assistance programs. These assist patients with limited resources to ensure they have access to medications. Included in the organization’s challenges is acknowledging that participation in clinical trials for diverse people with cancer is sub-optimal. “We must ensure the clinical trials conducted in the U.S. reflect the population,” says Bartie, “Certain groups are woefully underrepresented. Many companies, including Bristol Myers Squibb, are focused on changing this paradigm so that trials represent the population, but there is so much more work to do.”

Increasing the participation of diverse people in clinical trials is a key BMS initiative, requiring community education first. It began six years ago with a program called Standing in the Gap that focuses on closing gaps in diagnosis, care, and survival rates among African Americans diagnosed with multiple myeloma through education. Patient information resources are culturally appropriate. BMS has several goals. One is to educate the medically underserved and high-risk patient populations. The second is to focus on access and quality of care for all people, but with a special focus on people from underrepresented populations. The third focus is advocating for policies for both health equity and sustaining health equity solutions that work.

Bartie explains, “One thing we are doing is investing in key patient advocates and stakeholders to reach at-risk patients with effective, culturally relevant, and competent awareness and education. We are also doing inclusive research supporting clinical trial diversity efforts. The third thing we are doing is using the BMS voice to influence allyship to raise awareness of health and health inequities, including those embedded in structural racism, and continuing policymaker dialogue and engagement to help advance policies.”

Capturing Data to Capture Insights

Most conversations turn to data and data analytics because of their importance to gaining information. Bartie said, “At BMS last year, we ran an internal datathon that was designed to capture insights around social determinants of health in underserved communities. The reason we did that was to really understand and not make assumptions in various areas of our business – cardiovascular, oncology, immunology, etc. A lot of the insights are now guiding a lot of the work we do in the inequity area to get at social determinants of health.”

She goes on to say that COVID taught BMS the importance of collecting data to better see, direct, and utilize resources to develop solutions to health disparities. BMS is also supporting the development of an amalgamation of data with other pharma companies and philanthropic funders to develop the National Minority Quality Forum’s National Quality Index. The index will help identify trends in diseases, including cancer, and to better understand the abilities of cancer control and care resources at the community level.

Concerning clinical trials, BMS is working to decentralize them, so there is greater participation from diverse community members. Technology is helping in this area too. For example, telemedicine is an important tool for monitoring patient participation in a clinical trial. Data enables running clinical trials in a far more streamlined and efficient manner. BMS has committed to conducting 25% of new clinical trial research in highly diverse communities by the end of 2022.

Data analytics can also help with finding outstanding diverse suppliers who may not be involved in a minority certifying agency. The analytics can shine a light on information such as how much spend is going to each diverse group. In many organizations, the majority of spend is going to diverse groups that are not Black or Hispanic. Spend is reported as a lump sum or percentage of total spend. From Bartie’s perspective, “Analytics can shine a light on how much work there is left to do. Yes, data helps us identify what is going on, but data in and of itself won’t get you to the end result you want. Data helps you understand how far you are in achieving your goals, and data helps you understand how to close the gap. But at the core, you need people in the org who are committed to ensuring you have adequate representation of Black and Latino/a suppliers.”

Empathy and Intellect Make the Glass Half Full

Wendy Short Bartie is a passionate, compassionate, and empathetic leader. She thinks with her heart and executes with her brain. “Empathy without intellect makes you caring, and intellect with empathy makes you smart,” she explains. She is proud to work in a field that pays honor to her parents, and for a company that brings innovation to people like her parents. She sees BMS as battling cancer to keep people alive, so they can be with their families. Bartie always considers the glass half full, seeing innovation in all health areas, having plenty of opportunities to hold honest dialogue, and finding inspiration from the speed of pharma innovation and technology. “I sit in a position of privilege, able to make change and drive the direction of the organization doing important work in the diversity space.”