IBIT – Dale Danilewitz, AmerisourceBergen
Danilewitz being officially appointed as the IBIT Executive in Residence
On Monday, April 4, 2016, I was granted the opportunity to attend an IBIT small group meeting with Dale Danilewitz, the CIO of the pharmaceutical company AmerisourceBergen. In the first small session, I prepared myself by doing research on his role in the company and in his past employers such as American Airlines and Whirlpool. I formulated questions to ask him like “How does the IT in airlines differ from pharmaceuticals?” “How does the transition from paper to electronic medical files alter your company’s business flow?” Even just in preparing these questions, I was able to enhance my understanding of the numerous possible implementations of IT knowledge in the business world.
Danilewitz answered many questions in his time with the small group, but the one that struck me most was about IT cyber-security. He related the strength of a system’s cyber-security to airlines with the example that Philadelphia International Airport is only as safe as Trenton Airport; if a threat passes through Trenton’s security, it can fly to Philadelphia. Otherwise saying that when creating IT systems, they are only as strong as the weaker links. This can be an integral piece of information to remember when creating systems especially for medical records that are kept with pharmaceutical companies.
By attending this event I was able to realize the benefits of doing research on and sitting in on informational sessions with IT specialists and companies that hold high esteem in regards to their IT efforts. By learning about a company, I can also begin to add to or eliminate where I would like my career to stand in the future. Fortunately, I am already interested in the healthcare field, and learning about the pharmaceutical area from Danilewitz in this session grabbed my attention even more so.