A 2022 University of British Columbia PharmD graduate, Jonah Khanna serves as Clinical Operations Pharmacist at Endor Health, a tech-first startup delivering virtual diabetes care across Canada. He discusses the digital health field and shares practical insights on emerging roles for pharmacists.
Tell us about your journey as a pharmacist so far.
When I graduated four years ago in May, I knew I didn’t want to delve into community or hospital pharmacy. Those were the two main avenues that were always highlighted throughout school and I understand that’s where the majority of the workforce is, but I also knew there were other avenues or fields within pharmacy that were atypical and worth exploring.
Initially, I started working with a company called Neighbourly, which was at the time establishing pharmacies across the province. One of my projects was to implement and assist with their Central Fill Solutions in Burnaby. This project was intended to outsource some of their in-pharmacy work for automated blister packing and compounds to let individual dispensary pharmacists and their teams have more time to be in front of the patient and perform clinical services. I also spent a lot of time onboarding stores in order to adequately utilize their off-site facility, including setting up their Kroll systems, EMS systems and adjusting processes and operations overall.
About half a year later, I moved to a company called CareRx, which had a focus on long-term care facilities and affiliated homes. It was unique in its own way, with different billing settings and PharmaCare plans, plus working in a closed-door environment with over 60 people, from pharmacists, technicians and assistants to managers and other miscellaneous personnel. Each person had a vital role and it was fascinating to witness the different dynamics coming to play in unison.
I then decided that I wanted to explore different areas of British Columbia by doing some locum pharmacist work. I worked around Vancouver Island, at different pharmacies in the Lower Mainland and throughout B.C., and it was really nice to see how different communities work, how different owners and pharmacy managers operated, and I enjoyed the travelling. After that, I was appointed as a Pharmacy Manager at an independent pharmacy in the Lower Mainland that focused on psychiatry and mental health. That exposed me to working with social workers, specialists, physicians and nurses.
About five months ago, I began my current role as Clinical Operations Pharmacist at Endor Health.
What does your current company do?
Endor Health is a small startup that was co-founded about two years ago by Eli Moore and Reza Hoque, who are from Toronto, ON. Our mission is essentially to consolidate and simplify Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes care for folks living across Canada. It’s a tech-first platform and the idea is to offer a one-stop shop for everything diabetes-related.
We’re still in the early stages of our company and launching things up in B.C. has been phenomenal. We recently partnered with BC Diabetes a few weeks ago and have been working closely with their team to assist our patients in harmony. It’s a lot of learning, but working in a pharmacy digital health technology setting has been fantastic.
Given the time we are in, with technology and artificial intelligence, it’s inevitable that these technologies will intersect with health care. Digital health, in my mind, really means serving people via an online platform at the same level they would receive in an in-person setting, to get the same type of hands-on experience that you would receive at your community service.
What type of responsibilities are included in your role at Endor Health as a Clinical Operations Pharmacist?
We’re a small team with less than 10 people across Canada, including pharmacists, software developers, UX/UI and the founders. For me, my role is to grow and operationalize the playbook for the company in Western Canada with a focus on B.C. This includes setting up the clients locally, getting them onboarded with our digital health app, and providing services through our partner pharmacies.
At our scale, we spend a lot of time interchanging between various roles, but a lot of my time is spent ensuring smooth day-to-day operations, providing high quality patient support, and optimizing new initiatives.
It’s nice to work in a setting like this, where you have not just health-care workers, but also high-level engineers and business-minded individuals. When we sit together at a table, this allows us to see the challenges and answers from different lenses. We all use our individual skills and backgrounds to come up with the perfect, integrated answer.
In this role, I can experience from start to finish how digital health teams build this kind of product, launch it successfully, and make that impact on the end user. Bringing in a new way to offer diabetes care to patients is exciting, in that we’re able to give the patients additional choice in their care.
What are some barriers for why digital health hasn’t been more widely adopted than it is now?
Digital health for the most part is moving at a much quicker speed than health-care regulations and policies are being revised, or looked at.
At the end of the day, digital health companies must play within regulation and are bound to follow certain guidelines. Our goal is that regulators, legislators and other policymakers will see the benefit in digital health programs — how these programs offer quicker service, faster outcomes and results — and move in the same direction as the industry.
What’s your advice for pharmacists or pharmacy students who want to enter the digital health sector?
Stay patient. Try out as many things as you can while you’re young and able, and look for the opportunity that sits with you well, and that you can see being your home. When I first graduated, the company I work for and my current role didn’t even exist.
There’s a lot you can do with your degree — probably more than you can imagine. Sometimes, it just takes a little patience, creativity or new ideas for the opportunity you’ve been waiting for to come into play. Acquire as many skills as you can along the way, be open to exploring, and find the place where you can make the most impact.
Stay curious and continue to morph into the best possible version of you — time flows in only one direction.