An interview with Rob Farnol, Senior Account Manager for MEDIO, powered by Involve.
In this blog post, Rob discusses an early career that began with a French degree and a drift into corporate sales, before an opportunity at Involve changed everything. He also reflects on a visit to a cancer team’s meeting room that forged his understanding of how the right, or wrong, technology can shape the quality of patient care.
Early days
“I had no idea what I wanted to do when I started out. I studied French at university and assumed that would shape my career path. The next thing I knew, I was working in sales. I drifted into it via a service management position at a previous organisation, where I learned the fundamentals of selling in the corporate world. That was very much my grounding. Then I saw an opportunity at Involve, took it and never looked back.”
Impact of technology
As a Senior Account Manager at MEDIO, Rob is exposed to the positive impact technology can have when fitted correctly. However, he reflects on how often poor, cost-driven decisions leave clinicians working with equipment that simply isn’t fit for purpose:
“Technology affects patient care through how easy it is to use and how effectively it does what people need it to do. Every single customer you speak to says the same thing: they do not want to have to learn anything new. Everyone says, ‘I just need to walk in a room, press a button and it just works.’ It is not an unreasonable request.
“That is true for standard boardroom meetings, but over the years, especially in the work we do with cancer teams and multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs), I have seen the results of poor decisions dictated by buying cheap. The penny really dropped a few years ago when I walked into a customer’s existing MDT room. It was a mess. Consumer-grade televisions on the wall. Cables plastered everywhere. Spelling mistakes on the touch panel. And in a multi-screen MDT room, the control panel is supposed to switch things automatically and be easy to use. Instead, every time they pressed a command, it told them to pick up the remote control, of which there were four in the room.
“That customer wanted a cheap fix, but the whole room needed replacing. Every single item in it was not fit for purpose. And this was a room for cancer care. It was heartbreaking to see clinicians in that position. They had not made these decisions themselves, yet they had been put in a position of trying to deliver high quality care with subpar technology. That moment forged my understanding that it is not always about the technology. Screens are screens, and video conferencing systems are video conferencing systems. It is much more than that.
Pride in his work
Beyond the technical details of any installation, Rob is quick to point out that working in this sector means something to him on a much more personal level, shaped by moments that have brought the work close to home in ways he didn’t expect:
“There is a kind of pride you take in working with the public sector, especially the NHS, because we all have a vested interest in the NHS doing well. It has been a privilege to work with people who genuinely care about what they do and who are motivated by more than money or corporate interests.
“It ties back to my own experiences. There is one cancer MDT room we delivered to an NHS trust that we installed and that the team uses to this day — that customer has had two MDT setups from us over the last eight years. A member of my own family was treated by that very team, in that very room I had set up. It hits home at a moment like that.
“On another occasion, I was paying for parking at a hospital and got chatting to a gentleman sitting in the boot of his car with a cup of tea. He mentioned his retirement, then started talking about his cancer treatment — he even showed me his scars. He had been cared for by the same cancer team. When you have that real-world connection to the work, twice over, it adds a whole different level. Without your health, you have got nothing. It is a genuine privilege.
Life away from work
“Outside of work, we are a family of four. I am a father to a nine-year-old and a 14-year-old, so we face all the familiar challenges of juggling family life, coupled with neurodiversity, which can make day-to-day things a little more challenging. We spend as much time together as a family as we can, getting away from crowds and noise and out into the countryside. We are very lucky in the Southwest to have the Stroud hills and the Forest of Dean on our doorstep, and family in Abergavenny by the Black Mountains, so it is fantastic to get out to those places as often as we can. I also love building wooden mechanical models in my spare time. It is a great way to switch my brain into a different gear.”
Get in touch with Rob and the MEDIO team at: hello@involve.vc
