Healthcare advocacy is like a guiding light, helping people with complicated medical problems. It is a caring way to protect the rights and health of patients, caregivers, and people. Advocacy gives a voice to those who may feel unheard and protects them during difficult times.
With time, the role of leaders in healthcare advocacy has become significant. Dellann Elliott Mydland is a prime example of a healthcare leader committed to driving innovation, leading change, and improving patient care. She possesses the skills needed to navigate the complexities and upcoming challenges in the industry. Dellann’s work shows the impact of collaboration and concern in making a positive difference. It is about ensuring everyone receives respectful treatment and has the opportunity to live a healthy life with dignity.
Thanks to her commitment to helping individuals and building a fairer healthcare system, The Enterprise World is featuring Dellann in the latest magazine issue, Most Visionary Business Leaders of 2024.
Journey beyond Boundaries
Dellann Elliott Mydland’s journey began with a diverse background in public education, customer service, and regulatory affairs, skills that later proved invaluable as a patient advocate and leader of a patient advocacy organization. Her pivotal moment came unexpectedly when her late husband was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a highly aggressive form of brain cancer.
Determined to save him, Dellann embarked on a journey to explore advanced treatments like clinical trials and diagnostics beyond the standard care available. This experience served as her inspiration, leading her to establish and lead her End Brain Cancer Initiative. Her vision is to ensure that every cancer patient, including those with brain cancer, receives personalized treatment based on complete genomic testing of their tumor tissue. As a founder and CEO of End Brain Cancer Initiative, she believes in treating cancer as an individual disease and advocates for a patient-focused approach to care.
Crafting Success from Vision
The Chris Elliott Fund, operating as the End Brain Cancer Initiative (EBCI), was established in 2002 as a nonprofit advocacy organization under Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s nonprofit arm, just three weeks before the passing of Dellann Elliott Mydland’s late husband, Christopher Stewart Elliott. In 2008, EBCI gained its independent identity as a 501(c) (3) nonprofit advocacy organization. Its primary objective is to educate patients and their families facing brain cancer, assisting them in seeking second and third opinions from renowned Brain Tumor Centers. This initiative, known as the “DIRECT CONNECT” program, is complemented by wide global patient disease education, awareness, and outreach initiatives.
Shaping Culture and Strategy
As the Founder and CEO of the organization, Dellann Elliott Mydland carries several roles and responsibilities. Her duty is to ensure the organization raises enough funds to provide free services and programs to patients, caregivers, and their families. This includes covering expenses like rent, payroll, taxes, and other financial obligations. Dellann also oversees all employees, contractors, and volunteers, and she develops and manages all programs and services offered by the organization. Additionally, she serves as the face of the organization, representing it in various leadership meetings, advocacy boards, FDA meetings, and industry conferences related to brain cancer. As a CEO, she ensures that the services offered by the company are excellent and transforming the healthcare industry.
Enhancing Experience
End Brain Cancer Initiative offers the following services:
Aspire to Inspire
“Inspiration breathes life into healthcare leadership, igniting innovation and shaping a future of compassionate care.”
Leaders like Dellann Elliott Mydland get inspired by stories of people overcoming challenges. This inspiration helps them create better services for patients. It guides them through tough times and turns problems into opportunities to help others. Dellann finds her inspiration and work ethic from her late husband, Christopher Stewart Elliott. He taught her the importance of working smarter by listening to clients and understanding their needs to provide solutions. His persistence and commitment to the process led him to become the top salesperson in his company. Dellann continues to honor his memory by applying these lessons in her work and making End Brain Cancer’s services outstanding in the industry.
Differentiating Factors
Let’s take a look at what makes End Brain Cancer Initiative special compared to others:
Key Lessons Learned
Leadership shapes the products and services, making them stand out. Leaders like Dellann Elliott Mydland, guide teams, spark creativity, and turn challenges into opportunities. They ensure excellence in every aspect, setting aspiring leaders apart in the industry.
As a successful business leader, Dellann Elliott Mydland handles failures and obstacles with flexibility and a learning mindset. She acknowledges that obstructions are unavoidable in the journey to success and believes that experiencing success and obstacles is part of the process. Dellann highlights the importance of patience and perseverance in surviving the storm and recovering from obstacles. She also values the opportunity to learn from obstacles, recognizing them as valuable experiences that prepare her for future achievements.
A Legacy of Success
“I consider my significant achievements so far in my career to be the gift of time that I get to personally spend with patients and their care partners and families. The End Brain Cancer team and I are blessed to be a part of their lives. It is this time spent with them, the sharing of their lives, and what I have learned from them that are the true milestones of my career,” quotes Dellann Elliott Mydland.
- Personal Engagement: Dellann’s significant achievement lies in her direct involvement with patients and their families. By personally engaging with them, she understands their needs, challenges, and aspirations on a deeper level.
- Patient Education and Support: Dellann has contributed to patient education and support services. Recognizing the importance of empowering patients with knowledge, she works tirelessly to enhance educational resources and provide complete support to individuals affected by brain cancer.
- Improvement of Standard of Care: Through her interactions with patients and families, Dellann Elliott Mydland has gained valuable insights into the shortcomings of existing healthcare practices. Leveraging these insights, she actively advocates for improvements in the standard of care, aiming to enhance the quality of treatment and support available to patients.
- Advocacy for Individualized Treatment Plans: One of Dellann’s main achievements is her relentless advocacy for individualized treatment plans for all cancer patients. She firmly believes that personalized care tailored to each patient’s unique needs is essential for improving treatment outcomes and attracting overall well-being.
Blending Work and Life
Achieving a balance between work and life is essential for success. When you find the right balance, you can accomplish your goals while enjoying time for yourself and your loved ones.
Dellann Elliott Mydland admits that she is still working towards finding the ideal balance as she focuses on building her business and enhancing its capacity, return on investment, and sustainability. She envisions achieving balance by hiring an associate CEO or Development Director to share her responsibilities, allowing her more time for her personal life. She hopes that one day, that person can replace her as CEO, supporting her to focus on developing corporate strategy and forming strategic partnerships to advance her field and improve patient quality of life.
Dellann enjoys browsing cookbooks, selecting recipes, and cooking for friends and family. She values hosting guests at her home for relaxed meals, engaging conversations, and cocktails, often on her spacious patio.
Challenges and Opportunities Ahead
Dellann Elliott Mydland believes that business leaders will face significant challenges and opportunities shortly. One major challenge is the cost of keeping up with technology and managing these platforms, especially for small and mid-size companies. Additionally, finding experienced talent to utilize these platforms effectively and increase company return on investment is difficult.
Another challenge is maintaining in-person interaction among team members, which is crucial for brainstorming, building relationships, and finding solutions. When remote work dominates, solutions may become more technology-focused and less personalized, potentially weakening the company’s unique culture and success. Dellann sees an opportunity for leaders to prioritize face-to-face interactions between leadership and employees to foster collaboration, bring out the best in people, and preserve the company’s culture.
Leadership Lessons
Dellann Elliott Mydland advises young business leaders aiming to make a positive impact in their industries that two key strategies stand out. Firstly, they should keenly observe their surroundings for unmet needs or opportunities and then develop products or services to address them. Secondly, they must be fully committed to their leadership roles as it demands dedication and perseverance. It is necessary to have resilience and the capacity to handle setbacks while staying focused on the goals and values that matter most to oneself, the business, and its mission.
“Remember, staying focused on the prize and working to achieve the prize is the journey, and other than achievement, it is the journey that is the blessing and is what you will remember,” adds Dellann.
