Critical Care: How Josh Put His Northwestern Degree to Work to Launch Caregiving Registry
Josh Madej '19 knew that his Northwestern SPS MS in Information Design and Strategy would help his career. But, he couldn’t anticipate how many other people he would go on to help with the skills he learned.
Shortly after receiving his MBA from MIT, Josh Madej bonded with classmate Richard Porteous over a sad personal fact they shared in common. Both had experienced taking care of an ailing parent who eventually died from cancer (Madej’s mother died when he was 13; his father is also a cancer survivor).
In addition to his parents' cancer journey, Madej had further intimate knowledge about the patient experience. Before attending business school, Madej worked in data analytics for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, spending his days speaking to oncologists and patients. In the meantime, Madej also endured a rare bone disease that hospitalized him for ten months followed by an experimental trial followed up by transfusions every six months.
Through their shared experience, Madej and Porteous had gleaned how much of the patient experience happens outside of the medical setting and that there was work to be done in that space. “There was a huge gap in the market. I had this idea that family caregivers needed support, and that support could be done in a technological fashion that puts the family caregiver at the center of the solution,” Madej says.
Northwestern SPS alum launches Carestry
In June 2021, Madej and Porteous launched Carestry, a caregiving-specific registry that puts cancer caregivers in touch with the people who want to help them. “It’s things that you're going to need post-discharge: medical supplies at home and, or maybe comfort items you're going to want in the hospital,” says Madej. It connects caregivers with services as well. “So, if you're in the hospital, you need groceries delivered. You need your kids transported around, your pet walked, your lawn mowed." Friends and loved ones can also donate money, airline miles or hotel points as needed.
Madej, who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife and toddler daughter, earned a MS in Information Design and Strategy from Northwestern SPS while at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He chose to go back to school because he wanted to solve big problems in a more future-facing way when tackling strategic data decisions at work.
“Like many companies, we had huge data debt that we’d been collecting for years. It's not necessarily the data you need to move forward. It's like, ‘Let's make decisions based off the data we have because it's readily available’ vs. ‘Here's the decision we need to make; now let's collect the data to see how we actually make that decision.'"
Choosing Northwestern SPS Master's in Information Design and Strategy
He decided on Northwestern University after comparing the program to other data science and business analytics programs. “I was finding from talking to students that other programs can be very tech heavy, like, ‘You're going to clean data 80% of the time; you're going to be coding a lot.’ What I was more interested in was solving puzzles and figuring out how to connect the actual pain points of the user to a solution.”
In his MS in Information Design and Strategy course on user-centered design, Madej put his healthcare background to work and co-developed a prototype for a pregnancy app. “My team and I did everything from front-end research all the way through development. Even though it was very high level, it was also figuring out what that framework looks like and how you keep progressing through the different stages. That's something I use every single day.”
Staying connected with Northwestern SPS alumni
Madej maintains his ties to the program by serving as the alumni chair for the MS in Information Design and Strategy Student Leadership Council. “I made some really great friends, which was tough in a virtual setting,” he says. “I just wanted to stay involved. I think [my Master's] helped open doors to my MBA and Carestry.”
His goals for the student leadership group include surveying Northwestern SPS alumni regularly, creating an alumni database, providing mentorship opportunities, and sending out a newsletter. His goal is to help alumni better communicate the value proposition of their degrees to the marketplace.
“Unlike a true data science program or business analytics program or a UX design program, IDS touches on all those different things. So, we're creating a repository of alumni elevator pitches that we're breaking down by its industry and job function so that current students can go into this repository and see, ‘Here's where I want to go. And here's some alumni who've gone through it, how they've communicated the narrative around the program, and how they use that to speak to potential employers.’”
Madej's support system while pursuing MS in Information Design and Strategy
In the spirit of caregiving, Madej credits his wife for her hard work as a working mother as he grows Carestry. “She provides for the family because I don't, as an entrepreneur,” he jokes. He ponders a future where Northwestern University alumni spouses and partners are also involved in the program. "I think that a lot of times that gets lost, it's like all focused on the person who's doing the work and not the fact that that work would never be done if they didn't have that support system behind them."
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