Every executive wants digital transformation. Every board wants AI. Every organization wants faster processes, better outcomes, and happier customers. Yet most transformation initiatives stall long before they deliver on those promises.
The reason isn’t usually the technology. It’s the people who have to trust it, adopt it, and weave it into the way they work every day.
Dr. April Larson has spent her career living on both sides of that challenge. After more than two decades treating patients as a dermatologist, she helped build PathologyWatch into one of healthcare’s pioneering digital pathology companies before leading digital transformation initiatives across Sonic Healthcare.
Along the way, she learned something that extends far beyond healthcare: successful innovation depends less on software than on empathy, communication, and shared purpose.
In this episode of Go-To-Market, Amy Osmond Cook sits down with Dr. April Larson, Medical Director, Division of Dermatopathology at Sonic Healthcare, longtime friend and colleague to discuss what every leader—from healthcare to SaaS to manufacturing—can learn about earning trust, driving adoption, and helping people embrace change.
Amy Cook: You’ve spent more than 20 years as a dermatologist. How did you end up helping build a healthcare technology startup?
Dr. April Larson: I’ve been a dermatologist for several years. I spent 20-plus years in private practice in dermatology, and that was my first love.
April never imagined herself joining a startup.
“I didn’t really have a sales or business background at all,” she explains. “Then this opportunity fell in my lap to become involved with a healthcare tech startup called PathologyWatch.”
What attracted her wasn’t technology for technology’s sake. It was solving a problem she experienced every day.
Healthcare software, she says, had become something physicians simply tolerated.
“My big question was, why is it true that software is so cumbersome in healthcare? Everywhere else we’re using really effective tools. Why is that? Can I influence the development of user-friendly software in my field?”
That question became the foundation of PathologyWatch.
Traditional pathology relies on shipping physical glass slides across the country, often delaying diagnoses for days or even weeks. PathologyWatch digitizes those slides.
Instead of physically mailing specimens to specialists, clinicians can securely access digital pathology images almost instantly, which dramatically reduces turnaround times while improving collaboration between dermatologists and dermatopathologists around the world, in some cases. It is also available for direct upload into the electronic medical record.
For April, the impact extends beyond speed.
Digital pathology allows physicians to review the clinical images, pathology slides, and patient history together inside a single workflow, creating a richer diagnostic experience than traditional methods allow.
Amy: After PathologyWatch was acquired by Sonic Healthcare, you led digital transformation across multiple laboratories. What surprised you most?
April: “I definitely was not prepared for how difficult that would be.”
She entered Sonic Healthcare believing the product would be the biggest challenge. Instead, she discovered something every transformation leader eventually learns.
“I’ve heard it said that bringing a product to market in healthcare is 20% the product… and 80% is change management.”
That realization fundamentally changed how she approached implementation.
“It comes down to integration, alignment, adoption, and reimbursement,” she explains. “The product itself is really only 20%.”
Amy: Those lessons seem incredibly relevant outside healthcare. What made your rollout successful?
Rather than treating employees as obstacles, April approached them the same way she’d approached patients for years.
She listened first.
She understood their concerns.
Then she built trust.
“We knew we had the buy-in of the people who purchased the product, but the users were not part of that decision.”
That distinction changed everything.
Instead of asking employees to simply adopt new technology, her team treated them like internal customers.
“We would think in our minds,” April recalls, “‘What is your problem, and let us show you how we can solve that?'”
The approach reduced resistance because it respected the realities of physicians’ daily work.
Amy: What’s your advice for leaders introducing new technology today?
For April, successful change starts with empathy—not presentations.
“A lot of it is really just listening to their concerns.” She added that some people worry about productivity. Others worry about job security. Still others simply fear disrupting familiar workflows. Each concern deserves a different conversation.
“I experienced those same questions,” April says. “They’re actually very easy things for me to answer because I experienced those same issues as I was coming into the field.”
Healthcare may be one of the most complex industries to modernize, but the leadership lessons from Dr. April Larson extends far beyond medicine.
Technology matters.
Innovation matters.
AI matters.
As Dr. April Larson’s experience demonstrates, the future belongs to organizations that treat change management as a strategic advantage—not an afterthought.
