Jessica Latimer
Marketing Manager, Consumer Digital, Omnipod
For the millions of people living with diabetes worldwide, insulin is a daily lifeline. For Shacey Petrovic, president and CEO of Insulet, the makers of Omnipod®, insulin is a daily lifeline for her father as well.
In college, Petrovic double majored in biology and comparative literature — the latter now manifests as voracious reading. She’s spent her entire career in service of science, pivoting from pharmaceutical sales to research and development work to running a small women’s healthcare company, but tech and innovation have always been what fueled her.
When the opportunity arose to join Insulet, it seemed like the next step in her journey.
“It felt like a natural progression,” Petrovic said. “When I was in sales, I very quickly wanted to get into marketing. I wanted to get upstream in terms of a strategy, not just the execution.”
After a foray in marketing leadership and general management, she was ultimately recruited and primed for this CEO role, moving her family from Utah to Boston.
“What was attractive to me was the opportunity to build something. I wasn’t aiming to be a CEO,” Petrovic recalled. “Of course I loved it! It was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made in my career.”
That was six years ago.
Improving lives
Today, the mission of Omnipod® is to improve the lives of people with diabetes through an affordable, easy-to-use, wearable solution that provides up to three days of continuous insulin delivery in a tubeless, waterproof pod (the pod has a waterproof IP28 rating for up to 25 feet for 60 minutes — the PDM is not waterproof) that you wear anywhere on your body that you’d give yourself an injection.
Like many, Petrovic’s father took some convincing to wear an insulin delivery device to treat his type 1 diabetes.
“People with diabetes are making 300 decisions a day,” Petrovic said. “If you have a little bit of control, you don’t want to give that up. There’s a lot of inertia around technology use, so we have to focus on three areas: making the technology as simple to use as possible; bringing broad, affordable access to our users; and building awareness.
“We wanted to find a way to further reduce the burden of change, and saw the opportunity to bring Omnipod® to the pharmacy. This allowed us to eliminate upfront costs and contracts — another barrier preventing people from trying insulin delivery innovation. We’re the only insulin pump provider to offer a 30-day free trial. This program allows customers to try before they buy, only paying for the pods, and experiencing the health and lifestyle benefits of our technology with no obligation.
“Our ultimate goal is to simplify life with diabetes and improve outcomes for people across the globe.”
This article has been paid for by Insulet.