Aaron Bunn
Associate Director – Oncology Pan-Tumor Marketing – Key Accounts
Merck & Co. Inc.
A Masterclass in Cancer Care
Like a major league baseball pitching coach, Aaron Bunn, MS has the experience and expertise expected in a master educator. He works tirelessly to educate decision-makers at the Veterans Health Administration and across health systems on everything from the need and rewards of early screenings for cancer to the impact of social determinants of health across both the quality and cost of cancer care.
Through dynamic workshops, continuous correspondences, and close collaboration with several marketing leads—each focused on a singular tumor type—Aaron has gained valuable insights and perspective that drive his passion to educate. Because he can take what he learns during these collaborations and make connections across business units, Aaron has initiated endeavors to address many common challenges.
Aaron also consistently strives to provide quality communications that successfully deliver complex information in a simple and compelling format. For example, because his Key Accounts customers face many challenges each day to improve patient outcomes in the current healthcare environment (such as adherence, patient/caregiver engagement, health literacy, and healthcare disparities), Aaron championed a presentation to highlight Merck’s understanding and commitment to improve patient outcomes in these areas. The deck is also intended to share educational resources that Merck offers in these healthcare topics.
Social determinants of health in people with cancer can be a sensitive subject to address. So, improving the efficiency and quality of the materials the organization produces takes a special kind of educator. Based on the clear unmet need and a belief that the quality of one’s cancer care should not be determined by one’s socioeconomic status in life, Aaron has been a bold champion for unbranded disease state education focused on bringing awareness of social determinants of health and the resulting health disparities among people with cancer. This is because Aaron believes the first thing you need to help solve a problem is to identify it. By providing key decision-makers with the right information, they can then respond appropriately and help elevate the healthcare of so many people, including our honorable veterans.
