Dixie and Jerry Baker
Nearly 50 years ago, a phone call forever changed the lives of Dixie Baker PhD '79, MS '84 and her husband, Jerry. It was 1976, the couple had been married for just three years, and were living in Florida, where Dixie was teaching severely handicapped children, when USC called to offer her a fellowship to pursue her doctorate in education.
At the time, neither of them had ever ventured west of the Mississippi River, but the educational opportunity, as well as the prospect of living in California, excited both of them—even if the logistics of a cross-country move proved daunting.
"I rented a room here and attended classes while Jerry stayed in Florida to sell our house," Dixie explains. "Seven months passed, with budgeted weekly calls, before he could finally join me."
Jerry quickly found work, while Dixie finished her doctorate in education, focusing on individuals with profoundly handicapping conditions. In the course of earning her PhD at the USC Rossier School of Education, she discovered an interest in, and capacity for, computing technology. At Jerry's suggestion, Dixie sought a job involving computers, and was hired by a federally funded research and development corporation in the Los Angeles area, where she was drawn into computer security research. In 1984 she earned a master's in computer science from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
"My career path in technology ultimately led me into an exciting position as the chief technology officer for the health and biomedical sciences business at a large systems integration firm—a position I held for 13 years," Dixie says. "As physicians started using computers, security became a healthcare issue—protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of health information. At first, it was 'compliance with HIPAA,' but now, as healthcare organizations have become a lucrative target for scammers, healthcare organizations recognize the need for strong security protections."
Once settled on the West Coast, Jerry earned an MBA from Pepperdine and subsequently served as the chief information officer at two hospitals and one Los Angeles-area community health center. Given their backgrounds and decades of experience around healthcare, it's no surprise that the Bakers believe that "the greatest health urgency throughout the world" is the availability of free, high-quality healthcare for everyone.
"Failure to provide healthcare for everyone invites disease outbreaks that extend far beyond those denied care, and drives up costs," Dixie says. "Failure to include the largest span of variability in biomedical research limits the applicability of results."
In 2009, President Obama invited Dixie to be part of a new national Health Information Technology Standards Committee (HITSC), which was tasked with prescribing standards for certifying electronic health record (EHR) technology. Use of certified EHR technology subsequently became a requirement for healthcare organizations to receive payments from the Centers for Medical and Medicaid Services (CMS). Thus, physicians began using computers, and computer science became important to the healthcare industry.
In recent years, Dixie has been involved in global health technology organizations. Currently, she holds two positions: one as a senior partner in a healthcare consulting company, the other as the senior vice president of an AI-driven healthcare start-up.
The research being done at the USC Viterbi School's Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering is particularly exciting for Dixie, since it could deliver what she calls the "holy grail" of healthcare—precision medicine, wherein medical interventions are personalized for each individual. Advances in precision medicine could ultimately prove life-saving for people with cancer, AIDS or rare conditions, for which no treatment is currently available.
The use of computer technology in healthcare is advancing very quickly toward precision medicine. Mastering the intricacies of healthcare and security technologies will take time, energy and effort for students—but they won't be going it alone. The Bakers have made an estate gift to endow fellowships for graduate students in USC Viterbi's Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science.
"We're very, very grateful for the life that USC has given us, and we want to give forward so that someone else can enjoy the benefits of an advanced degree from Viterbi," Dixie says.
And it all began with that one phone call in 1976.