Contributor: Katherine Clark, MD'15, WG’15

We kicked off the year with the JPM reception in San Francisco, connecting many fellow alumni and old friends. Additionally, our alumni have been actively engaging in meet-and-greets at industry conferences such as ViVE in Los Angeles and HIMSS in Orlando, as well as a successful Happy Hour for Boston-based alumni.

Many of us had the privilege of attending the 30th annual Wharton Health Care Business Conference, themed "The Resilience Edge: Innovating Health Care in the Face of Adversity," at the Union League. It was inspiring to hear from thought leaders across the industry who are pushing the field forward, sharing insights on overcoming challenges, and striving towards the triple aim of healthcare. Read more.

This eclectic standing column features insightful musings, words of wisdom, life lessons, and stepping-stones to business success. This month's philosopher is Leticia Lazaridis Goldberg, WG'10, Chief Operating Officer at Harmony Analytics, a leading provider of advanced analytical solutions. Read more.

Contributor: Sean McConnell

The federal government has been keenly focused on promoting competition, lowering healthcare costs, and improving the quality and availability of healthcare through increased enforcement of the federal antitrust laws since President Joe Biden’s 2021 Executive Order on promoting competition in the American economy. Agencies issued new merger guidelines last year that impact how they will evaluate healthcare provider transactions and scrutinize private equity ownership and the concentration and anti-competitive use and sharing of competitively sensitive healthcare data. Read more.

Contributor: Rachel Calemmo, LC, LEED AP and Patricia W. Peiffer

The WELL Building Standard is a vehicle for buildings and organizations to deliver more thoughtful and intentional spaces that enhance human health and well-being. Spaces intentionally designed to provide an optimal physical environment support individuals, organizations, and industries. Research suggests that simple changes to workplace practices, along with greater awareness and education, can result in more women experiencing the menopause to remain and flourish. They can also benefit all employees and address a variety of needs that are not specific to women or the menopause stage of life. Read more.

Contributors: Linda Komnick and Shelly Carolan

The dyad leadership model is widely used across healthcare, from oversight of medical practices to hospitals and health systems at the regional, service line, or single site level. Dyads have obvious benefits. With the trend toward value-based care and push to incorporate evidence-based medical insight into operational and strategic decision-making, dyad leadership now makes even more sense. Read more.

Contributor: Vidya Murthy, WEMBA’42 

The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) rule requiring disclosure of material cybersecurity incidents went into effect December of 2023, and October 1, 2023 saw the implementation of the eSTAR program by the FDA. Think of it as the entry gate to the FDA now having certain cybersecurity requirements. If those requirements cannot be demonstrated, the submission does not “cross go” and the review process will not begin. Other agencies have started to establish mature security expectations and have demonstrated their willingness to enforce. Read more.

Contributor: Arpit Khemka

The domain of musculoskeletal (MSK) care has experienced significant transformations in recent times, thanks to the advent of advanced technologies, evidence-based practices, and a heightened emphasis on patient-centric care. This 4-part series endeavors to scrutinize the critical factors shaping the future of MSK care while providing valuable insights to healthcare providers, self-insured employers, and health plans on how to adapt to these alterations to achieve better patient outcomes. Read more. 

Contributor: Lynda Brown-Ganzert

The profound significance of the 'person' at the center of the healthcare journey can easily become overshadowed by technology. Recognizing and understanding the human aspect is crucial for delivering truly patient-centered care, but how do you do that at scale? And is it possible to transform healthcare alongside business growth? I’m troubled by what is being touted as the promise of AI in healthcare, without thoughtful conversation on how to design for the needs of patients and stakeholders. Read more. 

Contributors: Jennifer Tomasik, SM, FACHE and Jason Pradarelli, MD, MS

Every organization has its own culture — or the “way we do things around here.” Cultural misalignment is one of the leading contributors to failed or poorly implemented mergers. But what if leaders took the idea of “integrating” culture as seriously as they take integrating their financial and operational systems? What if leaders could shape a shared point of view about their bold new strategy and build a refreshed culture to get there? What if they could refresh the culture in a way that leverages the uniqueness of its individual parts to the greater benefit of the system as a whole? Read more. 

Contributors: Wren Keber and Lisa Soroka

Medicare Advantage (MA) has been a dominating topic in the headlines lately – even outside of industry publications. In this article, we explore several divergent viewpoints regarding MA and offer some considerations and tactics for healthcare leaders navigating through this complicated landscape. Read more. 

Contributors: Linda Roszak Burton, ACC, BBC, BS and Betsy Chapin Taylor, FAHP

A drumbeat about the acute burnout faced by clinicians continues to plague the healthcare industry — and rightly so. Burnout harms individuals and encompasses a variety of injuries including chronic stress, depression, exhaustion, and loss of joy in work as well as increased substance abuse and suicide. And the negative impacts of burnout in healthcare extend far beyond clinician well-being. A recent WittKieffer study shows burnout amongst healthcare C-Suite executives has swelled in recent years, with 74% now experiencing burnout. Read more. 

Contributors: Nicholas Mehta, WG'24, Isabel Glass, WG’25, Allison Hall, WG'25, Brian Kuang, WG’25, and Sachin Doshi, WG’25, MD

Agogo Presbyterian Hospital (APH) is located in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The hospital serves a catchment area of over 100,000, acts as an international referral center for advanced ophthalmologic care, has demonstrated excellence in the areas of maternal health and neonatal care, and serves as a local center for research on initiatives such as malaria vaccines. The WGHV group took the opportunity to share approaches from their experience in medicine, consulting, operations, and investing to demonstrate the value of a long-term perspective. They developed a framework to systematically evaluate new initiatives and capital purchases for the hospital to apply to their visions. Read more. 

Contributor: Christian DiGiacomo, WG'25

The Wharton Global Health Volunteers (WGHV) is a student-run organization that is dedicated to improving healthcare in the developing world by empowering students to lead impactful consulting projects for opportunity-rich, resource-poor organizations. In prior years, students have traveled all across the globe from Ghana to India to work on high-impact global health-focused initiatives. Read more. 

Contributors: Thomas-Michael Baptiste-Weiss, DO and Béatrice Cuzin, MD

Integrative medicine (IM), a holistic approach that combines conventional and complementary/alternative medicine (CAM), is experiencing transformative planning in the next millennium for global health. Read more.