Sg2 Blog

Partnerships, now more than ever, are critical to health system growth and performance. These alliances exist in a middle ground between loose relationships and outright acquisitions. To achieve their full potential, they cannot be merely opportunistic but firmly grounded in strategy. That strategic focus is chief among the short list of priorities academic systems’ leaders now pursue in the...

Brain tumor care is a highly specialized area that spans the cancer and neurosciences service lines. Sg2’s 2024 Impact of Change forecast projects modest growth for brain/central nervous system (CNS) tumor services over the decade: 1% for inpatient, 13% outpatient. Provider systems confront a highly competitive landscape for these low-volume, high-margin services. To capture the opportunity ...

In early 2024, the health care data ecosystem experienced a disruption. Long-standing assumptions about the reliability of claims data were challenged, and many organizations found themselves navigating with limited visibility. And for a moment, the industry paused. But we didn’t. At Sg2, a Vizient company, we took that moment of disruption as a signal to accelerate. Rather than just restore...

Strategic collaboration in cancer care between academic medical centers (AMCs) and community-based programs is becoming essential to meet capacity challenges, broaden reach and close gaps in care delivery. Players on both sides face opportunity and complexity when evaluating, scaling and sustaining these partnerships. Three steps heighten the potential for partnership success. Start with sha...

AI applied to spine imaging shows potential to improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency (eg, radiologist workflow), bridge capacity gaps, and elevate patient care. Two novel research concepts in this arena highlighted at the 2024 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference include: DLM standardizing image interpretation. Lumbar spine MRI remains the preferred imaging modality fo...

The health care landscape has evolved significantly over the past few decades, prompting health systems to adopt a range of physician alignment models. Yet, as highlighted in a recent Sg2 survey of strategy leaders, many of these models have been tried but have yielded limited results. One of the most significant shifts has been in physician employment trends. In the 1980s, approximately 75% of ph...

Saurabh Chandra, MD, is the chief telehealth officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), based in Jackson, Mississippi. Q: Can you give us a summary of your background, and what brought you to your current position at UMMC? A: I grew up in India and attended medical school there before coming to the United States for advanced training and completed my critical care fellowship ...

Michael Ash, MD, is the president and chief operating officer for Nebraska Medicine, based in Omaha, Nebraska. Q: You’ve had quite a career—starting as an internal medicine physician, moving into health IT at Cerner (now Oracle), and serving as a chief transformation officer before stepping into your COO role. How have these experiences shaped your leadership approach? A: I've always been interes...

Debra “Deb” Raupers, MSN, RN, is the enterprise chief nurse executive for the Guthrie Clinic, based in Sayre, Pennsylvania. Q: To start us off, can you talk us through your career progression as a nursing professional and how you came to your current role at Guthrie? A: I have been in nursing for over 30 years, and it's been a wonderful career within the Guthrie Healthcare System. I w...

Health care leaders face unprecedented complexity—massive data volumes, disruptive innovation and rapid policy shifts. To stay ahead, executives need more than historical analytics; they need foresight grounded in evidence and expert interpretation. That’s where Sg2’s Impact of Change forecast stands apart. At Vizient, Sg2’s dedicated research team annually synthesizes prop...