While hypothesized for some time, the recent announcement that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase are teaming up to form an independent healthcare company aimed at cutting costs and improving quality shook every corner of the industry. While details are still scarce—and the alliance is currently only confirmed to benefit its roughly one million combined […]

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The other day I was involved in a workshop that surfaced an intriguing question: While health systems want to play a larger role in people’s everyday lives – proving new value, contributing to population health goals, securing greater loyalty and new revenue – how much interest do people have in “going deeper” with health systems? […]

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Unprecedented margin pressure: if they aren’t already, they should be the three most motivating words in healthcare strategic marketing. Every week brings new reports of hospitals and health systems experiencing startling year-to-year margin declines. This week began with Edward-Elmhurst Health. Last week it was Temple University Health. And the week before, Cedars-Sinai. In September 2016, […]

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Last week at SHSMD 2017, keynote speaker Dan Burrus challenged attendees of his address to focus on Hard Trends (based on future facts) and not opinions. Opinions run rampant in our social media-infused, 140-character, endlessly-analyzed news cycle. But Hard Trends – the things that should really fuel strategy – are more difficult to come by. […]

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A pair of news stories in recent weeks have typified healthcare strategists’ and marketers’ troubling struggle: Bernie Sanders’ Medicare-for-All bill sparked the most serious conversation around single-payer healthcare the U.S. has had since the Nixon administration. It was also recently revealed that Aetna and Apple are in conversations to bring the Apple Watch to millions […]

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