athenahealth's 5th Annual User Conference is October 10-13, 2006: New Strategy Development Courses
For the past few months, we've been busy planning our biggest and most useful User Conference to date. For starters (and back by popular demand), we'll be entertained and inspired by Andy Stefanovich, co-founder of Play, a creative consulting firm.
We've also created lots more sessions than last year (30 in all) covering well-defined, hands-on topics to give you in-depth guidance on issues ranging from working unpostables to using Excel, increasing payer reimbursement, and getting the most out of your athenaNet reports. Similar to last year, the educational theme will focus on the Unified Theory of the Medical Practice. Sessions are divided into Daily Operations ("L1"), Performance Management ("L2"), and Strategy Development ("L3").
One of the many things we're excited about this year is our new selection of Strategy Development (L3) courses. Led by athenahealth executives and top consultants, these sessions will provide substantial insight into themes such as leadership in healthcare, organizational culture, payer trends, practice-building and others.
Todd Park, athenahealth's Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer, will be facilitating a session on practice evolution and leadership (L3.2A & B: Paradise Valley: A Case Study on Leadership in Healthcare). "This session will be structured like a Harvard Business School case discussion," said Park. "We'll look at the life of an archetypal medical practice as it moves from an impeded state, to strategically shaping its future, to a position of leadership in healthcare."
Todd Park's Case Study on Leadership in Healthcare
Using the case study method, "professor" Todd Park will lead us through a thought provoking discussion on our roles as leaders of healthcare organizations. Leveraging the experience of a very typical medical group, Paradise Valley, think about where and how we as leaders spend our time and to what end. What will separate the real leaders of the future in healthcare? Who are they likely to be: payers? hospitals? independent medical groups? the government? Note: If you are selecting this session, you need to register for both Part I and II.
Park describes the first phase of practice evolution as "chaotic or out of control." After that, a practice may become "operating, which is being coordinated as a practice. Then comes a strategic organization, which is not just surviving but making investments to grow and thrive despite challenges," Park said. "The final step is to become a leadership organization, which goes beyond maximizing the bottom line. The leadership organization seeks to influence events outside its own walls, to spur change in the larger healthcare environment."
Park said that participants in this session will enjoy lots of discussion, and will come away with an assessment of where they are in the practice evolution cycle, as well as an understanding of how to get to the next level.