By Bob Sweeney
September, 2020
Global Health Impact Network (GHIN) is a collegial association of individuals and organizations committed to working together to improve clinical effectiveness in the practice environment and thereby make a measurable impact on the quality of delivered care.
In this regard, GHIN engages Advisors. Who are these people and what do they actually do?
Our Advisors include active practicing and academic physicians, as well s select other professionals with expertise in the management of health care, current technological innovations in health care, or the legal, financial or other administrative aspects of practice and delivery.
Several correspondents have asked me for examples of how individual physicians have gone about advising GHIN in carrying out its responsibilities. I could cite many cases, but one of the more salient examples is my colleague and associate Jeffery Gubbels, MD, CPE, CMQ, FACOG.
It’s easy enough to find Jeff and his credentials/background on the internet. Jeff spent nearly eight years in progressive leadership roles in a major Texas hospital system, culminating as the chief medical officer and an interim CEO. He managed every aspect of medical operations for an organization the size of a Fortune 500 company. Forces beyond his control came to bear when the hospital system he worked for announced its forthcoming merger with another system in 2019 and, for undisclosed reasons, the merger failed to occur. Instead of bemoaning fate, within six months, his proactive decisions created a new and even more promising set of career options. First, he founded his own consulting company to advise other senior administrative physicians and medical groups on how to deal with the changing health care environment. More or less simultaneously, Jeff was engaged as a Chief Physician for the Houston Health Department, right on the eve of the pandemic. He also became a founding Director and equity partner in a real estate group acquiring assisted living centers. Finally, he became an investor and advisor to a physician-driven venture capital fund and a nutraceutical beverage startup.
That venture fund he became affiliated with was Global Health Impact Fund (GHIF), the sister organization to GHIN. After investing in GHIF, Jeff sought out an Advisor role with GHIN. His activities have included:
- Commenting substantively on potential new fund investment prospects, both for their likely clinical effectiveness and likelihood of being actually adopted by clinical users.
- Advising potential investors in GHIF as to their financial preferences, and qualifications to be a limited partner in such a fund.
- Identifying trends in medical practice and reimbursement in his region of the United States.
- Counselling and advising executives in client companies as to where to find opportunities for business and how to present their offers.
GHIN has over 65 Advisors. Not all of them cover the gamut of experience that Jeff Gubbels can offer. Some are experts in their own practice fields—such as pediatric radiology, intensive care, emergency medicine or orthopedics. They bring their own experience and knowledge to the collective conversation about which technology opportunities seem most appealing as well as how young companies can best position their solutions and avoid creating “solutions” that won’t be adopted by the clinicians that use them.
If you have a desire to work with other healthcare professional subject matter experts to help build a collaborative Global Health Impact Network, please contact us at the designated contact points below. Resist the epidemic of physician disenfranchisement prevalent in the clinical work environment. Make a difference. Call or e-mail us today!
Bob Sweeney, Principal & Managing Partner
Global Health Impact Fund LLC
901-619-0294
bob@globalhealthimpactfund.com