Sg2 Experts

As part of Sg2’s Intelligence team, Rhae leads the delivery of content and thought leadership for women’s health and pediatrics, including children’s hospital enterprise strategy. She works closely with members to provide comprehensive research and analytics-driven strategic insights, leveraging her special interest and clinical experience in maternal-fetal medicine and pediatrics to inform decision making.

In her current role, Rhae leads Sg2’s specialized children’s hospital membership offering, as well as the development of the annual women’s health and pediatric Impact of Change® forecast and subsequent publications. She contributes to consulting engagements as a subject matter expert and regularly presents national trends and market-specific data to members.

Previously, Rhae served as a clinical research coordinator in the Maternal and Child Health Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where she contributed to several research studies and trials addressing high-risk pregnancy and preterm birth prevention. Prior to her time at Penn, Rhae worked in pediatric endocrinology clinical research at Nemours Children’s Clinic at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, researching type 1 diabetes and chromosomal genetic disorders.

Rhae earned her master’s degree in public health at the University of Pennsylvania and her bachelor of science degree in psychology, with a minor in business administration, from Drexel University.

Building on his longtime cardiovascular service line leadership at Sg2, Chad now leads the Service Line Practice within Sg2’s Intelligence group. He helps advance the thought leadership across Sg2’s service line teams to ensure members have the strategic insights to navigate the current landscape and the future projections to set them up for long-term growth and sustainability. In addition, he supports the Vizient Networks, Sg2 Life Sciences and Industry Business, and Sg2/Vizient Consulting teams in leveraging cost, quality and market data to provide a comprehensive view that enables enhanced service line and clinical decision making. Prior to taking on his Service Line Practice leadership role, Chad led Sg2’s cardiovascular service line offerings and products. As a seasoned expert, Chad continues to guide organizations in making strategic decisions across the care continuum for cardiovascular health.

Prior to joining Sg2, Chad spent 14 years in the medical device industry with Medtronic. He spent 8 years in Medtronic’s cardiac rhythm disease management research department identifying novel uses for approved pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators, as well as making significant advancements in the area of 3D imaging. He also worked in the neuromodulation division for 6 years, managing large clinical trials that generated pivotal clinical data necessary for FDA approval of implantable devices. His work generated 14 patents, 3 publications and multiple internal company awards of excellence. In 2013, he was listed as one of Minnesota’s top 500 inventors by the Twin Cities Business Journal.

Chad earned an MBA from DePaul University in Illinois and a BA in biology from Middlebury College in Vermont. He understands the value of cardiovascular health from being a professional cross-country skier for nearly a decade after college. He has represented the US at World Cup competitions and was a US national champion.

Organizations seeking unparalleled expertise in health care strategy, operations and design need look no further than Dr Hernandez. A clinically active physician and Principal in Sg2’s Consulting practice, Dr Hernandez has supported over 100 hospitals and health systems around the globe to reimagine their models of care, operations, patient experience and built environment. He has guided clients ranging from six-bed rural hospitals to multihospital integrated health networks to state-sponsored behavioral health care systems. 

Dr Hernandez is a firm believer that proper decision making requires knowledge and context, both of which come from looking around, asking questions and challenging orthodoxies. This is one of the reasons why he is all-in on the use of quantitative, qualitative and ethnographic data to create context. 

An award-winning physician and design strategist, Dr Hernandez brings a unique combination of clinical experience and formal education found in no other physician anywhere. He lives his passion for health care every day, always finding new and creative ways to leverage his skills to the benefit of his clients. Dr Hernandez has been recognized both for his own patient-centric care as well as his impact on health care design as a physician and design strategist. His passion and experience help clients achieve results they never thought possible.  

After earning his BA at Temple University, Dr Hernandez received an MD from the University of Pittsburgh and completed his residency in emergency medicine at Temple University Hospital. He has also received an MS in strategic management and design from The New School Parsons and an MBA from the University of California at Irvine. 

 

As a consulting principal on Sg2’s Life Sciences and Industry team, Ron leads strategic engagements with the pharmaceutical industry (pharma), medical device companies and distributors to provide market insights and direction on their strategically important growth areas. He brings over 2 decades of international experience working in strategic leadership roles driving competitive market success across product and service lines. His career spans the discovery, product development and marketed products business segments in biotechnology, pharma and medical device, which has allowed him to have a broad and deep perspective on the complexity involved in achieving product-market fit, penetration and share. Ron is passionate about bringing together his scientific rigor and business acumen to solve strategic challenges for Sg2 clients.

Ron moved away from the bench early in his career to profit and loss ownership roles for products and services companies like Millipore and Thermo Fisher targeting the drug discovery market. He is as familiar with smaller start-up companies as he is with very large multinationals. As the program development leader for a late-stage start-up, Ron was instrumental in the development of a next-generation drug eluting coronary stent and the subsequent acquisition of the company by Medtronic. Additionally, he served as the chief operating officer of the only internationally based research center for the Smithsonian Institution. Upon returning to the US, Ron joined a strategic and innovation consulting firm focused on helping Fortune 100 companies in the life sciences industry realize major new growth. Finally, prior to joining Sg2, Ron was the VP of BioPharma Commercial Strategy for PPD, carrying forward strategic growth initiatives across the enterprise.

Ron confirmed his passion for the life sciences while pursuing his BS in biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he also supported research on the molecular etiology of HIV and leukemias in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. He subsequently earned his PhD from Northwestern University in molecular and cellular biology studying the molecular basis of metabolism as it relates to disease progression. Early in Ron’s career, he co-invented an innovative gene therapy technology that today is bringing hope in the clinic to individuals suffering from conditions such as neuroblastoma.

As part of the Life Sciences and Industry team, Mark leads the sales and delivery of MarketPulse, one of Sg2’s newest product offerings. MarketPulse provides medical device and pharmaceutical drug purchase data from over 3,500 health care facilities in the US, including hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and physician offices.

Mark has spent his entire career in health care. Most recently, he was part of Ediom, a health care information technology start-up. He led the company’s development and commercialization of market intelligence products serving the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.

Prior to Ediom, Mark was a vice president with Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company, where he invested in a range of middle market health care companies, including pharmacy services, medical products and other businesses. Mark started his career in the investment banking group of Piper Jaffray & Co, where he focused on companies in the medical device industry.

Mark received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in economics and philosophy from the University of Saint Thomas.

As a leader on Sg2’s Intelligence team, Cory develops oncology intelligence and strategic insights to help members navigate the current landscape and future projections for oncology services. He provides expert insight on cancer service trends, national forecasts, service line optimization and strategic planning for health care organizations across the country. He also works closely with members via calls, webinars, retreat facilitation and consulting engagements to inform and advise future strategic direction on cancer care service line topics, including program expansion, service distribution, technology adoption and care redesign opportunities.

Cory has over 2 decades of health care leadership experience, working with executives in service line business and clinical strategy planning within acute, ambulatory and academic settings. He has conducted service line analyses across various market programs to provide actionable opportunities for growth that address gaps and enhance services across the care continuum. Furthermore, Cory worked with operational and clinical administrators to find and examine solutions related to physician alignment, engagement and workforce integration.

Prior to joining Sg2, Cory served in service line executive roles for Sutter Health Bay Medical Foundation, Catholic Health Initiatives and Intermountain Healthcare. He established and led several national, regional and state governance and service line leadership workgroups. Under his leadership, these groups focused on guiding key regional and system-wide program, operational and clinical improvement initiatives. He has been successful in cultivating system-wide service line directions by conveying clear purpose and instituting collaborative frameworks to create greater awareness of how care is delivered and to foster a high-quality culture and accountability.

Cory earned an MBA from Westminster College in Salt Lake City and a BS in business from Weber State University in Utah.

As the lead on the Sg2 Life Sciences and Industry team, Karl leverages nearly 20 years of life sciences experience to develop strategies and solutions for biopharma, medical device, distributors, health IT and finance services. On a day-to-day basis, he helps position Sg2 as a strategic advisor in partnerships between leading health systems and life sciences firms. He brings extensive experience from his prior role as Sg2 consulting principal, wherein he worked with leading US and global health care providers affiliated with several of Sg2’s 1,700 client health systems. Karl also spent 5 years working out of Sg2’s international office in London, England, where he supported clients in the National Health Service, South East Asia, Hong Kong, Australia and the Middle East.

Karl earned a PhD from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, where he developed models using stem cell technologies to study HIV drug targets. He received a BSc in biochemistry and pharmacology from King’s College London.

Karl is married with 2 sons and a daughter and lives in Chicago, IL. He enjoys teaching his children Swedish, being an amateur photographer and expressing his scientific curiosity through cooking.

Karyl applies her research and strategy expertise to leading the women’s health and pediatrics team, while working closely with her clinical and enterprise counterparts. She is a thought leader specializing in service line strategy and program development, as well as key trends impacting women’s and children’s services.

Collaborating with Sg2’s service line experts across all service lines, Karyl helps clients craft their organizational definition of women’s health, from traditional obstetrics and gynecology services to comprehensive gender-specific medicine programs. She also works closely with children’s hospitals, developing enterprise strategies specific to pediatrics, as well as closely following clinical research that drives Sg2’s pediatrics forecast. Karyl challenges organizations to develop evidence-based and data-driven plans by either presenting market-specific strategic opportunities to individual clients or by generating original content on important industry trends for Sg2’s webinars and publications. In addition to her role as women’s health and pediatrics lead, Karyl also contributes to the development of Sg2’s proprietary Impact of Change^® forecasting engine, which projects 10-year patient demand across inpatient and outpatient services, focusing most recently on the Hyperlocalization enhancement.

Prior to joining Sg2, Karyl worked with an early stage biotech start-up to develop a market strategy for a microbial air sampler by performing primary research and researching content for investor pitches.

Karyl earned a PhD in microbiology and an AB in physics from the University of Chicago and is an active member of the University of Chicago Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association.

As a member of Sg2’s Intelligence team, Janelle works with leadership teams to identify the impact of industry trends on strategic planning and workforce strategy. She plays a key role in the development of thought leadership in this space, leading research for executive briefings and presenting findings at various Sg2 and Vizient conferences. She serves on the faculty of Sg2’s strategic planning course and delivers customized workshops and presentations for members.

In her role, Janelle also manages Sg2’s Custom Intelligence services, partnering with other experts to answer on-demand client strategy questions that span clinical service lines and the health system enterprise. Her responsibilities also include overseeing the development of Sg2’s annual FAQ Compendium, among Sg2’s most popular publications.

Janelle’s career at Sg2 began as an expert on the oncology team, supporting development and delivery of cancer offerings for both executives and service line leaders.

Prior to joining Sg2, Janelle worked as a middle school English teacher and a recruiter for a network of public charter schools in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BS from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.

Eric supports Sg2’s Intelligence team by driving innovative market analytics frameworks and models and providing unique market analyses and strategic recommendations to Sg2 members. His work focuses on service line evaluation and strategic planning, strategic prioritization, enterprise growth planning, facility forecasting, customized research, post-acute care development, partnership evaluation, and strategic visioning for providers.

During his tenure at Sg2, Eric has collaborated with a wide range of providers across pre-acute, acute and post-acute sites of care as well as life science organizations, specializing in custom analytics and innovative model development. He has managed projects for numerous academic medical centers, large integrated delivery networks and multihospital providers with assets across the continuum of care. He has extensive experience utilizing Sg2’s proprietary data sets to create forward-looking models around clinical, resource and human needs.

Eric earned a bachelor of science in chemical and biomolecular engineering, with a concentration in nanotechnology, from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he researched the development of self-cleaning technology via self-assembling nanolayers created through various vapor and liquid deposition techniques.

Rebecca directs the delivery of Sg2 intelligence via educational offerings such as conferences, courses and webinars. She oversees Sg2’s flagship annual conference series, the Sg2 Executive Summit, which presents thought leadership and strategic advice to more than 1,000 health care executives across the US. As leader of Sg2 member education, she plans strategic retreats, courses and expert presentations for all segments of the health care industry, including health systems and industry partners, such as pharmaceutical and device companies.

Rebecca works with a team of more than 30 expert faculty members to ensure the latest research and aligned intelligence is provided to Sg2 clients. Additionally, she is a frequent presenter and facilitator at Sg2 educational events, conferences and client education sessions. She has developed curricula and led sessions on various topics, including evolving strategic planning, developing a service line portfolio, creating an integrated System of CARE and understanding the impact of future-focused trends on specific service lines.

Prior to taking on her education role, Rebecca led Sg2’s women’s health and pediatrics offerings and products. As a seasoned expert, Rebecca continues to guide organizations in making strategic decisions across the care continuum for women and children’s health.

Before joining Sg2, Rebecca worked in a variety of health care settings, including for-profit and nonprofit hospitals, medical product manufacturers, and a retail pharmacy. She has experience in management, market research, pharmacoeconomics, forecasting and patient relations.

Rebecca received a master of business administration from the Stephen M Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and a master of health services administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She earned a bachelor of business administration magna cum laude from the University of Georgia.

As an associate principal on Sg2’s Consulting team, Jamie manages strategic engagements and customized market analysis for national health systems, integrated delivery networks, regional health systems and provider organizations. She offers Sg2’s members innovative approaches to growth and sustainability, specializing in ambulatory growth projects and financial impact analysis.

Prior to joining Vizient, Jamie was vice president of strategy at Ascension Wisconsin, where she was responsible for creating the organization’s multiyear ambulatory development plans, service line distribution plans, build-partner strategies for joint venture development and a three-year strategic plan. Jamie also served as an internal consultant to other markets on Ascension’s national ambulatory strategy development team. In addition to this role, Jamie’s extensive experience includes strategic planning, financial management and accounting in the health care and insurance industries.

Jamie received her master of business administration degree from Marquette University and a bachelor of business administration in accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jamie is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.