Looking Toward the Future by “Unscaling” Health Care

Steve Klasko, MD, MBA, CEO of Jefferson Health and president of Thomas Jefferson University

Things are changing when the CEO of a major health system comprising 14 hospitals — soon to be 18 — tosses around phrases like “health care at any address” and says things like, “We want to be the partner for those people who want to thrive without health care getting in the way.”

The definition of an iconoclast is “a person who attacks cherished beliefs and institutions.” So in the truest sense, Steve Klasko, MD, MBA, CEO of Jefferson Health and president of Thomas Jefferson University, is not an iconoclast, because no one cherishes the current health care system.

What he is interested in is breaking down the barriers to innovation that have held the industry back, to the detriment of patients.

Klasko has partnered with successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs — including Hemant Taneja, initial investor in companies like Livongo and Airbnb and author of Unscaled — to reconceive health care.

Klasko muses about breeding the “old math” of traditional academics, inpatient revenue, and in-person tuition with the “new math” of innovation and strategic partnerships. Speaking of Taneja and how his way of looking at the world could inspire a new way of thinking about health care delivery, Klasko wonders aloud, metaphorically, “What if you [new math] and I [old math] got married and had a kid? What would that kid [health care transformation] look like?”

As he sees it, bringing the right partners together is essential. Learn more:

The Key That May Finally Unlock the Door to Health Care Transformation

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President