Medical Travel Today (MTT): For the sake of our readers who may not be familiar with the Adaptive Business Leaders (ABL), can you give us a brief history of the organization and a sense of your mission?

Mimi Grant (MG): We actually started in 1983 as the Southern California Technology Executives Network (S0/CAL/TEN). Back in the early 1980s, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs – because their offices were so close together – could catch up in coffee shops and bars, talking about what they were doing. But there wasn’t really a forum for Southern California-based entrepreneurs to exchange best practices – because they tended to be so spread out. Around that same time there was a white paper written by two Ph.D.s on the critical success factors for Southern California-based tech entrepreneurs. From that research, SO/CAL/TEN emerged as a place where people could come together and discuss what was taking place. So within a couple of years we had three technology Round Tables. Then in the late 1980s things evolved and some of the CEOs of medical technology companies who’d joined the Network wanted to be talking not just with tech folks, but also with payers and providers. The first thing we did was to really create two arms of the organization – technology and healthcare – so as to provide a more meaningful focus for all of our members, since our board recognized that typical hospital CEOs wouldn’t see themselves as technologists. That’s when we decided to change the name to be more inclusive. And having been through the crash of 1987 we realized you had to be adaptive to survive – hence the name: Adaptive Business Leaders Organization. At this point our mission is to provide a confidential forum where members can come together for monthly half-day sessions to hear major trends beyond their businesses and get candid feedback in terms of critical success factors and best practices. Right now we have 160+ active members in both arms of the organization. MTT: What’s the nature of the roles most of your members hold in their organizations? MG: By our own board edict, members must have P&L responsibility, requiring them to be a CEO, chief operating officer or general division manager. I’d say 95 percent or more of our members are presidents or CEOs or both. However, we did just start our first Leadership Round Table for chief experience officers. It’s our smallest Table, designed as a training ground for future CEOs of healthcare organizations. It’s an exciting group, with most being direct reports to member CEOs, and all having been referred by their CEO. We think it will be very helpful in terms of leadership development, and our members seem excited about it. MTT: Can you describe a typical Round Table? MG: To be honest, there is no typical Round Table. Every Round Table has a different composition, and different people bring different issues to the discussion. It’s really interesting to watch how the composition of the group changes the direction of the discussion. It’s largely driven by the concerns of those attending and the knowledge that each brings to the Table. It can be quite fascinating to watch – let alone facilitate! MTT: I’m just amazed that all these high level folks are willing to talk so candidly about their business. MG: Well, we do have a required confidentiality statement that every member must sign. Basically it states that anything of a confidential nature that’s discussed doesn’t leave the room. So, for example, if we’re talking about the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the general information that’s shared can certainly be discussed elsewhere, but if the conversation moves into specifics of how an organization will be implementing changes, that’s not going anywhere. MTT: I’m curious, apart from basic content, are the healthcare and technology groups different in other ways? MG: Oh yes. For the past 20 years, it’s become clear that the issues on the healthcare side are much more externally driven. Much of that has to do with the third party payer system. So much is impacted by the payer community – whether it’s governmental or third-party – it’s really all about who is paying for patient care. Discussions about what’s going on with health insurance exchanges, the ACA, etc. Those are much more germane to our members. Those are the types of trends we talk about in those sessions, versus key business drivers that are the core of our technology discussions. That said, we do have quarterly events designed to appeal to both sectors of our membership. MTT: You mentioned discussions about the ACA. Can you tell us about that discussion – the key areas of concern or activity – and the group’s overall feelings about the impact of reform on their business? MG: What’s interesting and showed up in our recent survey is that member providers are very bullish on ACA – they would generally say healthcare needs to be reformed. Where things get divided is in the discussion of how it should be reformed. It’s clear there’s lots to love about ACA and lots to not love. Provider positioning in response has been a big focus of discussion. There’s seemingly no end to the permutations of how various organizations are dealing with it. The medical deviceCEOs are much less enthusiastic. For example, one member recently sold his company, after all of the company’s development and sales took place in Europe. From his point of view, that’s a tragedy. Even though the investors did very well, because of the regulatory environment in this country, this life-saving device won’t reach the US public in a timely manner. The beneficiaries, beyond the investors, are elsewhere in the world. MTT: Is medical travel a topic that your members are aware of or have discussed in your Round Tables? MG: It is on their radar. We have done several Round Tables on it throughout the State. One member’s technology is being used at UCLA where they are reading Chinese pathology slides. It’s almost “virtual medical tourism,” where information about the patient, but not the patients themselves, travel elsewhere for care. I think we’ll see more diagnostics handled that way. And I think patients will demand it. We’ve already seen websites like “PatientsLikeMe” creating demand for different treatment options among patients. Why not different diagnostics? So I think there will be a lot of virtual medical tourism. As for employers, I think those that are self-insured and small employers that are fully-insured are recognizing that they do have responsibility for employees’ health, not just in terms of providing insurance to cover them when something goes wrong, but also providing options to help them be healthier. Wellness programs – things like encouraging walking and better nutrition – I see employers getting much more involved in this area. Ultimately this takes us one step closer to more total care. Eventually we may find the employer saying to the employee ‘you’re not well and the best place for the care you need is not here, but across the country or even the ocean.’ I don’t think it’s that far of a reach. About Mimi Grant For over 25 years, Mimi has facilitated ABL’s monthly Round Tables and membership-wide events, where members exchange high-level insights, connections, and practical ideas for each member’s profitable growth. In addition to shaping the company’s strategic direction, Mimi is the publisher of ABL Online, a weekly electronic newsletter to help ABL members stay on the cutting-edge of the issues that can most significantly impact their businesses. Mimi took responsibility for ABL’s nascent Healthcare division in 1990, when it had 14, Los Angeles-based members. Over the years, she’s been responsible for growing ABL’s monthly Healthcare Round Tables, which are now held in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and San Diego. Additionally, she is responsible for most of ABL’s special events, including Innovations in HealthcareSM. She began her career by facilitating ABL’s founding technology-focused Round Tables and directing their conference activities in 1985 (when it was called SO/CAL/TEN), which has enabled her to be positioned at the nexus point of tech-enabled healthcare ever since.