SI History, Mission and Vision

SHARING A COMMON CAUSE 

A not-for-profit, health system membership organization, the Scottsdale Institute advances healthcare’s digital transformation within an equitable, consumer-centered, community health framework via collaboration, education and networking. Comprising over 60 not-for-profit health systems and academic medical centers, Members connect through intentionally small, authentic and informal forums. For today’s most pressing issues, SI brings the right audiences together to address healthcare’s urgent and long-term challenges.

  • Mission: Inspire and convene thought-leading Member health systems and their partners to leverage information and technology to create effective, affordable and equitable healthcare centered on whole person care.
  • Vision: The trusted, preeminent healthcare membership organization that convenes senior executives to share expertise around technology-enabled, care delivery solutions.
  • Purpose: Gather the right people to discuss the right topics at the right moment.
  • Value Pillars: Collaboration • Education • Networking

IMAGINING THE FUTURE

SI was born in 1993 as the brainchild of Stan Nelson, recently retired CEO of Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital (now Henry Ford Health). Stan and fellow Minnesotan Don Wegmiller, who served as CEO at Allina Health, founded SI as an executive organization of leading health systems to share best practices in information technology (IT).

Stan was a visionary: He anticipated the development of hospitals into integrated health systems and strategic community collaborators, especially regarding physicians, and that vision convinced him that senior healthcare executives needed to embrace IT sooner rather than later. While not technically savvy himself—he joked that he and Don didn’t know how to spell “IT”—Stan’s advice was simple: Find the right people and it will all work out. And it has. SI celebrated 30 years of growth in 2023, and continues to reflect Stan and Don’s collegial nature and innovative thinking in its mission to convene top executives as they envision and prepare for healthcare advancements and the role IT will play in them.

Resources

SI’s three pillars are Collaboration, Education and Networking…so all of our resources offer Members myriad ways to connect, learn and grow.

WEBINARS

SI offers over 100 content-rich Webinars and Fireside Chats yearly that are accessible to Member and Sponsor associates, including non-employed staff physicians. Delivered by industry thought leaders, top executives and IT innovators, SI Webinars and Fireside Chats last year provided a convenient and cost-effective learning environment to 17,000 Member associates.

CONFERENCES AND SUMMITS

Our Annual Conference fosters face-to-face interaction among executive peers and other industry leaders. Rated highly and backed by repeat attendance, SI conferences aim for an informal educational experience and open dialogue for collaboration and networking.

Summits are small work groups targeted to specific audiences or to address leading issues.

PUBLICATIONS

SI produces reports, industry thought leader interviews, and topical reporting and analysis relevant to our mission of supporting healthcare transformation through information technology. Our Summit White Papers and Roundtable Reports reflect the output of small group working sessions.  Our Industry Inside Edge  consists of focused conversations with a handful of industry leaders and concluding analysis and the  CEO Viewpoint profiles industry thought leaders.

IT BENCHMARKING

SI IT Benchmarking is a unique national program for Member and non-Member organizations to create normalized comparisons of IT costs, structure and operations with self-selected cohorts. The database is designed for one-on-one comparisons — not industry-wide averages — and participation is easy and free of charge.  IT Benchmarking is available to everyone.

SI ROAD MAP

The Scottsdale Institute is pleased to share our 2025 025 Annual Road Map. Navigating the Unknown: Finding Answers to the Questions We Are Learning to Ask which serves as our thought-leadership guide to shape next year’s conversations within SI’s trusted community of peers.

Earlier this Fall, SI held a series of meetings with its 40+ Advisors, who comprise SI Members, Sponsors, Board Members, industry experts and more. Both their insights & curiosity along with their excitement & trepidation about the advances in our industry balanced with the pace of change inspired this year’s Road Map which challenges us to ask tough questions and collaborate on novel solutions.

We recognize that now, more than ever, your access to SI’s trusted community of peer advisors can be the compass you need to navigate the unknown. As you review the 2025 Opportunities & Challenges, be inspired to reach out to our team with your ideas for topics, experts and ideas to guide our 2025 webinars, Summits and Annual Conference.

Learn More about SI
Member Liaison
Andrew Rosenberg of Michigan Medicine
Andrew Rosenberg, MD
Chief Information Officer, Michigan Medicine
"SI and its many educational opportunities is the single best professional development organization I can think of for the broad IT, health care and policy related digital and information services that we face in academic health centers."
SI Faculty

Webinar, Affinity Group Dialogue Hosts, Affinity Group Summit Participants and those featured in Publications and as Conference Speakers.

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