THMA 2026 Medical Conferences

Executive Convening is The Health Management Academy’s in-person Forum platform designed for candid, peer-level dialogue among health system executives and a curated group of industry leaders. Each Forum brings together a balanced mix of decision-makers in small, closed-door settings where industry is included as a participant, not a vendor. The model emphasizes shared learning, relationship development, and long-term partnership rather than short-term sales activity.

Most clinical conferences emphasize presentations, exhibit halls, or product visibility. THMA’s Forums emphasize strategic, cross-functional problem-solving. Sessions are built around live issues affecting service line performance: staffing, access, reimbursement, clinical coordination, technology adoption, and care-model redesign. The structure is deliberately small and interactive, which gives industry members access to real executive thinking rather than surface-level conversations.

Forums typically bring together 25–45 health system executives per service line and an equal number of industry organizations, maintaining a strict 1:1 ratio. Industry companies are limited to two executives per organization to preserve meaningful, balanced dialogue.

Common themes identified across Oncology, Cardiovascular, Orthopedics, CNO/CNE, CPE, and Pharmacy include:

• Persistent margin pressure and cost restructuring
• Workforce shortages across nursing, physicians, APPs, and specialized clinical roles
• Access challenges and service line fragmentation
• Pressure to rationalize service lines, reduce duplication, and strengthen governance
• Growing interest in AI and digital tools that reduce manual work rather than replace clinicians
• Hard choices around what to build, what to outsource, and what to discontinue
• Increasing scrutiny of 340B, Medicaid financing, and site-neutral payments
• Clinical-finance alignment as a prerequisite for care redesign
• Community-based care models, ambulatory expansion, and home-based services

These themes shape nearly every discussion, regardless of service line.

By participating in the same strategic discussions as health systems, industry executives demonstrate that they understand the pressures and constraints service line leaders face daily. Industry members can test their assumptions, refine their value story, and align their offerings to real-world pain points. The relationships formed across these sessions often extend into account management, product strategy, and long-term partnership development.

Sessions focus on the real complexities of running a service line. Examples include:

• Coordinating care across inpatient, ambulatory, and post-acute settings
• Addressing payer policy changes, prior authorization demands, and reimbursement erosion
• Designing leadership pathways for nurses, physicians, APPs, and emerging talent
• Managing capital constraints, technology decisions, and EMR redesign
• Evaluating ambulatory infusion, ASC alignment, or outpatient oncology expansion
• Addressing tension between clinical autonomy and financial accountability
• Improving community access, patient navigation, and referral management

Industry is present as a peer, observing how executives think through these issues and contributing perspective when appropriate.

Industry attendees can expect:

• Direct insight into service line priorities and pain points
• Relationships with decision-makers that typically take years to establish
• A refined understanding of how health systems evaluate partnerships and solutions
• A more informed commercial strategy built on executive-level input
• Increased credibility with existing accounts and prospects
• Opportunities to participate in shared-value conversations rather than transactional meetings

Most members view these Forums as a cornerstone touchpoint for account planning and strategic relationship development.

Companies that benefit most are those with solutions tied to:

• Clinical workflow and care-team efficiency
• Access improvement, scheduling optimization, or navigation
• Workforce stabilization, training, development, or retention
• Care-model redesign in oncology, cardiovascular, orthopedic, or procedural care
• Pharmacy strategy, infusion operations, specialty drug management, or 340B impact
• AI tools that reduce administrative burden or enhance decision-making
• Population health or value-based care alignment
• Revenue integrity, reimbursement support, or clinical-finance coordination

The common thread is the ability to engage on service line priorities, not product features.

Industry companies are selected based on their alignment with health system priorities, their ability to contribute to peer dialogue, and their commitment to partnership-based engagement. THMA limits participation to organizations that can speak credibly about service line challenges and avoid sales-centric interactions.

Agendas are shaped by continuous input from health system members throughout the year, supported by debriefs, peer learning sessions, and policy updates. Topics are selected based on current pressures, emerging risks, and shared operational needs across health systems. This ensures that each Forum addresses the issues members are actively navigating.

Effective preparation typically includes:

• Reviewing the service line’s recent trends and pressures
• Aligning internally on a target relationship list
• Bringing a point of view on issues such as access, workforce, reimbursement, or care-model redesign
• Understanding where your solution supports clinical effectiveness or operational efficiency
• Planning how to carry Forum insights back into commercial or product strategy

The most successful participants approach these Forums as strategic working sessions, not prospecting events.

Our focused medical events complement the broader CFO, COO, CIO, and CEO Forums by giving service-line leaders a dedicated space to explore clinical and operational issues in depth. Many organizations participate in multiple Forums concurrently, creating meaningful visibility across an entire health system’s leadership structure. Industry members leverage this cross-forum perspective to strengthen account strategies and align solutions across the enterprise.