Nursing shortage, shifting technologies, dropping reimbursement, conflicting advice, too much information – want a better handle on all this?

How are you educating your board, your top staff, your department heads, your employees, about the risks and opportunities of the future, the “what ifs” and the “how-tos,” the stuff on the horizon and the stuff that’s on their plate right now? Are you taking a few of them to a few conferences a year? Having a speaker in now and then? What if there was a faster, better, cheaper way to do it. Something more inclusive? More continual? More customizable? More interactive, involving, challenging?

Take a frank look at your education budget, and tell me: Wouldn’t you like to give that a shot?

Here’s why I am asking: I have engaged some of the top web talent around, and a team of healthcare thinkers and experienced executives, to help me build the world’s best online education and problem-solving environment for people who run healthcare organizations. We’ll be up and running a beta version by early 2005. We hope to be running in full mode by the spring. And you have the opportunity to get involved early, at special “Founders” prices.

Too busy for a “message board” full of random gab? Too focused to read “blogs?” We’re reading your mind. We’ve taken these ordinary web environments and tweaked them, added to them, trimmed them, simplified them, focused them, to create a learning and brainstorming environment so unique we are applying for a patent. Take a look...

Would it be valuable to you if you could present a problem to hundreds of your peers – even anonymously – and hear what they would do?
What would it be worth to you if you could query a panel of relevant technical experts, futurists, and consultants for a quick email answer to a pressing question?
How important is it to be able to cut through the mass of information and find just the information and judgments that you need – now?

This concept has a tremendous amount of value to executives who are seeking advice, information or someone to have a dialogue with on a certain challenge the organization is facing. . . . The ability to talk with hundreds of fellow executives that are facing or have solved a problem we are facing is fantastic. It allows the executive who is seeking information, options and solutions to be able to make more informed decisions. This data and information should be made available to all in a leadership role as well as perhaps all employees. The more we educate our employees the more we are able to leverage their talents and skills that will allow us to meet and be prepared for the future.

Ron Franzen, Chief Operating Officer, St. Luke’s Healthcare, Duluth, MN