Rural Spotlight

February 6, 2026

Webinar: Advancing Primary Care: Workforce Challenges, Policy Shifts, and the Role of AI, March 3

Primary care is entering a pivotal moment of evolution. Persistent workforce shortages, rising costs, and uneven access, felt most acutely in rural and underserved communities continue to be significant challenges driving the need to make a change. According to the Healthcare Spending Survey, 42% of Americans have skipped needed medications due to cost, and 58% could not afford an ambulance if needed – compounding staffing shortages in underserved areas and accelerating the need for new care delivery models.

At the same time, policymakers are advancing funding models and regulatory shifts designed to strengthen and modernize primary care. For health systems, this convergence creates a rare opportunity to address long-standing challenges while building more resilient, scalable models for the future.

This webinar explores how people, policy, and emerging technologies, specifically AI, are converging to reshape the future of primary care. Automating administrative tasks with AI has already shown to reduce clinician cognitive load and free up time for patient care. Imagine how primary care might transform further with agentic AI as an extension of the care team.

Join the discussion and:

• Gain insight into the latest primary care workforce and cost trends, and discuss why adding headcount won’t solve all the challenges,
• Understand how recent and proposed policy initiatives, including expanded ACA funding, rural health transformation programs, and national AI-focused deregulation efforts are shaping the care landscape,
• Distinguish critical differences between generative and agentic AI, as we explain why that difference matters for operational scalability, and
• Learn about practical use cases that reduce administrative burden, support clinicians, and extend care capacity.

Designed for healthcare executives and innovation leaders, this session will provide a pragmatic roadmap for leveraging policy tailwinds and AI-enable solutions to strengthen primary care, building a more sustainable foundation for the future.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, March 3, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

February 6, 2026

Webinar: From Pilot to Proof: Building Virtual Health Programs That Pay Back, February 27

Virtual pilots often start with clear objectives, but too few deliver lasting value. Many stall, without clear exit criteria, measurable impact or alignment.

This session brings together leaders from Carilion Clinic, Keck Medicine of USC, Presbyterian Healthcare Services, and Nuvance/Northwell Health to share how they’re redesigning pilots to ensure success is defined, measured and achieved.

Insights include:

• How leading systems define pilot exit criteria, value metrics and scale readiness,
• Strategies for converting workflow wins into measurable labor + cost impact, and
• Lessons from pilots that turned into high-ROI, systemwide programs.

Cost: Free

When: Friday, February 27, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

February 6, 2026

Webinar: Inside OHSU’s Approach to Data-Driven Perioperative Staffing, March 18

Manual staffing processes and limited visibility into staff experience are quietly draining perioperative capacity across health systems.

Oregon Health & Science University faced these same challenges across 53 operating rooms. Leaders struggled with reactive staffing decisions, time-intensive coordination and inconsistent team assignments that made it harder to use staffed rooms effectively.

In this webinar, OHSU perioperative leaders share how they shifted from manual workflows to a data-driven staffing approach that improved utilization, strengthened team consistency and reclaimed more than 25 hours per week previously spent on staffing coordination.

Hear directly from OHSU leaders about what worked, what required change management and how they measured impact across perioperative services.

Attendees will learn:

• How OHSU reclaimed 25-plus hours per week from manual staffing coordination,
• Why improved visibility into staff experience matters for accurate assignments,
• How predictive analytics reduced last-minute staffing changes, and
• What drove a 5% improvement in staffed room utilization and 30% improvement in cross-training opportunities.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, March 18, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

February 6, 2026

Webinar: Stop the $1.2M Bleed: A Proven Roadmap to Physician Retention, February 12

Every physician departure costs health systems up to $1.2 million in recruitment, onboarding and lost productivity. For high-volume specialists, that number can be even higher. Yet many hospitals still lack a structured plan to improve engagement and retain clinical talent.

In this live session, Scott Polenz – a former hospital CEO and vice president of physician relations – shares practical, data-informed strategies to build trust, strengthen alignment and reduce turnover across the physician workforce.

You’ll learn:

• How to assess the financial impact of physician attrition and retention efforts,
• A step-by-step approach to aligning physicians with organizational culture and goals, and
• Practical tools to implement and sustain engagement strategies systemwide.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, February 12, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

February 6, 2026

MHA Webinar: Introduction to an Exclusive Human Milk Diet, February 24

An Exclusive Human Milk Diet is a nutritional approach for preterm infants that exclusively uses human milk, either mothers’ own milk or donor human mild, along with human milk-based fortifiers. It excludes all cows’ milk-based products, including cow milk-based fortifiers, formula or liquid protein, as well as any nonhuman components such as MCT oil. EHMD is designed to meet the unique nutritional needs of very low birth weight infants while protecting them from serious complications of prematurity and improving long-term outcomes.

Objectives:

Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:

• List three outcomes that are better in patients who had an EHMD, and
• State two components of human milk that retain bioactivity or bioavailability in human milk-based fortifiers.

Audience:

• Neonatologists,
• NICU nurses and staff,
• Registered dietitians,
• NICU managers,
• Hospital administrators,
• Obstetricians,
• Maternal-fetal medicine specialists,
• Pediatric surgeons,
• Pediatric cardiologists,
• PCICU nurses and staff

Cost: Complimentary to all attendees

When: Tuesday, February 24, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Learn More and Register

February 6, 2026

Whitepaper: The State of Search: AI Implications and Actionable Strategies for Healthcare Marketers

AI does not just summarize healthcare information – it decides which brands to surface, cite and trust.

As patients increasingly turn to Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and other AI platforms to research symptoms and compare options, many health systems are losing visibility long before a click ever happens. Rankings alone no longer determine success.

“The state of search” explores how AI is reshaping patient discovery and why healthcare is being hit harder than most industries. It introduces AI brand presence, which is a new way to understand how often, where and how your organization appears in AI-generated results.

Inside the report, marketing leaders will learn:

• How patients move between search engines and AI platforms when initiating a care journey,
• Why authority, structure and consistency now natter more than traditional SEO tactics,
• How leading health systems are earning citations and positive sentiment in AI responses, and
• What marketers should do now to protect visibility as search becomes more conversational and fragmented.

Click Here to Download Whitepaper