John Adlesich or the ascent of a healthcare executive professional on healthcare industry trends: COVID-19 has exposed vulnerability at health care organizations across the globe on critical issues, including safety, equipment, data availability, and infrastructure. Early on, it became apparent that “going it alone,” in terms of depending on an organization’s own supply lines and capabilities, wasn’t possible. This led to ad hoc collaborations, with providers, suppliers and non-health-care companies jumping in to deliver resources and capacity to address the crisis. Successful organizations will build upon this mindset, finding ways to close gaps and innovate with partners that bring unique skills to solve problems.

John Adlesich on behavior therapy in 2021: VB is another Skinnerian theory that has evolved from ABA that helps children understand how and why we use language. The focus is on using language rather than on the rote learning of words. Use of language to achieve a desired goal is rewarded, even if the word and/or gesture produced is not exact. According to AutismSpeaks.org, VB therapy: Is better suited to encouraging desired behaviors/language rather than eliminating undesired ones Encourages understanding language and communication in order to meet the child’s needs and wants Can be implemented by trained psychologists, speech therapists, teachers, and parents Involves about 30 hours of scheduled therapy weekly but is likely to be more effective when reinforced in all the child’s learning and living domains Uses shaping as a technique, which means that close approximations of the desired behaviors are rewarded and, as those are mastered, the demand for accuracy increases.

John Adlesich about healthcare industry trends in 2021: Democratic control in the Senate will also impact healthcare. For example, Washington state Senator Patty Murray will chair the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. She has advocated for a more robust federal response on COVID-19. And Senator Ron Wyden, Oregon, leads the Finance Committee and has pushed for drug pricing reform and drug price negotiation. These appointments and nominations point to a strong emphasis on COVID-19 recovery and vaccine distribution and coordination. For example, Fauci remains as the Director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, and there’s now a COVID-19 data director (Shahpar), indicating this administration will emphasize data and reporting. Also evident in these appointments is a Biden administration focus on health equity and healthcare disparities—particularly with Nunez-Smith as the first Equity Task Force Chair for COVID-19. John Adlesich currently works as administrator at Marquis Companies. His latest healthcare industry experience includes positions as executive director at Powerback Rehabilitation Lafayette (Genesis Healthcare) between Aug 2020 – Jan 2021, administrator at Mesa Vista of Boulder between Mar 2019 – Aug 2020, chief executive officer at Sedgwick County Memorial Hospital between Jul 2018 – Feb 2019, interim chief operating officer at Toiyabe Indian Health Project between Mar 2018 – Jun 2018.

John Adlesich thinks that 2021 is a crossroads year for the health industry. COVID-19 focused the nation’s attention on the risks associated with overreliance on overseas markets for critical supplies, drugs, and equipment. As an “easy” answer, some are now calling for manufacturers to produce a plurality of medical products domestically. While added domestic investments and expanded US manufacturing capacity are vital components of a holistic strategy for reliable supply, it will be important to strike a balanced approach—one that includes a domestic strategy, but at its core is about diversifying supply, including raw materials, pharmaceutical ingredients, and finished drugs. Achieving this vision requires a surgical approach, starting with identifying the products that are truly needed in an emergency to ensure there isn’t undue concentration in a single country or region. In our view, that means ensuring three or more global suppliers and at least one US-based source readily available to serve the American people. Assessing risk will require new transparency initiatives, requiring manufacturers of critical products to share vital information with government, including supply sources, centers of manufacturing, redundancy and contingency protocols, etc. And all this new information needs a technology backbone that helps government better track product availability, supply chain performance, and sources of supply to predict potential trouble spots in real time during another emergency.