BETTER
AN OPTIMISTIC FUTURE FOR HEALTHCARE
betagammasigma.org
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by Alexandria Graff, BGS Communications Manager
MD, MBA, and the president and CEO at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health in Philadelphia. Klasko is, of course, a doctor and businessman. He’s also an innovator, teacher, and humanitarian. We like to call him a futurist, too. Sure, the term gets tossed around as a fancy platitude these days, and it’s not one of Dr. Klasko’s official titles—but it’s one we think fits him perfectly. Here’s how Brian David Johnson, an actual futurist in residence at the Center for Science and Innovation at Arizona State University, aptly describes the work of a futurist in his recent interview for The Gist podcast: “As a futurist, I work with organizations and groups of people who need to make decisions today that may not pay off for ten, fifteen, twenty years in the future. And so I work with them to model the future and figure out what steps they need to take to get to the future they want—but also to avoid the future they don’t want. “It is a mix of social science, of technical research, of economic models. I use some cultural history, because history is the onramp to the future.” While Mr. Johnson’s work differs from Dr. Klasko’s in detail, their approach to realizing a brighter future is the same. Stephen Klasko is not only reimagining the healthcare system, he’s changing it everyday through that mix of science, economics, and sociology. He summarized it this way in a recent interview with Beta Gamma Sigma’s Glennon Williams: “What things are going to be obvious ten years from now that we can do today? That’s going to be key.” Dr. Klasko graduated from Lehigh University with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology, went on to earn his MD from Hahnemann University of Philadelphia, opened a private practice in obstetrics and gynecology, and then completed an MBA at the Wharton School. “I didn’t want a healthcare MBA because I didn’t want to learn from the same people who had messed up the system,” says Dr. Klasko. “So by taking a traditional MBA, I was there to learn what other industries had done to get out of a malaise, what other industries had done to reform.” What did Klasko do with this obvious ambition and the bona fides to back it up? Exactly what a true futurist would do: analyze, plan, initiate, and improve.
Stephen Klasko is the 2016 Beta Gamma Sigma International Honoree. This award is presented to individuals who demonstrate outstanding business and managerial leadership. More importantly, the International Honoree embodies the values of Beta Gamma Sigma: honor, integrity, wisdom, earnestness, and service— qualities Dr. Klasko brings to his work in healthcare.