Healthcare Strategy and Innovation: Service Lines, Integrated Care Networks and Value – London, 18–22 Jan 2027

Programme overview

Introduction:

Healthcare strategy is often written as a list of buildings and equipment, while demand shifts toward chronic conditions, payers move from fee-for-service toward value-based payment and virtual care redraws catchment areas. Service lines grow without a portfolio view, partnerships are signed without a network logic and digital projects run apart from the strategic plan. This Core Concept course equips hospital and health-system executives to analyse population needs, set service-line and network choices, shape virtual care and innovation strategy and steer execution. Participants produce a Health System Strategic Plan with a Service-Line Portfolio.

Course Objectives:

• Assess health system models, payment reforms and value-based health care to position a hospital or network strategically
• Analyse population health needs, catchment share, referral flows and competing providers to define where the organisation should compete
• Set service-line portfolio and long-range capacity choices to grow, consolidate or exit clinical services
• Evaluate alliances, joint ventures and integrated care network models for specialist and community services
• Shape digital health, virtual care and clinical innovation strategy with clear adoption and scale-up gates
• Steer execution through a hospital balanced scorecard and a Health System Strategic Plan ready for board review

Target Audience:

• Executives accountable for the strategy of a hospital, hospital group or health system
• Heads of strategy, planning and business development in healthcare providers
• Service-line and clinical division directors responsible for growth and portfolio decisions
• Medical and nursing executives who sit on strategy and investment committees
• Digital health and innovation executives who set virtual care and technology direction
• Board members and trustees of healthcare organisations who approve strategic plans

Course Outline:

Day 1: Health System Models, Value and the Strategic Context

• Health System Financing Archetypes: Tax-Funded, Social Insurance and Mixed Models
• Value-Based Health Care: Outcomes per Unit of Cost as Porter and Teisberg Define It
• Payment Model Shift: Fee-for-Service, Bundled Payments and Outcome-Linked Contracts at Overview
• Demand Drivers: Ageing Populations, Chronic Disease Burden and Clinical Workforce Constraints
• Hospital Strategic Position Current-State Diagnostic

Day 2: Strategic Analysis for Health Organisations

• Population Health Needs Assessment with Patient Registries and Risk Stratification
• Catchment Area Definition and Market Share Analysis by Specialty
• Referral Pattern Mapping and Referral Leakage Analysis
• Competing Provider Profiles and Competitive Intensity Assessment
• Service-Line Portfolio Matrix: Growth, Margin Contribution and Strategic Fit

Day 3: Service-Line Strategy, Capacity and Integrated Care Networks

• Service-Line Growth, Consolidation and Exit Decision Criteria
• Long-Range Demand Projection and Facility Master Plan Scenarios
• Integrated Care Networks: Hub-and-Spoke Models and Care Pathway Integration
• Partnership Options: Clinical Alliances, Joint Ventures, Affiliations and Mergers
• Make, Partner or Buy Assessment for Specialist Services

Day 4: Digital Health, Clinical Innovation and Strategy Execution Risks

• Digital Health Strategy Aligned with the WHO Global Strategy on Digital Health
• Virtual Care Modalities: Live Video, Store-and-Forward, Remote Patient Monitoring and Mobile Health
• Clinical Innovation Adoption: Evidence Review, Pilot Design and Scale-Up Gates
• Hospital Balanced Scorecard: Patient, Clinical, Financial and People Perspectives
• Strategic Failure Cases: Troubled Mergers, Stranded Capacity and Stalled Digital Programmes

Day 5: Health System Case Work and the Strategic Plan

• Case Study: Regional Network Choosing Between Expansion and Partnership
• Case Study: Virtual Care Service Scale-Up Decision for a Hospital Group
• Scorecard and Initiative Portfolio Build for an Own Organisation
• Health System Strategic Plan and Service-Line Portfolio Drafting
• Board Strategy Committee Review and Plan Defence

Skills You Will Gain:

• Health System Model Assessment
• Population Needs Analysis
• Referral Leakage Analysis
• Service-Line Portfolio Management
• Integrated Care Network Design
• Virtual Care Strategy
• Clinical Innovation Scaling
• Hospital Scorecard Governance

Why Attend This Course:

• Return with a Health System Strategic Plan and Service-Line Portfolio for your organisation, challenged by a board-style panel
• Decide which clinical services to grow, share with partners or stop, based on population need and referral evidence
• Prepare the organisation for payment models that reward outcomes rather than activity
• Compare strategy choices with executives from public, private, academic and non-profit health systems

Conclusion:

Hospitals and health systems succeed strategically when they choose which populations they serve, which services they lead, which they share with partners and how digital care extends their reach. The course moves from health system models and value-based health care, through population needs, catchment, referral and competitor analysis, to service-line portfolio, capacity and network choices, then to digital health, virtual care, clinical innovation and hospital scorecards. The final day applies this to network cases and produces a Health System Strategic Plan with a Service-Line Portfolio.