Atlas Healthcare Partners

Ryan Aldridge

Aldridge has over 15 years of experience driving revenue and enterprise growth with an emphasis on business development, healthcare sales, territory management, strategic market growth, contract negotiation, client relationship development, and medical technology.

Please tell us about the journey that you’ve had so far and your roles and responsibilities at Atlas Healthcare Partners.

I began my career in med-technology with Medtronic in 2009, focusing on neuromodulation and working with spine, pain, and orthopedic surgeons. However, I kept pursuing my studies and completed my MBA in 2017. During this timeframe, the increase in outpatient surgeries resulted in the dramatic growth of the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) industry. Realizing this shift, I joined Atlas Healthcare Partners as the senior director of business development and led their physician sales team.

Today, I am the senior vice president of strategy and growth, spearheading the organization to new heights of progress through health system joint ventures. In addition, I supervise the team that collaborates with surgeons to introduce new service lines and technologies to the surgery centers. I also collaborate with chief strategy officers in health systems to help develop their outpatient service line strategies and create a network of value-based care surgery centers. Our company engages with surgeons and leaders, focusing on technology trends to drive increased volume growth.

What are the recent trends you are currently witnessing in the ASC space?

Technology in the ASC and outpatient surgery space is emerging rapidly in areas, such as cardiovascular, spine, and orthopedics. Cardiovascular procedures are gaining approval for peripheral coronary intervention (PCI) using stenting and intravenous ultrasound (IVUS).

Orthopedics is seeing a surge in custom measurements and robotics to move total joint procedures completely out of hospitals into surgery centers. Better technology and devices, such as Stryker’s Mako robot, are enabling these advancements.

Minimally invasive spine procedures, such as the Vertiflex technique offered by Boston Scientific, are gaining popularity as an alternative to lumbar fusion surgery in the spine. It is a minimally invasive decompression procedure compared to the traditional orthopedic lumbar methods.

These innovations enable patients to move from hospitals to surgical centers, offering predictable surgery durations and reducing the risk of hospital-acquired infections. As a result, there’s a clear migration and redistribution of value, revenue, and expenditures in healthcare from hospitals to surgery centers.

How do you see the ASC space evolving in the next few years?

I believe that surgery, like other medications, will continue to advance. Traditionally, healthcare has been about patients and clinicians traveling to their healthcare facilities. ASCs benefit both physicians and patients by eliminating the need for hospital visits and allowing patients to have their surgeries performed closer to their homes with family members present.

The expansion of ambulatory service lines and ASCs will shift the healthcare delivery enterprise closer to the patient community. Clinics will be located closer to patient population centers, resulting in greater convenience and overall patient satisfaction. This will also contribute to lower costs, finding suitable surgeons, leveraging cutting-edge technology, and improving service quality, which is the ultimate quadruple aim of healthcare.

We anticipate more single-specialty or limited-specialty surgery centers that offer the continuum of treatment for a disease condition for a specific patient population. These will foster ecosystems of like-minded professionals in each region, allowing patients to be served where they reside.

What would be a piece of advice for your peers and aspiring professionals in the industry?

Healthcare and operating rooms are undergoing significant transformation due to emerging medical and digital technologies like AI and augmented reality. It’s crucial for businesses to adapt and embrace this change, as fighting against it may lead to cannibalization by new market entrants. Embracing this shift from hospitals to community-based healthcare can be painful in the short term, but it will set businesses up for long-term success.