Knowledge and Experience for Rural Providers Within Reach

Dr. Bryan Scheer co-founded Rural Partners in Medicine in 2010 after being frustrated with the traditional “outreach” model. He felt there was no reason that he could not safely perform most of his orthopedic cases in Critical Access Hospitals, so he pushed back against the model, contracting with individual hospitals to keep their patients and revenue local. Quickly, the demand became larger than what he could supply, so he started recruiting fellow orthopedic surgeons to help.

Since that time, he has worked closely with our hospital partners to hear the needs of their community and grow our service offerings. He is constantly innovating new ways to solve the inequities in rural health care by making specialty care in reach.

David Horsager, MA, CSP, CPAE is the CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute, Trust
Expert in Residence at High Point University, and The Wall Street Journal best-selling
author of The Trust Edge. David has advised leaders and delivered life-changing
presentations on six continents, with audiences ranging everywhere from FedEx, Toyota,
MIT and global governments to the New York Yankees and the Department of Homeland
Security.

Ron Kubit serves as the chief executive officer for TeleNeph.  TeleNeph partners with Rural Hospitals in keeping care local.

TeleNeph provides a clinical end-to-end Nephrology solution, that provides the rural hospital with 24×7 support, a Nephrologist that is licensed and credentialed, Dialysis equipment that is easy to use, a telemedicine platform that is medical grade security, integration – into hospital’s EHR and work with the clinical team in developing proven clinical processes, procedures and the competencies required to deliver quality care locally.

Kubit has a long legacy of creating innovative healthcare solutions here in the US and Canada.  Under his leadership, they developed Tele-radiology, disease/wellness management solutions, ER-pen based solutions, ICU applications and pharmacogenomics decision support application.  Prior to TeleNeph, he was involved in a startup that created a fully automated digital assistant for healthcare documentation.

Not only has he been an entrepreneur, but he has also had executive leadership positions with other healthcare organizations; MedTech Global (New Zealand / Australia) and Consova Corporations as the CEO, and has worked for multinational companies such as Optum, EY as well as EDS, and has lived in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Kubit has a passion for getting involved, where he previously held the position of president of the Colorado Healthcare Strategy Management (CHSM) a professional association, presently a member of the Board of Trustees of Roosevelt University (Chicago, Il.), board member of Movement Disorder Foundation and was a founding board member of No Barriers – www.nobarriersusa.org   He is the past president of the Colorado Neurological Institute, served on the Advisory Board of Daniels Business School – Denver University, and was one of the founding members of the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust – Tanzania.

Dr. Sahani is a leading Nephrologist in where he is involved in exploring innovate solutions in providing quality of care for patients that have CKD.  He is the Chief Medical Officer for TeleNeph and is also the Managing Partner of Desert Kidney Associates in the Phoenix area.  He has expanded their base via Tele Nephrology and is the Chief Medical Officer overseeing 20 physicians, 4 nurse practitioners and 80 employees.

He is also the Clinical Instructor at the Mayo Clinic, Renal Department, Principal Investigator of Clinical Trial Research with Aventiv Research, Inc, and recognized as one of the Top Doctors in Phoenix and has received several Teaching Awards.

His entrepreneurial spirit has him supporting several startup companies and he serves as the Chief Medical Officer of TeleNeph, TeleNeph is focused on supporting Rural Hospitals in keeping patients in the community.  They partner with rural hospitals – adding new revenue growth through an end-to-end clinical nephrology solution.  They help increase the sustainability of the hospital in terms of operating revenue allowing them to provide care to their communities for years to come.  Today, Dr. Sahani supports several CAHs throughout the United States with Tele-Nephrology.

Robert Thorn, MBA, FACHE – Serving as Director within the Strategy and Operations Team at Pinnacle Healthcare Consulting, Robert provides assistance with rural and Critical Access Hospital operations and new services development. He also provides strategic guidance and support for telehealth programs and other services to keep healthcare local. Throughout his career, Robert has held C-suite and other operational and strategic positions on the east and west coasts, and in the Rocky Mountain region, for both large and small healthcare organizations and networks. Robert has also led the development of several “first-to-market” programs, including a Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) in Boulder County (Colorado), rural telehealth programs that became national models for Banner Health, and the tobacco “Quitline” (“1-800-QUIT-NOW”) cessation programs for the States of Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Ohio while at National Jewish Health, the nation’s premier academic medical center for respiratory health. Prior to joining Pinnacle, Robert was Principal at Summit Healthcare Strategies where he served rural and Critical Access Hospitals in both interim CEO and strategic consulting roles, often addressing operational issues, growth opportunities and physician contracting matters. He is a frequent speaker at rural health conferences and to hospital boards on governance and strategy. Robert received his Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, and his MBA from National University in San Diego, California. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE).