The Denver Medical Study Group—History
The Denver Medical Study Group (DMSG) was formed in the summer of 2008 with the purpose of bringing together business professionals who have a significant base of physician clients. This group would meet on a periodic basis to discuss current issues related to the business and professional operation of medical practices in the Denver area.
It wasn’t long before the mission of the original twelve members became “to learn about and discuss issues, cutting edge trends and innovation in the healthcare industry that impact the way healthcare is delivered in Colorado and around the country”.
The reason for this new definition of our mission was that not only were business professionals interested in this but also healthcare providers and their administrative CEOs. The strategy was that the group would identify potential healthcare speakers, both locally and nationally, that were stepping out of their comfort zone professionally and building a better healthcare world.
During the first few years, the venue we used was sufficient to handle the size of our attendees. But the group began to grow quickly as more business and healthcare professionals wanted to learn from our innovative healthcare speakers resulted in the need to seek a larger venue for our meetings.
As a result, a new venue was selected that would handle the growing attendance of our DMSG Community. The group’s census grew from 35 to 100 by moving to the larger conference center. It also gave us audio and video capabilities to enhance the learning opportunity of our attendees. The transition began in early 2012 and has continued to be our preferred venue for our luncheon events.
With the retirement of the DMSG Founder, Chris Hadley, in late 2015 from banking, it was apparent that this was the opportunity to take the organization “to the next level”. The DMSG Advisory Board of twelve members was formed and the organization started a full- time strategy for finding speakers and topics for our members.
As the demand for innovative healthcare strategy increased, we began to get requests from our healthcare providers to have evening events that they could attend. The result was that we were able to add two evening events at local hospital conference centers in 2017 and three evening event in 2018. The addition of evening events was very successful as more healthcare providers were able to attend.
The brainstorming support of the DMSG Advisory Board was and continues to be the key to organizing successful events. We began to ask our attendees to complete surveys about who they wanted to hear from and what topics they wanted to hear about. Their comments created exciting discussions in our Advisory Board meetings and guided the Board to search for speakers and topics that our attendees have asked about.
Soon our DMSG Community had the reputation of being the “leaders in Colorado Healthcare”. If you wanted to meet the “Who’s Who” in healthcare here in Colorado, you attended our meetings. Also, our speakers enjoy speaking to put our group because it is such a diversified audience that is knowledgeable about healthcare issues and challenges. The questions our speakers get are thought provoking and help them to see what our world of healthcare in Colorado is concerned about and interested in.
As one Health System CEO speaker shared with a peer, “there is not another organization in the country that is like the Denver Medical Study Group”. By the end of 2019, the DMSG Community had grown from the original twelve members in 2008 to almost 700 members.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the DMSG went to virtual conferencing while working from home. As a result of being confined or quarantined at home in the spring and summer of that year, our social activities changed dramatically. The Advisory Board was asked to share photos of how their summer was going. One Advisory Board member and his family are seen here enjoying a “drive-in” movie in their driveway at home.
As a result of the COVID pandemic, the DMSG meetings have been virtual, increasing from seven in-person meetings per year in 2019 to almost monthly virtual meetings in 2020 and 2021. Our DMSG Community has grown to over 1000 members including just under 100 across twenty eight states. The largest contingents outside of Colorado are from the East Coast, the Southwest US, the West Coast and Southeast US respectively.
Once we go back to in-person meetings, the strategy is to have a combination of in-person, hybrid and virtual meetings going forward. We have found that the virtual events have allowed for rural Colorado providers and professionals from other states to attend and participate in the DMSG events.
Financial support of the DMSG is greatly appreciated and provided by our Platinum Sponsors including:
If you, your company or organization is interested in a more active relationship with the DMSG, contact Chris Hadley, Founder and President at 303-249-5572 or chris@denvermedicalstudygroup.com