A Message of Thanks for 2014

Another year has blown by us and winter is knocking at our door as we (at least in the US) prepare to give Thanks. Now, before each of you embarks on the annual adventure to gastronomical gorging with family, friends, and and/or assorted loved ones, we would like to take a moment to reflect on and share what we are thankful for.

We are a tight-knit group here at Chilmark Research and with the transparency that comes from small teams, we have great expectations of our colleagues. We prop each other up, and push each other to deliver some of the best insights in the industry. Our shared vision that effective deployment and use of IT can improve the quality of care delivered and ultimately the patient experience drives us forward.

So, for starters, we are immensely thankful for the group of smart, funny, witty, and driven individuals that come together under the Chilmark Research banner, both past and present. Without this team of passionate research analysts, we simply would not be able to provide the breadth and depth of research that we do today. Our hope in the coming year is to further expand this team with extremely bright, dedicated individuals that want to make a difference. This industry sector sorely needs good research and we intend to deliver it.

While we work hard to provide some of the most in-depth, industry analysis available through our various reports, all of that work would not be possible without the assistance of countless others. Over the course of a year, we engaged with literally hundreds of individuals who are deep in the trenches of healthcare IT. Your contributions to our research, whether through a comment to one of our posts, chatting with us at an industry event, participation in one of our research efforts or providing conversational feedback via Twitter and other social media are invaluable. Thank you all for your engagement with us and the insights you have provided – it is invaluable to our research and hopefully, in the process, we have been able to give something back. 

Back to those reports. Like any company, we must generate revenue to stay in business and provide for ourselves. Our primary revenue stream is two fold, both related to the production of our content. A couple years ago, we began offering the Chilmark Advisory Service (CAS), which has been a great success. Between the CAS offering and a la carte report sales, we are empowered to continue writing, continue working, and continue eating – not to mention changing healthcare in our own way.

Therefore, without our clients, we would be nothing. Well, maybe that is putting it a little too harshly, but we certainly would not be thriving and being able to continually expand our coverage. A gigantic thank you therefore goes out to our many clients past, present and those still to come who believe in us, find value in our research and provide the support necessary for us to grow.

Finally, and not by any means the least, we are incredibly appreciative to have entered into this market just in time for such dynamic change. This is an incredibly exciting time to be working in any aspect of healthcare. Whole-genome sequencing costs are dropping in price exponentially, our ability to manipulate viruses to deliver drugs is almost mainstream, the Internet of Things is creating analytics opportunities everywhere, and we are now seeing a similar level of excitement and new thinking brought to the way healthcare could be transformed for the better. As a Star Trek family, the ideal was instilled at an early age. We are thankful to be working in this sector when so much that was science fiction in our youths has become science fact, with more on the horizon.

Happy Thanksgiving all of you. Remember – there is always something to be thankful for, and it is grand to have a day dedicated to appreciate that fact. 

Safe travels wherever they may take you.