Kent Gale, Founder and Chairman, KLAS Enterprises, Chapter 2

If you ask Kent Gale what he thought KLAS would look like in 2016, he envisioned a room with 10 people “high-fiving each other after we got some great information.” What he never imagined was having the CEOs of the top health IT companies flying into town in corporate jets for a summit, or lawyers threatening to shut down his shop. No doubt it’s been quite a ride for the founder of KLAS, has has become an industry presence that is looked upon to rate the best vendors. In this interview, Gale talks about how KLAS was conceptualized, the early tweaks that ended up being game-changers, and how he leveraged his relationships to get providers talking. He also discusses his passion for interoperability, what he loves most about his job, and the role that mission work plays in his life.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2



* 3 advisory boards

* Tackling interoperability — “There was a lot of misinformation.”

* Standardized data sharing

* 11 CEOs in 1 room — “I was grateful they had the courage to do that.”

* Partnering with CHIME on security

* KLAS’ journey — “This is so different from what I ever expected.”



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Bold Statements

It became apparent which vendors really have a passion and an appetite for this, and which ones don’t. The big players really have to share with each other, and the better they share, the quicker the standard gets up to a level that everybody can follow.

Most of those who came got past that barrier and were really engaged and serious about getting this solved. And that was refreshing. It was exciting and I was grateful that they had the courage to do that.

We have all kinds of rules we set and boundaries — it slows everything down, and it’s just wonderful to see vendors who have pure intent really get the job done. And their customers know and believe in them.

It’s just fascinating to think back at how that felt when we knew we were being threatened, and how much better it feels today being accepted by the industry and have providers excited to have us in the mix.

Gamble:  As far as getting the ideas for what topics to cover in the reports, I’m sure you have never-ending stream of ideas, but is there any specific method you use for that — for example, we’re going to tackle this next?

Gale:  Yes, actually. The stream of data that comes in, it’s almost overwhelming — it is overwhelming. We could be asked to do all kinds of things. So we have an advisory board — in fact, we have three of them. Our main advisory board is made up of executives in the industry that give us guidance around that space. We also have a medical equipment and medical imaging advisory board. When you look to the imaging space, it tends to have its own specialty area. And then we have an international advisory board because, based upon the fact that the US is the font of a lot of what happens of the knowledge that goes out in the world, they want to know how the vendors are performing here and how that ties internationally, and so we have an international board. And these executives volunteer to direct us and to critique us, and it’s just fascinating and wonderful to work with these great individuals as they tell us what they think we ought to be doing.

Gamble:  Now, in recent months and maybe a little further back, KLAS has taken up interoperability with the summit and the reports. Obviously this is a really hot topic in the industry. What was it that made you want to focus on that in particular?

Gale:  I think it’s a great subject as you bring it up. Connecting different IT systems, in and of itself, is just really hard because there are so many nuances around o...