Retainer
Advisory Retainer
Fractional interoperability leadership without the full-time hire.
Ongoing senior review of architecture, compliance decisions, vendor dependencies, and integration risk — so your technical interoperability and AI leadership stays on track without adding a full-time role.
Best for teams with active interoperability complexity that need ongoing senior oversight, not a fixed-scope implementation engagement.
BUILT IN REAL CLINICAL ENVIRONMENTS
Oversight shaped by production healthcare delivery
This work is grounded in real-world interoperability delivery across regulated systems, EHR integrations, compliance-heavy workflows, and production clinical operations.
Who this is for
The Retainer is designed for teams that need senior interoperability leadership on an ongoing basis — without the overhead of a full-time hire.
- Teams operating in complex health-tech environments with multiple EHR partners or standards
- Organizations that completed a diagnostic or accelerator and want continued senior oversight
- Companies scaling into regulated environments where architecture decisions need ongoing review
- Teams without a senior interoperability leader who can guide vendor and compliance decisions
- Organizations navigating vendor relationships, compliance reviews, or evolving regulatory requirements
Problems this solves
Architecture decisions without senior review
Integration and infrastructure decisions are being made without someone who’s seen how those choices play out in production across regulated environments.
Compliance drift
New integrations, infrastructure updates, and team turnover are introducing gaps you haven’t quantified since the last audit.
Vendor coordination complexity
EHR vendor relationships, onboarding timelines, and technical requirements across partners are consuming engineering bandwidth that should go to product work.
No interoperability leadership without a full-time hire
You need senior judgment on architecture, compliance, and AI strategy — but not enough to justify a $250K+ full-time role.
What ongoing support includes
Architecture & technical review
Bi-weekly sessions on integration architecture, infrastructure decisions, and system design — before they become production debt.
Vendor & EHR coordination
Onboarding support, requirements alignment, and escalation management across EHR partners.
Compliance & risk oversight
Quarterly posture reviews, remediation tracking, regulatory updates, and active risk register maintenance.
Roadmap & prioritization
Quarterly strategic reviews to align interoperability and AI priorities with business milestones.
Escalation & incident support
On-call availability for integration-related production issues and time-sensitive vendor decisions.
AI & automation guidance
NLP, RAG, agentic pipeline strategy, and de-identification decisions as your data landscape evolves.
What stays under active review
What stays under active review — the ongoing value that compounds month over month.
- Architecture decisions reviewed before they become production debt
- Vendor and partner decisions supported with technical context and risk framing
- Active risk register and governance trail — maintained and updated quarterly
- Compliance posture reviewed as integrations, infrastructure, and team evolve
- Roadmap and priority alignment across interoperability, AI, and business milestones
- Escalation path for time-sensitive integration and vendor issues
- Continuity across interoperability and AI decisions — no context loss between quarters
Engagement rhythm
Onboarding & baseline
Review your integration landscape, compliance posture, and near-term priorities. This sets the baseline for ongoing advisory work.
Ongoing rhythm
Bi-weekly sessions on architecture, compliance, vendor coordination, and strategic priorities. Available on Slack and email between sessions for time-sensitive decisions.
Quarterly review
Assess progress, update the risk register, review compliance posture, and reprioritize based on what’s changed in your business and technology landscape.
Pricing
Structured monthly retainer
$5k–$15k
/ monthScoped to complexity, active initiatives, and level of support
Built for teams that need ongoing senior judgment without committing to a full-time interoperability lead.
- —Lower end ($5k–$8k): bi-weekly reviews, async support, quarterly compliance briefings
- —Higher end ($10k–$15k): weekly sessions, deeper technical involvement, faster escalation turnaround
- —Level scales with number of active initiatives, EHR partners, and strategic depth required
- —Month-to-month — no long-term contract, adjust or step down with 30 days' notice
- —Not open-ended consulting hours — structured cadence with defined engagement rhythm
Frequently asked questions
It scales with cadence and depth. At the lower end: bi-weekly reviews and async support. At the higher end: weekly sessions, deeper technical involvement, and faster escalation turnaround. We scope the right level based on your number of active initiatives, EHR partners, and how much strategic involvement you need.
Yes. Scale down during quiet periods, scale up before major integration milestones or compliance deadlines. Changes take effect the following month.
An on-call consultant answers questions reactively. The retainer provides proactive, continuous oversight — I'm tracking your architecture decisions, compliance posture, and vendor relationships week over week, not just responding when something breaks.
Not required, but it accelerates onboarding. Starting from scratch means the first month includes more baseline assessment. If you've already completed a diagnostic or accelerator, we move into the advisory rhythm immediately.
Month-to-month. No long-term contract. Most teams stay engaged for 6–12 months because the ongoing value compounds — context, risk tracking, and vendor relationships all benefit from continuity. You can step down anytime with 30 days' notice.
Before or alongside the Retainer
Most teams either arrive here after a Diagnostic or Accelerator, or use the Retainer to maintain continuity once implementation work is stable.
Diagnostic
Interoperability Readiness Diagnostic
Need a clear starting point? The Diagnostic gives you a prioritized risk register and action plan in 2 weeks.
Learn moreAccelerator
FHIR · HL7 · DICOM Integration Accelerator
Have an active integration that needs hands-on senior execution? The Accelerator is a scoped 6–8 week implementation engagement.
Learn moreSenior interoperability leadership, without the full-time hire
Ongoing architecture review, compliance oversight, and strategic guidance on a structured monthly cadence.
Not sure yet? Start with a Diagnostic or run the scorecard first.