Retainer
Advisory Retainer
Fractional Head of Interoperability & AI.
Without ongoing senior oversight, architecture decisions drift and compliance gaps reopen. The retainer gives you fractional interoperability and AI leadership that keeps systems, teams, and vendor relationships on track — without a full-time hire.
Who this is for
- 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 integrations where architecture decisions need ongoing review
- Teams without a senior interoperability hire who need strategic and technical guidance
- Organizations navigating vendor relationships, compliance renewals, or evolving regulatory requirements
Problems this solves
Architecture decisions without senior review
Your team is making integration and infrastructure decisions without someone who's seen how those choices play out in production across multiple health-tech environments.
Compliance drift
You passed your last audit, but changes since then — new integrations, infrastructure updates, team turnover — are introducing gaps you haven't quantified.
Vendor coordination complexity
Managing EHR vendor relationships, onboarding timelines, and technical requirements across multiple partners is 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, team structure, and near-term priorities. This sets the baseline for ongoing advisory work.
Ongoing rhythm
Bi-weekly sessions covering architecture decisions, compliance reviews, vendor coordination, and strategic priorities. Between sessions, available on Slack and email for time-sensitive decisions.
Quarterly review
Step back to 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
- —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.
If you need clarity or implementation first
Most retainer clients started with a diagnostic or accelerator engagement. These are designed to complement ongoing advisory support.
Diagnostic
Interoperability Readiness Diagnostic
Catch the gaps that derail certification, stall go-live, and create expensive rework.
Learn moreAccelerator
FHIR · HL7 · DICOM Integration Accelerator
Ship production-grade healthcare integrations — without the architecture debt, compliance risk, or vendor lock-in.
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? Run the 3-minute scorecard to surface risks first.