In March, RP announced the launch of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), naming 13 radiologists to senior executive leadership roles. One newly named Associate CMO is Dr. Gavin Slethaug, Associate CMO for Growth.
Dr. Slethaug is an interventional radiologist for Honor Health/Southwest Medical Imaging (SMIL)/Southwest Diagnostic Imaging (SDI) in Arizona. He has served in a number of leadership positions including Chair of Interventional Radiology, Chief Medical Officer, Vice President and Board Member. Additionally, he worked to facilitate multiple mergers of healthcare practices, including SMIL, EVDI Medical Imaging and Valley Radiologists professional practices to form SDI; the partnership of SDI with RP; and the joint venture of Honor Health and SMIL Outpatient Imaging. Since joining RP in 2017, Dr. Slethaug has served as RP’s Executive Vice President of Practice Partnerships in addition to his newer role as Associate CMO for Growth. Dr. Slethaug earned his medical degree from the University of Toronto Medical School in Toronto, Canada, and completed his residency and fellowship in Interventional Radiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University Medical Center, in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a lifelong learner who is dedicated to self-improvement and the success of his teammates.
As Associate CMO of Growth, Dr. Slethaug will lead and support all initiatives of the RP growth team, including practice partnerships (mergers and acquisitions), internal market development (sales) and national health system relationships.
We sat down with Dr. Slethaug to learn more about his aspirations for RP’s Office of the CMO and his role as Associate CMO for Growth.
Tell us about your tenure/history with RP.
My local group, SDI, joined RP in 2017. Since joining RP, I’ve served on our Local Practice Board at SDI and have also become involved in roles on behalf of the national practice. These have included serving on the Revenue Cycle Management and Practice Partnership Support Boards, serving as EVP of Practice Partnerships, and more recently, becoming Associate CMO for Growth and Development.
What attracted you to RP?
Mission, culture and strategy. I believe in our mission to transform radiology, and I believe that our culture and strategy will enable our success.
How has your experience prepared you for your role as Associate CMO of Growth?
On the local level, I’ve always enjoyed building programs and working to create growth opportunities. From a clinical perspective, these have included multidisciplinary clinical initiatives to improve patient outcomes. From a development perspective, these have included more complex partnerships and joint ventures with practices and healthcare systems locally.
Since joining RP, I’ve been very involved in the practice partnership (M and A) component of the growth team, and to a lesser extent, I’ve been involved with the internal market development and hospital systems’ components. I look forward to working towards the continued success of all facets of the growth team.
What do you want to accomplish in this role?
I want to continue to enable smart growth of RP in order to drive our mission. With 2,500 radiologists, we’re able to do many innovative things that couldn’t be done at 100 rads. In turn, at 10,000 radiologists, we’ll be able to do many innovative things that can’t be done at 2,500 rads.
What does the future of radiology look like in 5 years? 10 years? How will RP contribute to that?
I don’t have a crystal ball, but my assumption is that the medical landscape will continue to change in the next 5-10 years. Payors and hospital systems will continue to get larger, and different payment models will evolve. Our clients and patients will continue to expect ongoing improvement in radiology quality and value, and they will be expecting better data to support this.
Having said that, I’m excited about radiology’s future, and I’m excited about the positive steps that RP is taking to fulfill its mission and contribute to the overall success of our field. We intend to be a leader in demonstrating clinical value; mentoring and producing physician leaders; overinvesting in IT and AI to enable radiologist-friendly solutions which benefit our patients; and advocating on behalf of our patients and our profession.
Dr. Gavin Slethaug is the Associate Chief Medical Officer for Growth at Radiology Partners, a leading physician-led and physician-owned radiology practice in the U.S. For the latest news from RP, follow along on our blog and on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
