Message from AHVAP Executive Director

It Take’s Daily Innovation To Move the Needle

Dear AHVAP Members and Partners,

As the year winds down, I find myself reflecting on what truly moves our profession forward. Technical knowledge, checklists, and budgets all matter — but the deepest, most sustainable improvements in patient care come from three quiet forces working together: collaboration, gratitude, and a deliberate commitment to build our profession from the inside out. When these forces align, we not only reduce preventable harm and control costs — we change the culture of care so that safer, smarter decisions become the default.

Collaboration is the engine. Healthcare value analysis does not live in a vacuum. Our work sits at the intersection of clinicians, supply chain, infection prevention, healthcare quality, finance, biomedical engineering, and industry partners. Each stakeholder brings a unique lens: clinicians bring workflow knowledge and patient-centered priorities; supply chain brings logistics and purchasing expertise; finance brings sustainability; industry brings innovation; and quality brings measurement and standardization. When we design processes that intentionally stitch these perspectives together — through co-designed pilots, cross-functional governance, and real-time feedback loops — the solutions we select are more practical, adoptable, and impactful.

Practical collaboration looks like structured, repeatable practices: early clinician involvement in product selection, human-factors testing embedded in procurement checklists, financial models co-owned by VA teams and CFO offices, and post-implementation “learning huddles” that capture what worked and what didn’t. These aren’t one-off meetings; they are rhythms that institutionalize collaboration and make it easier to scale what succeeds. The payoff is measurable: fewer surprises at rollout, faster time to safe adoption, and clearer ROI that executives can support.

Gratitude might feel softer, but it is equally strategic. Gratitude changes how teams receive feedback and how professionals engage with improvement work. I’m grateful every day for the value analysts, nurses, providers, Industry Partners, and supply professionals who quietly solve the thorny problems that let clinical teams focus on care. Recognizing those efforts — publicly and privately — fuels engagement. A simple thank-you after a successful pilot, a spotlight on a coordinator who persevered through a hard conversation with a surgeon, or celebrating the team that reduced device-related incidents by 30% — these moments matter. They reinforce the message that our profession values problem-solving, integrity, and collective ownership.

But gratitude must also be actionable. Celebrate wins by documenting the approach and sharing the tools — elevator pitches, IFU rewrites, audit templates — so others can replicate success. Turn appreciation into mentorship: invite the team members who led a winning initiative to teach a micro-credential module, present a poster, or coach a peer cohort. This is how gratitude becomes capacity building. The Call for Presenters and Posters for the 2026 Annual Conference and Industry Partner Expo is open.

Building the profession from the inside means investing in people, processes, and professional identity. People: create intentional learning pathways — micro-credentials, on-the-job coaching, and cross-discipline rotations that give VA professionals exposure to finance, clinical operations, and human factors. Processes: standardize how evidence is gathered, appraised, and applied. Use structured frameworks (like the Johns Hopkins EBP Model adapted for value analysis) so decisions are reproducible and defensible. Professional identity: recognize value analysis as a distinct, evidence-based specialty with its own competencies, ethical standards, and opportunities for career advancement. Utilize your member’s only resources found on the AHVAP Circle Community to your advantage.

The benefits of this internal investment are profound. Teams that systematically apply evidence reduce variability and prevent avoidable harm; they design IFUs, product trainings, and workflows that fit the people who use them; they capture the right metrics so pilots turn into sustainable practice changes. Financially, the work pays for itself: reduced complications, fewer reworks, shorter lengths of stay, and more efficient supply utilization. These gains are not theoretical — they are the cumulative result of dozens of small, disciplined steps taken by committed professionals.

There are practical steps each of us can take right now. First, document one recent improvement and package it as a short case study: problem, intervention, outcome, and the tools you used. Share it with your network or bring it to your next AHVAP zone meeting. Second, commit to mentoring — even one hour a month — to coach an emerging VA professional through an IFU rewrite or pilot plan. Third, adopt at least one HRO practice in your team: preoccupation with failure (track near-misses), sensitivity to operations (observe five procedures this quarter), or deference to expertise (formalize clinician veto rights in pilots).

As we close the year, I want to express my personal gratitude for the thoughtful, relentless work this community does. I have seen your creativity turn evidence into safer care; your courage transform difficult conversations with providers into better outcomes; your discipline convert pilots into organizational practice. AHVAP exists to amplify that work — to provide the frameworks, the credentialing, and the community where these lessons spread.

Thank you for the care you bring to patients and for the respect you bring to colleagues. May this season bring you rest, reflection, and renewed energy to keep pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve together. When collaboration, gratitude, and internal professional development align, the result is not only improved outcomes and reduced costs — it is a healthcare system better prepared to protect every patient who walks through the door.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to you and your families,

J. Hudson Garrett Jr., Ph.D., MSN, MPH, MBA, FNP-BC, IP-BC, PLNC, VA-BC, LTC-CIP, CIC, AL-CIP, CPPS, CAE, CAIP, CPHQ, CVAHPTM, ICE-CCP, CPXP, CMRP, CDIPC, FAOM, FACDONA, FAAPM, FAPIC, FNAP, FACHE, FSHEA, FIDSA, FAHVAP
Executive Director and Executive Vice President
Association of Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AVHAP)
Chief Credentialing Officer
AHVAP Certification Center
Certified Association Executive