53rd Annual Meeting and 30th Instructional Course

Steven was a consultant for Johnson & Johnson’s Orthopedic Trauma Division, where he utilized eight years of Critical Care and Trauma Nursing experience. In the military, he earned the rank of Master Sergeant after serving 23+ years in Army Special Forces, where his specialties included Special Forces Weapons Sergeant and Special Forces Intel Sergeant. He is a Level 1 Sniper, and attended Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab at DIA as well as the Special Operations Planners Course in Norfolk, VA. Steve earned a BS in Nursing from Quinnipiac University, completed a Critical Care Residency at Yale New Haven Hospital Systems, and holds a BS from Southern Connecticut State University.

In March of 2020 he was asked to join the amazing team at the hospital for special surgery as the chief of staff for crisis management, the #1 orthopedic surgical hospital in the world, as they transformed the entire hospital in to a covid treatment center to do their part in the fight to save lives during the height of the covid crisis.

As the crisis ebbed, he was asked to join the leadership team there as the Chief Wellness and Resiliency Officer with a focus on overall wellbeing,  burnout, and suicide awareness and prevention.  His approach is scienced based on allostatic load management and autonomic downregulation and is a nationally sought after speaker for wellbeing and resilience. 

When not at HSS Steve spends his time enjoying every moment of his family, and also dedicates time the Children of Fallen Patriots and is board president of a drug and alcohol rehab in Bridgeport Ct. 

The Moral Obligation of Self-Care
Steve Forti, VP, Chief Wellness and Resiliency Officer, Hospital for Special Surgery, NY

Physicians are trained to put others first — but at what cost? In this powerful session, Steve Forti challenges the notion that burnout is a badge of honor, making the case that self-care isn't optional — it's a moral and professional obligation.

Drawing striking parallels between surgeon burnout and the resilience challenges faced by Army Special Operators, Forti reframes well-being as the foundation that sustains great care, not a retreat from it. A depleted provider can't deliver their best — and this session offers a compelling call to action for physicians ready to redefine what dedication really looks like.

Don't miss this thought-provoking look at why taking care of yourself is the first step to taking care of others.

Bob Kaplan is Professor, Emeritus, Harvard Business School. He joined the HBS faculty in 1984 after serving as faculty member and dean at Tepper Business School, Carnegie-Mellon University. At HBS, Kaplan co-developed activity-based costing, the Balanced Scorecard, and E-ledgers carbon accounting, all widely recognized as seminal contributions to management theory and practice

He continues to advise and perform research on value-based health care, based on his decade-long collaboration with HBS colleague, Michael Porter. Kaplan’s time-driven activity-based costing has become the global standard for patient-level costing, and provides the foundation for value-based payments that reward the delivery of superior patient outcomes at lower cost.

Kaplan has authored or co-authored 14 books and 275 papers, including 40 in Harvard Business Review. He received BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT., a PhD in Operations Research from Cornell, and honorary doctorates from four international universities.

Apply Value-Based Health Care to Succeed Under TEAM and Other Bundled Payment Models
Robert Kaplan, Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus, Harvard Business School

As payment models shift from fee-for-service to outcomes-based bundled payments like TEAM, spine surgeons face a new imperative: deliver measurably better outcomes at a known, optimized cost. Robert Kaplan — a pioneer of value-based health care — will show how three core principles can help your practice thrive under this new reality:

1. Build centers of excellence — Deliver multidisciplinary, integrated, and comprehensive care for cervical spine patients from diagnosis through recovery.
2. Measure what matters to patients — Track and improve outcomes, including patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), to drive better clinical decisions and demonstrate value.
3. Optimize the true cost of care — Use time-driven activity-based costing to understand and reduce the total cost of delivering integrated care, without compromising quality.

Whether you're navigating TEAM or preparing for the next bundled payment model, this session offers a practical framework for aligning clinical excellence with financial sustainability.