How We Work
A principal-led practice, working deliberately.
Sarsa takes on a small number of engagements at a time. Fit matters more than fee, and conversations always come before commitments. The right shape of an engagement depends on what you are trying to do and where the work needs to live.
The Practice
Built on more than a decade of clinical, informatics, and global health work.
Sarsa Health is a health technology and intelligence practice built on more than a decade of clinical, informatics, public health, and global health work across domestic and international settings. The practice brings the depth of a senior practitioner without the overhead of a large firm.
Engagements are led by the principal directly. When scope warrants, Sarsa draws on a trusted network of clinicians, engineers, and researchers to build the right team for the work, without standing capacity you would pay for and never use. This is how a deliberate, principal-led practice can deliver work at a scale and depth typically associated with much larger firms.
Sarsa is intentionally accessible to mission-driven and resource-constrained organizations. Engagement sizes vary, and the practice is built to support focused, high-impact work for NGOs, global health programs, and academic partners as readily as for larger health systems.
Three Modes of Work
Most engagements take one of three shapes.
These are not packages. They are descriptions of how we tend to engage, meant to help you orient. The actual shape of any engagement comes out of the first conversation.
Discovery
Sometimes the most valuable engagement is a focused look at the landscape. We work with leaders who need a clear-eyed assessment before committing to a direction, helping them see what is actually working, what is not, and where the highest-leverage moves are.
Often a fit for
- Health systems entering a major informatics transition
- Public health programs evaluating modernization options
- NGOs scoping a digital health initiative
Advisory
Some leaders need a trusted thought partner more than a deliverable. Ongoing advisory work is about being available when the stakes are high, providing judgment, and asking the questions that have been overlooked.
Often a fit for
- Health system CIOs and CMIOs navigating strategic decisions
- NGO leadership building digital capacity
- Boards and executives weighing health technology investments
Build & Implement
When the work needs builders, not just advisors. We design and contribute to the actual systems: FHIR-based platforms, clinical decision support, surveillance registries, working alongside teams that have a clear mandate but need depth they do not have in-house.
Often a fit for
- Organizations with a clear mandate and limited internal build capacity
- Programs that have outgrown spreadsheets and ad-hoc tools
- Surveillance or registry initiatives requiring health-IT depth
Principles
How we think about the work.
Whatever the shape of an engagement, a few things stay constant. These are the principles that guide how we operate.
Fit before fee.
Every engagement starts with a conversation, not a contract. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and try to point you toward someone who is. We would rather decline good work than take on the wrong work.
Built for context, including global.
Health systems do not work the same way in every setting. We design solutions that fit the resources, regulations, and realities of the place the work has to live, whether that is a U.S. health system, a global health program, or a ministry-led initiative in a low-resource setting.
Strategy and build, together.
A roadmap that ignores what is buildable is not a strategy. Engineering that ignores what the work is for is not architecture. We refuse the artificial separation between the two.
Embedded, not detached.
We work as if we were part of your team, because for the duration of the work we are. Knowledge transfer is built into how we operate, not a final deliverable.
Long enough to be wrong.
Anyone can write a recommendation and disappear. We try to stay long enough to see how the recommendations actually land, to be wrong about some of them, and to fix what needs fixing.
Common Questions
What people usually ask first.
Do you work with international organizations?
Yes. Global health and cross-border work are a deliberate focus for Sarsa. The principal brings prior experience in this area from work done at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including surveillance redesign for the Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program in Chad. Sarsa is actively building engagements with NGOs, foundations, and ministries of health working on digital and global health initiatives.
How do we know if we are a good fit?
The first conversation is designed to answer exactly that. We will ask questions, listen, and be honest about whether we are the right people for the problem. Sometimes the answer is no, and that is part of the point of talking first.
Can you work alongside our existing team?
Yes, and in most engagements we do. We are most useful when we work as an extension of your team rather than a separate vendor. Knowledge transfer is built into how we operate.
What technologies do you work with?
On the platform side, our work centers on FHIR, modern EHR integrations (especially Epic and Cerner), cloud-native data infrastructure, and standards-based interoperability. On the analytics side, we use the right tool for the question, from SQL and Python through to LLM-assisted clinical workflows where appropriate.
How do you structure pricing?
Pricing depends on the shape and scope of the engagement, and we discuss it openly in the first conversation. We share ranges early and put exact numbers in writing before any work begins, so there are no surprises.
What if our needs are still unclear?
That is the most common starting point. Most engagements end up looking different from how they were initially imagined, which is usually a good sign. The first conversation is meant to surface that.
Start a Conversation
Tell us what you are working on.
A first conversation is a 30-minute call to understand your challenge and explore whether we are a useful fit. No deck, no pitch, just a working discussion.