Paige Cooke, MSc
Founder & Lead Consultant, APIQ Consulting
"I work at the intersection of strategy, insight, innovation, and execution."
Paige Cooke is a healthcare strategy, growth and partnerships leader who has spent 15 years helping organizations make sense of complexity. She connects market signals, customer needs, policy shifts, emerging technologies and organizational priorities so teams can determine what matters, align around a path forward and execute.
Her experience spans strategic initiatives, market intelligence, product and program launch, market development, partnership building, executive decision support and cross-functional execution. She does her best work in ambiguous, matrixed environments, where progress depends on identifying meaningful patterns and risks, aligning stakeholders with different priorities and translating insight into practical action.
Her recent work focuses on AI-enabled healthcare workflows, digital health, advanced primary care, market adoption and the organizational realities of moving innovation from concept toward implementation. Postgraduate training in AI and machine learning from The University of Texas at Austin informs that work.
Work that opened markets and moved adoption.
Opened a national EHR vendor channel
Conceived and framed the PCMH Prevalidation Program, aligning national recognition requirements with ONC Meaningful Use standards. The model was later extended to support Population Health Management Accreditation.
Exceeded early-adopter and launch goals
Achieved 200% of the early-adopter recruitment goal for Case Management for LTSS accreditation, and 164% of plan revenue for the Patient-Centered Connected Care Recognition program.
Built a sales function from the ground up
Served as the first dedicated sales representative for health plan accreditation, building the department framework, tracking metrics and training resources for the team that followed.
Secured an anchor adopter for a first-ever program
Secured one of the first and largest HIT vendors for a first-ever Data Aggregator Validation program, which provides third-party evaluation of aggregated data used in HEDIS® reporting.
Turned state policy into implementation
Developed a crosswalk between accreditation standards and waiver regulations to support reductions in oversight and audit activity. Led multi-state roundtables with Medicaid leaders on changing federal requirements for D-SNPs. Contributed to state quality initiatives in Arizona, North Carolina and California.
Results from Paige Cooke's prior leadership roles.
Advising where healthcare quality meets the market.
Through APIQ, Paige advises NCQA's Market Engagement & Growth team on market expansion and pipeline strategy, leading outreach and discovery conversations and surfacing the market insights that shape product messaging and go-to-market priorities. She also develops training resources and market enablement materials that strengthen healthcare organizations' understanding of accreditation, quality measurement and operational readiness for value-based programs.
Education
- MSc, Health CommunicationsBoston University
- BA, Mass CommunicationsHampton University
Advanced training & certifications
- Post Graduate Program in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Business ApplicationsThe University of Texas at Austin · 2026
- Creating Stories that Drive Policy and Social ChangeJohns Hopkins Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy · 2025
- Leadership Development ProgramCenter for Creative Leadership
- Patient-Centered Medical Home Content Expert Certification (PCMH-CEC)2015
Where her thinking is headed.
Paige writes publicly about the questions shaping healthcare's next chapter. These are areas of active exploration and thought leadership.
- Responsible AI and oversight: trust, transparency, accountability, clinical oversight and validation as AI moves into healthcare workflows
- Quality as a learning system: moving beyond static measurement toward continuous learning, observability and feedback loops
- Signal lineage: how clinical, operational, rules-based, predictive and generative-AI signals are defined, interact, influence decisions and remain traceable
- Digital quality infrastructure: the connections between interoperability, quality measurement, data governance and AI-enabled learning
- Innovation adoption: how promising ideas move from concept to scalable implementation and lasting value
- Whole-person care and healthy aging: the behavioral, social, creative and spiritual dimensions of quality of life
RECENT
Learning Through Oversight (LinkedIn) See the full series
SELECTED EARLIER PUBLICATIONS
PUBLISHED WITH NCQA
- dQMs: Momentum for Mainstream
- LTSS Limelight: Home and Community-Based Services Gain State Traction
- For-Profit Elder Care Can Be Scary if Quality Doesn't Come First
- A Tribute to National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month
- Inside Health Care #85: Danny Cawood and the Struggle for Simple Communication
AJMC
- Paige Cooke Defines the Role of a Patient-Centered Specialty Practice
- PCMH Provides Strong Front Line for ACOs
PODCAST GUEST
- Healthcare Simplified #23: How Employers Can Encourage Whole Patient Care
Paige's path to APIQ included a deliberate season away from corporate leadership, devoted to family, faith and reflection, much of it spent on long daily walks at Lake Artemisia in Greenbelt, Maryland. It deepened her conviction that quality, in healthcare and in life, begins with intentionality. She brings that same clarity, and a deep respect for the people doing the work, to every engagement.
Read Paige's essay: "My Choice to Leave Lost Led to Finding Me"