Nashville Technology Council

PURESAFETY ANNOUNCES PERSONNEL CHANGES AND NEW CLIENT-FOCUSED GO TO MARKET STRATEGY

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Oct. 27, 2009 — Bill Grana, president and CEO of Franklin, Tenn.-based PureSafety, a leading provider of training, safety, occupational health and medical management software solutions, today announced the promotions of Marshall Martin and Mike Kroll and the addition of Allison Pullen to the PureSafety team. These changes come as a result of the company’s decision to adopt a new, more market and customer-focused go to market strategy.

“To better serve our clients, we aligned the business with our two primary client personas — occupational health professionals and safety professionals,” said Grana. “The new structure will allow for greater operational nimbleness and focus, while continuing our strong record of customer service and support. Most importantly, organizing our business and overall market strategy around the people using our solutions ensures a deeper understanding of their challenges and opportunities, which helps us to better meet their needs, both now and well into the future.”

Mike Kroll has been promoted to executive vice president, general manager, of PureSafety’s new Workforce Safety and Training Management Solutions business unit, which will focus on delivering innovative software and information solutions to today’s busy training, safety and risk management professionals. Kroll has more than 17 years of corporate training sales and management expertise. Prior to joining PureSafety in January 2003, Kroll served as the Senior Director of Sales for eLearning at Ninth House, Inc. and as a National Sales Director for Vcampus Corp.

Marshall Martin has been promoted to executive vice president, general manager, of PureSafety’s new Workforce and Occupational Health Management Solutions business unit, which will focus on delivering innovative software and information solutions to today’s busy occupational health and medical management professionals. Martin has more than 15 years of senior-level management experience in strategic planning, accounting, operations management and business process reengineering. Prior to joining PureSafety in July 2008, he spent three years as chief operating officer at Juris Inc.(now LexisNexis) and held senior leadership roles at US Xpress Enterprises, Olan Mills Portrait Studios and Harrison Direct.

Allison Pullen has been hired as senior marketing manager, Workforce and Occupational Health Management Solutions business unit. She brings more than 10 years of marketing, public relations and corporate communications experience in the technology, healthcare and occupational medicine sectors to the PureSafety marketing team. She has held marketing management and consulting roles with Fortune 100 companies as well as smaller entities, including Merck Pharmaceuticals and Intergraph Corporation. Most recently, Pullen served as marketing manager of Strategic Communications at Autodesk, a global 2D and 3D design software and services company.

About PureSafety
Born out of a workplace tragedy in 1999, PureSafety empowers its customers to protect their organization’s most valuable assets: their people and profits. PureSafety provides comprehensive, web-based software and information solutions that support compliance requirements, overall risk management needs, and the enhancement of governance and company culture through improved programs, processes, awareness, understanding, visibility, and accountability within workforce safety and health.  The company’s growing team of 160 employees serves more than 2,000 companies operating in more than 20 major industries including manufacturing, construction, distribution, energy, and healthcare, and encompasses 34 percent of the Fortune 500. Headquartered in Nashville-area Franklin, Tenn., PureSafety has an additional location in Colorado Springs, Colorado. To learn more, visit www.puresafety.com or call 888.202.3016.

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The Nashville Tech Story (8/1/09)

Part III – Personal Responsibility

So far, we have covered costs, quality, and value.  Now, let’s talk about our personal responsibility.

Ok, is it really my fault?  Well yes.  a longitudinal study conducted by the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, University of California-Davis, Davis showed that Seniors who were leaner, smoked fewer cigarettes over a lifetime, reduced their smoking, or walked farther had significant subsequent cost savings compared to those with less-healthy lifestyle-related habits.  If you extrapolate the cost savings per person over their life of $1548 X 300mil population.  It is $440 billion over the next 77.7 years (avg. life expectancy) or $5 billion a year.

Medicare could save money and improve health care quality by providing financial incentives to providers for coordinating patient care through a shared savings program, according to a new paper from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution.

At the end of the day, it is up to everyone involved in healthcare (you, business owners, insurance companies, drug companies, hospitals, physicians, nurses, and clinicians) to work together to innovate the current system.  There is a solution, we just haven’t found it, or agreed to what it is.

Another responsibility that we have is to get engaged with the conversation.

Register today for the Naked Hospital.

The Nashville Tech Story (7/31/09)

Part II – Is Quality or Cost More Important?

In Part I we discussed the amount of money being spent on healthcare.  Today, we will talk more directly to the opportunity of healthcare and technology.

We have the best healthcare system in the world.  Well not really, according to the 2009 WHO World Health Statistics.  It is good, but we are not the best.  However, we do spend the most per capita.  So are we really getting good value for our money?

A local firm, Data Advantage has created the Hospital Value Index to help consumers understand which hospitals provide the best quality at the best price.  It is surprising to see who is number 1 in Nashville.

Don’t care about costs?  I  just want the best hospital when I need care.  This is a prevailing theme when we need care.  Well the government is here to help us once again.  Visit Hospital Compare to get a detailed view of outcomes in US Hospitals.

How about if we just cut the administrative cost of paying for all the procedures across the United States?  Did you know there are approximately 13 billion transactions a year in America?  Across town, Emdeon’s US Healthcare Index projects a 20% increase in electronic transactions would save approximately $34 Billion.  That would be a good start.

Get engaged with the conversation.

Register today for the Naked Hospital.

The Nashville Tech Story (7/29/09)

Part I – Deja Vu

I remember the last time we had this debate as a country.  It was 1997.  The Internet was still in its infancy.  AOL was the dominant brand.  Yahoo was an upstart.  Google hadn’t launched.

Hillary was leading the charge to change healthcare.  Healthcare was only $1.1 trillion and a measly 13.5% of the GDP.  Let’s fast forward to 2007, the most current year reported.  Total health expenditures reached $2.2 trillion (doubled in 10 years), which translates to $7,421 per person or 16.2 percent of the nation’s GDP.

In 10 more years, will it be 20 percent of the GDP?  My guess is yes, unless a true revolution occurs.

Fortunately, our government is very good at accounting for healthcare expenditures.  Visit this link to check out the detailed national healthcare expenditures. 

Wow, who pays for the healthcare?  Businesses (25 percent), households (31 percent), other private sponsors (4 percent), and governments (40 percent).  In short, we all do.  Our taxes go to pay for the government’s spend, business profits go towards the insurance burden most companies pay today.  It is a bleak picture.

What I do know is that this is really an exciting time for businesses in technology in Nashville, the Silicon Valley of Healthcare.  It is time for us to get educated on the topic and make our voices heard across the country.  The Nashville Health Care Council hosted a great luncheon last month with Msgrs. Perlin, Brailer, Detmer, and Stead and this month, we will follow it up with a detailed look at transparency and ehealth.  Get engaged with the conversation.

Register today for the Naked Hospital.

Triple Crown?

While we don’t have a horse in the running for the Triple Crown this year, we do a city trying to pull off a Triple Play.  Nashville is working to position itself as a mecca for Music, Health, and Technology.  Underlying the success of all three industries is the entrepreneurial spirit in Nashville. Can it be done?

Milt Capps reported in his Blog this week about the Washington Post story covering The National Economic Stress Index from the AP.  The story specifically calls out Nashville and our ability to transform the city using the Music City Brand.  Check One.  More and more our city is being held out in national publications as unique.  We need to continue to embrace this as part of our culture.  Visit the index, it is very cool use of data and technology.

Second is our dominance in Health Care.  The work of the Nashville Health Care Council has been exceptional in branding Nashville as the Silicon Valley of Health Care.  And it is true.  The Provider and Payer industries growing out of Nashville is extraordinary and should continue to help the city weather the economic turmoil.

Third is our entrepreneurial spirit.  Approximately 21.6% of economic engine of the city is compromised of self employed/entrepreneurial ventures.  That is amazing.  We lead most major cities in this category.  The history as revealed by Ralph Schultz goes back centuries and continues to drive the economy.  So in building a brand as an entrepreneurial city, we first need to recognize it ourselves and then begin to promote it externally.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with a packed room full of young energetic, smart college students as part of Vanderbilt’s Accelerator Program.  It was facinating to hear their perceptions of Nashville after a great series of presentations from the Chamber, CVB, and local entrepreneurs.  What I learned is that Nashville is experimental city, meaning that when people physically experience what our city has to offer, they are surprised and excited.  They want to stay.  I can’t wait to see what these young minds come up with in Branding Nashville as an Entrepreneurial City.

I am ready to bet on our ability to win the Triple Crown.  How about you?

Is Nashville’s Tech scene cool enough for the next generation?

This was interesting question posed to me recently.  My gut reaction was “probably not”.  However, after I spent more time thinking about the question, I began to change my mind.  Let me share with you my thought processes.

The following are reasons why I initially questioned if we are cool enough for the next generation of technologist:

1. We have a lot of healthcare technology that drives the market.  I have long said that healthcare is about five years behind banking, which is five years behind the rest of the world.  Some parts of healthcare are just not sexy from an IT standpoint.
2. We do a lot of transactions through Nashville.  Not very sexy, but highly profitable.
3. We have a lot of non-tech industries headquartered here including publishing, tires, religion, restaurants, and baking.

So what turned my thinking around?  I came up a list of reasons why I do think we are cool enough to attract the next generation of technologist.

1. Where there is music, there is a creative vibe.  Think Austin and Seattle.  Technology and Music have always blended well together and Nashville is no exception.  We are afterall, Music City.
2. In the area of healthcare, we have some amazing startup companies trying to transform healthcare through transparency and eHealth.  In addition, our local hospital systems should be the beneficiaries of Stimulus Money in 2-3 years.  The new tools being built are using open architecture to manage a crazy amount of data.  We are the Silicon Valley of Healthcare.
3. Even in publishing, bakeries, and manufacturing, technology is rampant.  The point of sale systems in restaurants are crazy smart at inventory management, dashboarding sales, and maintaining personnel shifts.
4. Our Barcamps, Podcamps, and Startup Weekend have all been wildly successful.  They didn’t get the main stream media they deserved, but the tech community nationwide took notice.
5. We have some serious social media mavens that have significant followers all across the US.
6. We have a growing segment in web design, architecture, and LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP).
7. We have a growing list of startups including Moontoast, GPS Assassins, Credence Health, and others…

As you can see, when you look at our positive attributes, it is easy to see why we are already cool – Check out Techville.  Still don’t believe me, show up at TechNashville on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at the Franklin Marriott in Cool Springs.

Emdeon takes on Healthcare Efficiency

It is a busy time for Emdeon, a provider of revenue and payment cycle solutions and clinical data exchange. Emdeon, who holds the single largest national health information network, has recently launched an initiative that focuses on stopping the use of paper in basic business transactions in the healthcare industry, which in turn will save billions of dollars every year.

“We have partnered with the Center for Health Transformation, founded by Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and are working with federal and state governments, to offer ideas for achieving immediate savings,” Susanne Powell, Director of Corporate Communications for Emdeon, said. “The cornerstone of Emdeon’s efforts is the launch of the U.S. Healthcare Efficiency Index™ with a goal of creating a single national reference for tracking the industry’s transition from a paper-based manual system to an efficient electronic one.”

The development of the U.S. Healthcare Efficiency Index has been a year in the making. The idea that something needed to be done to conserve paper and save money came about during industry and public policy discussions.

“Miriam Paramore, Emdeon’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Government Affairs, spearheaded the development of the Index to raise awareness of potential savings and bring the industry together to measure progress and overcome any remaining barriers,” Powell said.

The Index is being launched in phases. Phase 1 is complete and highlights cost saving opportunities based on available industry data. Phase 2 is currently underway and includes primary research being conducted in partnership with the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt. Data will be collected directly from payers and providers to provide an accurate measurement of progress. Future phases of the Index will expand its scope beyond medical claims to include dental, pharmacy, worker’s compensation and others. The information provided in each phase will become more specific as the Index progresses.

Continue Reading →

The Naked Hospital
August 6, 2009
7:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Hillwood Country Club

Miss the Event?  Click Here for PowerPoint Presentations.

Transparency has become even more important in the past year as we begin the healthcare reform discussion.  There is not a signature event in Nashville to bring quality, marketing, transparency, and technology together.  The Naked Hospital event will take the user experience from high level strategy through national and state legislative issues through practical hands on tools to walk away with.  The event will focus on how and why health systems and hospitals should focus on quality reporting as well as financial reporting.  At the end of the day, all of this puts additional strains on the information systems and resources deployed by most health systems and hospitals.  How will they cope?  What is the next step?

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