Nashville Technology Council

PRESS RELEASE:
NTC Works with Partners to Address HIT Workforce Shortage
Thought Leadership Article Released at Recent HIMSS Summit of the Southeast

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – October 11, 2011 – The Nashville Technology Council today announced release of a thought leadership article focusing on workforce needs in the healthcare information technology sector. The article, presented at the 2011 HIMSS Summit of the Southeast recently, is the result of a two-year effort that involved numerous community and business stakeholders working to identify solutions to fill the increasing number of local HIT jobs. The study was initiated at a 2010 Health Care IT Workforce Solutions Forum, where panels of leading health care executives discussed the need to organically grow a local workforce to support the healthcare industry.

Through a partnership with the Nashville Healthcare Council, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and KPMG, the article Strategies to Address the Health Care Information Technology Workforce Shortage was developed. Liza Lowery Massey, President and CEO of Nashville Technology Council, commented, “The collaborative approach that resulted in this valuable document sets the stage for similar joint efforts to address Nashville’s workforce needs. It is a challenge that we all face together if we wish to continue to enjoy and grow our vibrant economy.”

The Nashville Technology Council is a nonprofit organization devoted to helping the Middle Tennessee technology community succeed. Membership is open to technology companies, technology employers, service providers, educational institutions, and non-profit companies interested in supporting the growth of technology businesses and those businesses that rely on technology in Middle Tennessee. To learn more, visit www.technologycouncil.com.

Download the Press Release here

While PPACA (federal health reform), the HITECH Act and Stage 1 and 2 criteria of the meaningful use program are advancing the integration of healthcare technology, global healthcare reform is being driven by the healthcare companies utilizing technology and the companies investing in and developing those technologies.

Join us as executives of public and emerging HIT companies and venture capitalists discuss how they are responding in the wake of healthcare reform, how innovators are taking the costs out of the system, the way they are using technology to solve business issues, where investment dollars are going, expectations with respect to HIT service providers, and what the future of HIT holds for Tennessee business.

Register Now!

Tired feet, legs, and back.  No sleep, non-stop networking, good food, drinks, and plenty of old friends.  No this is not a family reunion or wedding, it is HIMSS.  Healthcare Information and Management System Society ’s annual show was in Orlando, Florida this year.  There was technology as far as the eye could see.

From the moment we got there, the “Nashville Effect” was apparent.  Nashville’s reputation as the Silicon Valley of Healthcare is secure.  Hundreds of the 1000 vendors were from Nashville, but equally important were the numbers of providers and payers who were present to demo the latest healthcare technology.  The number of attendees is estimated to be 31,000 this year.

EMR and Interoperability were the buzz this year at the conference.   What I didn’t hear as much about was major innovations.  I always try to look for the emerging themes because they will be all the rage in Las Vegas (next year’s site).  Dashboards and Business Intelligence are two of those areas where you can see some maturity occurring.  Also, many of the vendors had great booths, but the UX of their products did not match with their marketing.  So maybe there will be UX growth in the next year.  Talent acquisition was another area where I saw more booths by providers and recruiters.  Most of the major systems (Kaiser, HCA, Cleveland Clinic, Hopkins, and Mayo) had a presence.

Noticeably absent from the show were past exhibitors Cerner and Meditech.  Always interesting to see the strategy behind the sales side of HIT.

The Nashville Technology Council was well represented.  Emids’ HIT MEN Party was a smashing success.  The party featured many of our product and services leaders from Nashville plus venture capitalist and CIOs from IDNs both large and small.  Southeast Regional HIMSS held a social at the same time.  It is a good thing they were only a few feet apart, so we could all go back and forth to both of these events.

The HIMSS Interoperability Showcase was very cool.  We were able to spend some time talking to both large and small providers of new technology in a variety of vertical segments (patient safety, security, ambulatory, content, disease management, wellness, etc.).  A new crop of talent is emerging in Nashville which is focused on each of these verticals.

Teknetex was in full force searching for talent for our local companies and we were able to spend a little time with the American Hospital Association.

One of the highlights was stumbling on our Downtown Wifi provider, Meraki.  It is good to have a physical contact at the company now.  That is what makes HIMSS so powerful.  Thousands of partners and providers all in one building at one time.  It is truly a unique experience.

NTC Companies Attending/Exhibiting

Advocat
C3
eMids
IBM
InfoPartners
Deane and Smith
Parental Health
HealthSpring
Passport Health
Nashville Medical Trade Mart
HMS
Medquist
Entrada
Change:Healthcare
Brentwood Capital
ACS/Xerox
Comcast
The Martin Companies
Ingenix
Microsoft
HP
Emdeon
Intel
KPMG
Avondale Partners
Cisco
TwTelecon
Vision Consulting
Informatics Corporation of America
Decision Source
Sungard
Oracle
Shareable Ink
VMWare
HPA
AT&T
Thomson Reuters
Ciber
Avaya
Sprint
Verizon
Dell
Deloitte
Cumberland Consulting
HCA
CHS
Compuware
Teknetex

I am sure we missed some of our local companies.  If we did, drop us a note and we will be sure to include you in the next update.

Next year, HIMSS will be heading to Las Vegas.  Time to make a healthy bet on HIT.

We’re happy to announce that the 2010 edition of Catalyst has been released to the public!  Here is the information from today’s press release:

The Nashville Technology Council officially released its annual technology business magazine Catalyst. Catalyst is a self published technology publication featuring a cross section of articles concerning the variety of technology verticals in Middle Tennessee and around the State. Members of the Technology Council received an advance copy of the 2011 addition prior to its release to the public.

“We are very excited to highlight the tech companies that make Middle Tennessee home,” said J. Tod Fetherling, President/CEO Nashville Technology Council. “This year’s edition covers education, robotics, electronic medical records, and music. Our technology industry is as diverse as any in the country and powers today’s industries in America who are transforming the global markets in health, music, and transactions.”

Featured articles include:

The Top 100 Technology Leaders in Tennessee

Nashville’s Next Big Hit- Electronic Medical Records

Venture Capital in Tennessee

New Tunes– Music Startups

BioTech– Strengthening Bones and the Community

Social Media

iRobot – Robots that Learn

“Catalyst will be used in economic development, recruiting, and in our T3 Initiative to educate future students about the benefits of pursuing technology careers,” said Andy Flatt, Chair of the Nashville Technology Council Board of Directors. “This vehicle will be used extensively over the next 12 months to promote our city, our businesses and our future.”

To order a copy of Catalyst or to find out more information, email catalyst@technologycouncil.com.

Nashville Tech Story (12/23/09)

If you haven’t noticed, the role of the CIO is changing rapidly.  Spurred by the recession, IT shops are being asked to do more with less, like everyone else, but they are also taking on more business processes than before.  These are the results from the recent 2010 State of the CIO report from CIO Magazine.

CIOs reported their Top Priorities of 2010 to be following:

• Aligning IT and business goals
• Controlling IT costs
• IT governance and portfolio management
• Business process redesign
• Leadership development/staff training
• Marketing IT’s business contribution
• Rationalizing or centralizing the application portfolio
• Protecting customer data privacy
• Scaling IT globally
• Regulatory compliance

Most CIOs are thinking today about how are they going to get the job done with less resources?  The answer so far has come from outsourcing and contract service providers.  “21% is the average percentage of IT labor provided by outsourcers or contract service providers,” according to CIO Magazine.  In Nashville, this industry has continued to grow with local leaders like Emids, Wipro, Zycron, and Syntel leading the way.  In addition, the contract labor market is strong with companies like Vaco, Teknetex, and Tek Systems.

One of the more interesting statistics is the decrease in average salaries.  Average salaries are dropping 10-20% in certain industries.  Below is the average salary data for CIOs.
’06 . . . . $185,863
’07 . . . . $185,240
’08 . . . . $237,360
’09 . . . . $247,900
’10 . . . . $219,300

Of local interest, the percentage of IT spend of Total Revenues in Healthcare is 3.9%.  The overall national average across all industries is 5.7%.

For more information, click here.

-Abbie Lundberg, former Editor & Chief of CIO Magazine will be with on January 19th and 20th to discuss trends for the technology industry.  Click here to register.

Emdeon is a leading provider of revenue and payment cycle solutions that connect payers, providers and patients to integrated and automated key business and administrative functions, throughout the patient encounter. Emdeon is owned by General Atlantic LLC and Hellman & Friedman LLC.