Awards, Honors, Achievements
Scott Mertie, president of Kraft Healthcare Consulting, an affiliate of KraftCPAS, has joined the Saint Thomas Health Foundation's board of directors where he will serve on the investment committee. Saint Thomas Health Foundation is focused on providing access to essential health services to everyone in the Middle Tennessee community, particularly uninsured and underinsured.
Healthcare communications firm Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock recently announced the promotion of Kim Fox to partner. Fox, who joined the firm in 2006, previously served as a senior vice president.
An organizing session by the recently formed Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERACS), titled ERACS: Best Practices, Cost-Effective Initiative took place in Boston and featured a consortium of forward-thinking leaders in cardiac surgery. The select group - which included TriStar Centennial Heart and Vascular Institute cardiovascular surgeon Seenu Reddy, MD - joined together to address the need to standardize best practices in cardiac surgery as other specialties have done through their ERAS® (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) programs.
Donato Tramuto
Last month, the Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps presented Tivity CEO Donato Tramuto with the "Embracing the Legacy" award, which recognizes leaders who help improve the lives of children and their families. The award was presented to Tramuto for his body of philanthropic work, including founding Health eVillages, a company that brings healthcare to underserved populations in seven countries.
Dr. Robert J. Coffey Jr.
Vanderbilt University's Robert J. Coffey Jr., MD, has received an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) - more than $6.6 million over seven years - to support studies aimed at advancing the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer. He is one of 27 researchers nationwide to receive one of the awards in the second round of the NCI program.
Last month, local anesthesiologist Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, was introduced as an executive officer for the American Medical Association's 2017-2018 Board of Trustees in the office of secretary. Additionally, Kevin W. Williams, a former senior executive at General Motors from Nashville returns as the public member on the AMA Board.
Frost-Arnett was recently awarded the 2017 Torch Award for Ethical Commerce by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Middle Tennessee, in the 175+ employee category.
Middle Tennessee companies made a good showing on the 2017 Healthcare Informatics 100 list. The recognition program ranks the top 100 healthcare IT companies in the United States based on HIT revenues from the most recent fiscal year. Area honorees were: Change Healthcare ranked 11th, M*Modal 43rd, Experian Health 45th, HealthStream 51st, MEDHOST 67th, and Cumberland Consulting Group 95th.
Interfaith Dental Clinic was presented with the Henry Schein Cares Silver Medal for excellence in expanding access to care as part of last month's Henry Schein, Inc. humanitarian awards.
TriStar Centennial Medical Center CMO Divya Shroff, MD, a University of Missouri - Kansas City alumna, received the School of Medicine 2017 Take Wing Award. She was honored for her nationally recognized leadership in improving the quality and safety of patient care by merging medicine and technology.
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee's Medicare Advantage Quality Rewards Program recently recognized primary care physicians across the state for achieving exceptional patient care outcomes. Among those recognized, 52 physicians statewide earned a 5 out of 5 star rating, including 11 in Middle Tennessee: Indumeet B. Bal, Ayrika L. Bell, Nageswara R. Chunduru, Wayne E. Moore, Christopher E. Ingraham, Gibran B. Naddy, John D. Rudd, Pamela J. Sanders, Moses A. Swaucy, Charles R. Tessier IV, and James C. Wallwork.
Lipscomb University's graduate program in healthcare informatics has been ranked No. 11 in the nation by Healthcare Administration Degree Programs. Additionally, the university's College of Pharmacy became the first academic organization to join Nashville-based Hashed Health, which is leveraging blockchain and distributed ledger technologies to transform the healthcare industry.
In other news from Lipscomb University, Dale Alden, assistant professor of Psychology, was recently named to the Tennessee State Board of Examiners in Psychology by Governor Bill Haslam.