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What's the BIG IDEA?
Posted July 2006
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Photo by David Andrews
Chamber Promotes Creativity in the
Businessplace and the Classroom
By Mike Haskew
The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce expanded its salute to innovation in business and industry this year with three awards categories providing recognition to 12 area companies and seven local high school students during the Spirit of Innovation Awards Luncheon.With a keynote address by George Buckley, head of the 3M Company, the May event continued the Chamber’s tradition of presenting global business leaders as speakers at the awards program.
"Taken together these three awards — the Kruesi Award for Innovation, the Early Innovator Award and the Great Ideas Award — represent a continuum designed to foster innovation at all stages from encouraging the next generation of young minds to think creatively about business to emerging companies that are developing promising technology-based products and software to companies that have implemented and proven the value of their innovations,"ChamberPresident and CEO Tom Edd Wilson told a Convention Center audience of more than 1,000. |
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Kruesi Award Finalists
and Their Innovations
Shared Health received the 2006 Kruesi Award for improving access to digitized patient information, resulting in more accurate diagnoses, better healthcare outcomes and cost savings.
The Surface Technology Group of ALSTOM Power has developed processes to fight corrosion and erosion in boiler tubes, reducing tube failures in boilers used in manufacturing.
Brake Tech Tools has developed and manufactured brake measurement instruments which allow technicians to determine the remaining amount of brake lining on vehicles without removing wheels or drums, saving time and improving safety.
Clarity was recognized for an audio processing application called
Digital Clarity Power (DCP), which uses digital signal processing and audio processing algorithms to improve telephonic communications for the hearing impaired.
General Hydrogen has developed a fuel cell-based power pack for electric battery forklift trucks. The battery pack significantly reduces the consumption of electricity and the number of heavy, lead acid batteries required for daily forklift operations.
Ten Cate has developed a series of more durable and playable synthetic fibers used in the manufacture of synthetic turf, which is marketed as Thiolon XP (Xtended Play).
The disposable kidney dialysis comfort belt, invented and patented by W.C. Hunter, has been developed and marketed by World Technologies, LLC. The comfort belt allows patients on dialysis to be ambulatory while experiencing less pain and stress than traditional dialysis products may cause. |
Tom Edd Wilson, Mayor Ron Littlefield,
and Keynote Speaker George Buckley |
Innovation Luncheon Presenting Sponsor Ivan Allen and Team |
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Wilson presented the 6th Annual Kruesi Award for Innovation to Shared Health for improving the quality of healthcare through access to a wide spectrum of digitized patient information.
On behalf of the Chattanooga Technology Council Mayor Claude Ramsey presented the Early Innovator Award to RamegenSafeRooms for the manufacture of in-home, tornado-safe rooms, storm shelters and security rooms. And Mayor Ron Littlefield inaugurated his Great Ideas Competition for secondary school students by awarding a $2,500 college scholarship to recent Red Bank High School graduate Amir Bahadoran for inventing a mailbox illuminated by a solar cell charge.
Buckley – who serves as 3M president, chairman and chief executive officer – spoke about the importance of imagination, passion and conviction in the creative process. “Innovation must start
with conviction and determination to do something better,” Buckley said.
The 3M chief said successful companies make “I’ve-got-to-have-one” products that elicit a “wow” from consumers, rather than “me too” products. Among 3M’s “wow factor” products are Scotch tape and Post-it notes.
“You are in the magic business,” Buckley told the businesspeople in the audience, as he encouraged them to foster a corporate culture marked by creativity and realistic dreams.
Shared Health, which was established in July 2005 as a subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of
Tennessee, assembles insurance claims and patient health data, such as treatment history and medications being taken, to provide healthcare professionals with comprehensive information in determining the proper course of future patient care.
Last year, BlueCross BlueShield announced an investment of $25 million in the secure database
delivered by Shared Health, which is provided to physicians at no charge and accessed via the
internet.
Shared Health takes the vast inventory of patient medical data held by healthcare payers, including commercial and government insurers, and makes that information available at thepoint of care.
“There really is no such thing as a pri mary care physician,” said Shared Health Marketing Manager Fred Flint. “It is so tough for one person to know patients’ complete medical histories and to know which medications they are on and the other physicians they may have seen.
“Shared Health takes information from claims submitted, including patient medical conditions, medications, allergies and lab results. Our goal is to more effectively share information across the entire network of providers that patients are seeing. That will fundamentally improve the quality of care received and lower healthcare costs.”
With over 650,000 Tennessee Medicaid patients enrolled in its secure database, Shared Health is the largest working, informationsharing initiative of its kind in the country.
“By making more patient medical information available and secure at the point of care, we are also working to reduce costs,” Flint said. “For instance, a doctor won’t need to repeat a lab test that you’ve already had or possibly won’t admit you to the hospital because he sees the treatments other doctors have performed. Reducing the number of redundant tests and providing a tool to improve medical diagnoses will lower the cost of healthcare over time.”
Shared Health went live with the TennCare population last summer and is currently rolling out the service to BlueCross Blueshield commercial members. The company expects to market it to other insurance companies, both government and commercial, on a national level.
Shared Health employs 25 people in gathering, processing, assimilating and testing patient data, then marketing the service to clinicians.
“The benefits of the system are directly proportional to the number of doctors who use it,” Flint said. The more who do the better the return on investment. The Shared Health solution is free to providers. We contract with healthcare payers who pay a per member, per month fee. Government and commercial insurers do this because they reap the benefits.
“The payers provide their member claims data to us. Then we make that information available back to the doctors in a format that they like. The payers get the cost savings rewards and that trickles down to everybody.”
During the awards luncheon the Chattanooga Technology Council presented an Honorable Mention award to Tubatomic Solutions for recruiting and hosting last November’s Cre824 Web Jam, an event which brought design professionals and students to Chattanooga for the inaugural preselection competition for the Webdesign International Festival in Limoges, France.
Finalists for the Early Innovator Award included RCP, Inc., which has developed a secure global positioning based system for alerting parents when their child’s school bus is approaching its stop, and Intelliscript for developing a PDA-based system which allows physicians to write prescriptions against an updated formulary.
Second and third place winners in the Great Ideas Competition were Matt Pewsey of Ooltewah High School for proposing creation of a science museum in Chattanooga and Adam Schwartz of Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences for developing the idea of a coupon book for students only. Other finalists for the Great Ideas Competition included Kayla Brooks, Erin Nanney, Melissa Nanney, andJacob Horsch, all from Ooltewah High. |
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Building a Better Mailbox
Great Ideas Contestants
BY DEBORAH TAUBE
Red Bank High School graduate Amir Bahadoran will make good use of his $2,500 scholarship award when he attends Middle Tennessee State University this fall.
Amir received the scholarship as the first place winner in the Great Ideas Competition. The 17-year-old won the gold medal for inventing a double-doored mailbox with a solar cell that charges a light to illuminate the interior of the mailbox when it’s opened.
“I’ve had the idea for the double-doored mailbox since I was five or six,” he said. “A mailbox with a door on each end would make it possible to check your mail without having to stand in the street.”
For the competition — which was open to area high school students — Amir decided to improve his double-doored mailbox idea by adding the solar light to reveal the presence of insects that might be lurking inside.
“I don’t like spiders,” Amir said. “I know they like to nest in mailboxes, and I thought a light would help.”
Amir developed the initial proposal in his senior marketing class, taught by Doug Mosely, over the course of two to three months. When he found out he was a finalist in the competition, Amir had to come up with a business and marketing plan.
With the help of his mentor, Richard Young, president of the local SCORE chapter (Service Corps of Retired Executives), the business plan was completed in two to three weeks. The entire proposal was then submitted to the Great Ideas Competition Committee for final judgment.
Amir plans to use his scholarship in MTSU’s aerospace program this fall. His career goal is to fly commercially as a professional pilot.
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