Memphis, Nashville Create Healthy Business Synergy
Published Aug 25, 2008
Dr. Harry Jacobson is vice chancellor of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
With life-saving surgery, groundbreaking research, mind-bending technology and risk-taking entrepreneurship, Tennessee’s diverse health-care industry is a recognized leader in all things medical. When it comes to the state’s two largest cities, Memphis and Nashville, the reputation is global.
“There are three things that are needed to make a health-care company successful – venture capital, great ideas and management expertise. Nashville has each in abundance,” says Dr. Harry Jacobson, vice chancellor for health affairs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, ranked as one of the nation’s top 10 major teaching hospitals for 2007.
The health-management talent that was spawned from investor-owned hospital pioneer HCA Inc., the biomedical research prowess at Vanderbilt and the corporate, legal and financial expertise that has been developed in Nashville make the area “an ideal incubator for new ideas,” says Jacobson.
Jacobson credits the Nashville Health Care Council, an industry association founded in 1995, with boosting the city’s health credentials. “The council has been responsible for systematically bringing together leaders of health-care businesses and has catalyzed the relationships between companies by consistently highlighting challenges and opportunities in the market,” says Jacobson, a past council chairman.
Jim Lackey, chairman and CEO of Nashville-based Passport Health Communications Inc., says one reason his health-care technology company has thrived is because of its location in “the U.S. health-care capital.”
The company employs about 200 people and boasts more than 4,000 hospitals, outpatient centers and physician practices as clients for its suite of administrative and financial tools. Some of Passport’s largest corporate customers “are right down the street,” Lackey says, including hospital companies HCA, Community Health Systems and LifePoint Hospitals Inc.
Memphis displays a similar synergy, says Dr. Steven Bares, president and executive director of the Memphis Bioworks Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2001 to promote bioscience and biotechnology collaboration.
He cites Memphis’ core competencies as:
• Orthopaedics and medical devices. Smith & Nephew Inc.’s orthopaedic-device business is based in Memphis and employs about 1,800 people. Medtronic Inc.’s spinal and biologics division is headquartered in Memphis, and Wright Medical Technology Inc.’s headquarters are in nearby Arlington.
• Medical research and treatment, thanks to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
• Logistics. Near Memphis International Airport are both the corporate home of FedEx and a major distribution hub for UPS.
Leigh Anne Downes, director of life science business development for the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce, says the logistics benefits are a top selling point for medical device makers.
“That is really advantageous for next-day surgeries,” she explains. Some FedEx shipments can go out as late as midnight for next-day delivery, she says.
To identify and grow more companies that can take advantage of Memphis’ strengths, Memphis Bioworks in 2007 created Innova, an early-stage investment fund to marry research and intellectual property with funding and business management expertise.
“Innova’s goals are to identify technology-based startups that can be formed and created and be the catalyst to create more jobs in the community,” Bares says.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Todd Bennett
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