World Looks to Tennessee for Health Expertise
Published Apr 07, 2005
world medicine
Known as “The Silicon Valley of Health Care,” the Nashville area is home to nearly 300 health-care companies. In 2004, 20 of those companies were publicly traded with combined revenues of more than $58 billion. But an enviable reputation nationwide may be just the beginning.Today, Nashville’s health-care expertise is in demand on a global scale.
“The goal has been to raise the Nashville region’s profile as a one-stop shop for other countries’ health-care needs. Increasingly, I think the word is getting out that there’s a lot of activity here and a lot of innovation. It’s really paying off,” says Matthew Gallivan, former president of the Nashville Health Care Council, an association of industry leaders founded in 1995 under the auspices of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.
In 1999, the council organized its first international trade mission, leading a group of Middle Tennessee health-care experts to London and Cologne, France. The next trip was to Paris and Madrid in 2000; then Brussels, Milan and Rome in 2002; London and Amsterdam in 2003; and Budapest and Prague in 2004.
“These trade missions are designed to be very high level, so that we establish contacts with key industry and government leaders in each of these countries,” Gallivan says. “The real objective is generating new business opportunities.”
That’s certainly happened, as Nashvillians have nurtured overseas contacts, and government and health leaders from several of those countries have subsequently visited Tennessee.
Ira Chilton, principal with the Nashville-based CFP Group, says his company’s contracts to help design and construct clinics in England are a direct result of the trade missions and the council’s overseas efforts. Chilton was a delegate on all five trade missions and says “the probability is pretty high” that he will go along on the sixth, planned for 2006 to Poland and Austria.
The U.S. ambassador to Poland, Victor Ashe, is equally enthusiastic about the prospects of a Tennessee trade mission.
“I am especially excited as a Tennessean to be able to host such a group,” says Ashe, former mayor of Knoxville. “The Polish health-care system faces a number of challenges, and the visit should provide for a productive exchange of information on both sides as well as generate new business opportunities.”
Poland’s health-care challenges are much the same as those in many other countries – an aging population, rising costs, inefficiency and information technology needs, according to Paul Keckley, executive director of the Vanderbilt Center for Evidence-based Medicine. Keckley says Vanderbilt University could play a critical role in addressing such issues.
“They’re looking for new ways to deliver care and new ways to reduce the incidence of heart disease, diabetes and asthma. They’re looking for ways to more effectively treat people who need hospital care,” he says. “Nashville has some fairly prominent solutions which have historically been focused in just the U.S., but increasingly we’re getting a lot of attention from health ministries around the world.”
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Current Weather Conditions In Nashville, TN (37243)
Cloudy, and 56 ° F. For more details?
Click here...
