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Synergism is the simultaneous actions of separate entities which together have a greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects. - Buchholz and Roth

Key Personnel

Principals

Jennifer J. Linville, CEO

The founder and CEO of MedAxiom, Jen was previously the Executive Director of Jacksonville Heart for seventeen years and was the Executive Director of the Cardiology Leadership Alliance (CLA) for four years. She was responsible for creating the benchmark and trending reports for the CLA, which were later used as the cornerstones for the creation of MedAxiom. In developing MedAxiom, she added group-purchasing discounts, peer-to-peer meetings, listservs and practice-development services. She also opened the membership pool to include all cardiovascular practices across the United States. Her vision is to make MedAxiom membership an indispensable tool for all cardiovascular administrators, physicians and employees. Jen’s current projects within MedAxiom include an interactive, searchable database (MedAxcess) and a Knowledgebase (MedXpert) for all cardiovascular personnel to use, accelerating the evolution of cardiovascular practices nationwide.

Patrick White, President

Pat has been in the health-care management field for over thirty years, seventeen of which were in medical-group practice management. He received a master of public health degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and spent thirteen years with the Henry Ford Health System, including five years as the Administrator for the Department of Internal Medicine. He has also served as the Executive Director of Michigan Heart, a 36-member cardiology practice in Ann Arbor, for twelve years. Pat was also very active in the Cardiology Leadership Alliance (CLA) and served as its President in 2001.

Doug LaFleur, Chief Operating Officer

Doug's responsibilities include the development and oversight of goals and their attainment for the management team of MedAxiom. He is also involved in MedAxiom Consulting, and provides services to member practices and corporate partners that include Impact Groups, strategic planning, physician compacts and individual performance improvement projects. Doug's background includes a Ph.D. in applied behavior analysis and a master's degree in industrial/organization psychology from Western Michigan University as well as masters in business administration from Grand Valley State University.

Member Relations

Lori Walsh, National Sales Manager

Lori received her Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville then a Masters in Health Administration for University of Arkansas in Little Rock. While completing her master’s degree, she began working in cardiology with Heart Clinic Arkansas, as a graduate assistant. Lori felt so comfortable in this environment, she stayed with HCA through 2009 working within the operational side of the practice. During her tenure, she oversaw a full EHR implementation with GEMMS, launched three new outreach clinics and a cath lab, as well as managing the staff at these new facilities. Lori became entrenched within the practice and was promoted to Director of Operations where her involvement included a practice merger, workflow redesign projects and more. Lori’s role with MedAxiom as National Sales Manager is to bring her vast practice experience to our current and prospective members through building relationships and sharing the value of the MedAxiom membership benefits for the practices.

Steven J. Dorval, Member Services Specialist

Steve retired from the U.S. Navy in 1999. While in the service, he supervised and performed the repair and maintenance of radar, satellite-communications and navigational systems. After completing military service, Steve earned a bachelor’s degree in computer information and science with a minor in business administration. He continues to work part-time as a coordinator with the local, nonprofit United Services Organization (USO). At MedAxiom, Steve is responsible for assisting in contract, database, Website and listserv management. He also provides member support in updating records and providing access to MedAxiom Websites.

Corporate Relations

Chris Romeo, V.P. Corporate Relations

Chris worked in the cardiac-device field for more than seventeen years for companies including Terumo, Baxter, PLC Medical, ATS Medical and Shelhigh. The vast majority of Chris’s experience has been at the Regional, Director and Vice President levels of management. Chris holds a bachelor of economics degree from the College of William and Mary and studied in the MBA Program at George Mason University.

Marketing

Jim Gann, V.P. Marketing

Jim brings 20 years of marketing experience to MedAxiom with most of that time spent as an agency account director developing advertising and marketing programs for local, national and international brands. He has experience with several medical practices, a hospital and urgent care center in addition to a variety of business and retail brands. Jim will manage brand development as well as marketing programs and support for the MedAxiom product lines. He will also work with the lines of business to expand their service offerings and develop new ones. Jim holds a bachelor's degree in advertising from the University of Florida.

MJ Ruffing, Event Planner

MJ joined MedAxiom in 2005 to take over the planning, coordination and management of MedAxiom's conferences and special events. MJ plays a tremendous role in delivering services to our members. MJ has a degree in Hospitality Management from Johnson and Wales University. She has twenty years of restaurant management experience which includes corporate and independent operations. MJ also worked as a consultant for a broadline distributor assisting restaurants, country clubs and government facilities in the Washington, D.C. area maximize their sales revenues and profitability.

Claudia Urbano, Creative/Marketing Manager

Claudia Urbano has 12 years experience in creative development, brand creation and maintenance in advertising and marketing. In the past, she has worked in the agency environment and successfully lead a graphic design studio. Claudia joined MedAxiom to manage the brand and sub-brand identity and usage, marketing coordination, campaign development and implementation, communication channel management and exhibit support. Claudia holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the University of North Florida.

MedXpert Knowledgebase

Joe Sasson, V.P. Strategic Initiatives

Joe’s background includes a Ph.D. in behavioral science and a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology. His expertise lies in improving organization, process and human performance in corporations. Joe has been a performance-improvement consultant in a number of industries as both an internal and external consultant. He has also taught at three universities and continues to remain on the faculty at two of them as an adjunct professor. He has spent recent years developing Web-based knowledge-management systems for the U.S. Department of Defense, including the United States Army, Navy and Coast Guard. Dr. Sasson is an active presenter at many domestic and international conferences, and he continues to publish in scholarly journals and popular outlets. His division aims to provide MedAxiom members with knowledge that will increase the productivity and efficiency of their practices.

Teresa Stuckey, MedXpert Operations / Content Director

Teresa has worked in cardiology administration for over 22 years. Her diverse background includes experience in medical-office management, medical-transcription management, managed care, procedure coding and HR management. She has served as a branch manager of the Jacksonville Heart Center, where she supervised daily operations. She was also transcription-department manager and was responsible for daily operations of an EMR implementation. She also assisted in the merger of two cardiology practices. Teresa has been with MedAxiom from its inception, working in many capacities for the company, including overseeing member relations, customer service, meeting planning, HR, and database and listserv administration. She has contributed to marketing, Website development and group purchasing as well. Teresa is currently working in the Knowledgebase division of MedAxiom that compiles and shares knowledge to better serve our membership.

Practice Management Consulting

Shannon Loewy, Performance Improvement Specialist

Shannon holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Florida State University and a Master of Arts degree in industrial/organizational psychology from Western Michigan University. Shannon has conducted research and performance improvement projects in a range of settings with a specific focus on healthcare. She conducted process redesign projects, as well as a large-scale study on e-prescribing, at a Baldrige Award-winning hospital. Shannon also assisted in the development of a Web-based knowledge-management system for the U.S. Department of Defense, and began working for MedAxiom in 2005 as part of the MedXpert team. Shannon now enjoys working with practices to improve performance as part of MedAxiom consulting, as well as contributing to the development and implementation of the Advanced Cardiology Leadership Workshops.

Shannon is certified in Lean Healthcare by the University of Michigan and is very excited to be a facilitator for MedAxiom Consulting's newest service offering, MedWorkflow.

Katie Willerick, Performance Improvement Specialist

Katie received her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Western Michigan University where she also received her Master of Arts degree in industrial/organizational psychology. Katie has worked in the healthcare industry, specifically hospitals, since 2005. Katie worked for a Baldrige Award-winning hospital in the Midwest. She was a part of the safety department for three years where she completed multiple Failure Modes and Effects Analyses (FMEAs), enforced various regulatory requirements, and also instituted a hand hygiene observation program for the hospital. Katie moved to the Process Management department in 2007 where she was certified in Lean and received her Green Belt in Six Sigma from Motorola University. She facilitated many Kaizen (process improvement) events throughout the organization and was also responsible for identifying and helping managers develop productivity metrics for their department as well as finding optimal compare groups to benchmark their performance against. Katie began working for MedAxiom in 2009 where she works on hospital integration, developing measures for Cardiovascular service lines, as well as performance improvement projects.

Benchmarking Reports And Custom Surveys

John Rennie, Systems Analyst

John has more than fourteen years of experience in the IT profession. His area of expertise is in Excel macro and spreadsheet design, development and implementation. John has been the chief architect of the MedAxiom Benchmarking reports, including the current trending and landscape-benchmarking graph design and the outlier-analysis summaries. He also provides extensive customer support to CLA and MedAxiom customers and has developed numerous customized reports and spreadsheets for practice administrators and physicians.

Business Office And Coding Network

Marjorie A. Amato, Director, Business Office and Coding Network

Margie Amato, MBA, RHIA, ACS-CA, has worked in health care administration for over 25 years. In her role as Director of MedAxiom’s Business Office Coding Network (BOCN) Margie helps member practices improve the profitability and effectiveness of the complete billing process. This is accomplished through extensive coding educational programs, networking and by utilizing a management system of key indicators to measure and benchmark each step of the billing process.

Her health care experience varies from coding and quality/utilization management to oncology service-line management. The most recent years have been devoted to cardiology practice management. Before coming to MedAxiom, Margie served as Practice Administrator for Utah Heart Clinic for 10 years and then served as the Director of Physician Services for a Salt Lake City hospital where she started and managed a cardiology practice, a neurosurgery practice, and a hospitalist program.

Margie holds a Bachelors Degree in Health Information Management from the College of Saint Mary and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska. Margie maintains credentials as a Registered Health Information Administrator and an Advanced Coding Specialist in Cardiology.

Margie currently serves on the Board of Medical Specialty Coding where she writes and updates test questions for the ACS-CA and SCP-CA Cardiology coding exams. She recently served on the Utah Health Information Management Association Board as the Director of Alternate Care. Margie also served in the Presidency of the Utah MGMA Board of Directors for 7 years.

Information Technology

Shawn K. Smith, Systems Analyst

Shawn served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he supervised and maintained the computer network of the Staff Judge Advocate. A Microsoft Certified Professional, he has more than ten years’ experience in the information-technology profession. He has extensive knowledge of computer hardware and software, including Microsoft, IBM and Hewlett-Packard products. As the Systems Analyst at MedAxiom, Shawn is responsible for installation, configuration and inventory of all computer hardware, software and network-communication equipment. He also troubleshoots network-performance issues, manages disaster-recovery plans, ensures network (LAN/WAN) security and provides technical support for the staff of MedAxiom.

Craig Leidy, Systems Analyst

Craig has forty years of data-processing experience. He has been programming application SQL databases for more than twenty years and has seven years of P&L experience. Craig is responsible for the MedAxiom application conversion to the new Web-based delivery system. This includes database design, referential integrity, database triggers, queries, reporting and graphing.

Justin Rennie, Technical Support Specialist

Justin Rennie has been working as a MedAxiom Tech Support Specialist for over four years. His experience covers all areas within Windows, both hardware and software. This range extends from the operating system through networking, disk maintenance,  peripheral support and general trouble shooting. At the beginning of 2008 Justin came on board as a full-time employee taking over responsibilities in the MedAxcess Cardiology area. He now creates, maintains, and is responsible for the build-up of all Cardiology measures. Justin is behind the scenes but plays a vital role in the delivery of one of MedAxiom's most valuable services. Justin is certified in both CompTIA and A+, he is an invaluable contributor to our IT team and is an amazing resource for all of us confronted with the challenges of IT.

Justin King, Technical Support Specialist

Justin King joined MedAxiom in September 2008 to add to the growing demands of IT support for MedAxiom's MedAxcess database tool. Initially, Justin jumped right into development and quality control for the conversion of all historical survey data migrating from the legacy system into the new "cube" application where it resides today. Justin excelled at every aspect of his position and has been assigned responsibility for supporting the MedAxcess online tool outside of cardiology. Justin currently supports a group of orthopedic practices who utilize the MedAxcess database tool in a similar fashion as our MedAxiom members. The number of groups started out small and required a tremendous amount of customization. Today over 50 groups contribute data and engage in mining practice financial data to improve their performance. We call it "Powered by MedAxiom."

Operations

Carolyn Heap, Bookkeeper

Carolyn joined MedAxiom in January 2006 in a part-time role to support the corporate office with administrative and conference activities and quickly showed her skills for customer service and accounting. Her background is in Property Management and Real Estate and in 1996 obtained her Florida Real Estate License and managed multi-unit properties, single-family homes and student properties for Florida State University. Today, Carolyn is the company bookkeeper responsible for all aspects of A/R, A/P and reporting. Carolyn has twin girls and is PTA President for her local elementary school for 2005-2006.