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Learning Insights Radio: Matthew Harrison with Jackson Healthcare

July 19, 2020 by angishields

Learning Insights

Learning Insights Radio: Matthew Harrison with Jackson Healthcare

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Matthew S. Harrison, PhD currently works at Jackson Healthcare as Vice President, Human Resources. In this role he is responsible for planning, directing, and overseeing all human resources and administrative service functions for various Jackson Healthcare companies, and leads delivery in the areas of talent management/acquisition, learning & development, employee relations, performance management, organizational development, change management, job & compensation analysis, HR metrics & reporting, and diversity & inclusion.

Previously, Dr. Harrison served in leadership roles at Manheim, McKesson, The Weather Channel, and Comcast focusing on talent management/acquisition, learning & development, organizational effectiveness, diversity & inclusion, and HR business partner work.

Dr. Harrison also currently serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology at The University of Georgia. He is a published diversity researcher and is renowned for his research on the topic of colorism. His master’s thesis received wide publicity–being featured on websites such as CNN, CNBC, ABC News, was reported in various newspapers and media outlets across the US (and United Kingdom), and received an initial inquiry from an executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Focusing in the area of workplace diversity, Dr. Harrison has authored a number of books chapters as well as several academic journal articles. He currently serves as a member of the American Psychological Association, Society for I/O Psychologists, Academy of Management, and sits on a few local boards in the Atlanta area.

Most recently, Dr. Harrison was recognized as one of Emory University’s Distinguished 40 Under 40 Alumni and was listed as an “Influencer” by The Atlanta Tribune magazine. He has also received Diversity Leadership Awards from the National Diversity Council and the Technology Association of Georgia.

Dr. Harrison is a graduate of Emory University (B.A.) and The University of Georgia (M.S. & Ph.D.).

Connect with Dr. Harrison on LinkedIn.

Innovative Health Technology

August 17, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Innovative Health Technology

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Bailey Ernstes, Jake Kazlow, and Jim Sullivan talk innovative health technologies

Innovative Health Technology

On this episode of Health Connect South Radio we featured two Atlanta companies developing innovative health technology. We hosted Monitor Med Solutions and HealPros to learn about the respective problems their solutions solve.

Monitor Med Solutions was founded by several Georgia Tech students to create a device that would use bluetooth technology to give hydrocephalus patients real-time monitoring data regarding their intracranial pressure via their mobile devices. Bailey Ernstes and Jake Kazlow, two of the co-founders, joined us to talk about their project.

As Bailey shared, as many as 1:500 babies are born with hydrocephalus, an abnormally-high intracranial pressure caused by a disruption in the normal flow of cerebral spinal fluid. These patients require that a shunt be implanted that will facilitate modulation of the intracranial pressure and prevent the numerous neurological problems and even death that can occur when pressure rises or falls beyond certain limits.

The challenge for these patients and their families is that the shunt technology itself has not evolved much since its inception. And, the shunts fail at a rate of roughly 40% of the time, typically due to occlusion. In most cases, the only way the patients discover there is a problem is when they begin to show symptoms of increased pressure.

Monitor Med Solutions, an Atlanta-based start-up has developed a device that interfaces with the intracranial shunt and contains a bluetooth transmitter. This enables the user to get pressure readings via an app on their mobile device, potentially allowing them to seek care before neurologic symptoms occur and/or preventing unnecessary ER admissions to seek care.

Jim Sullivan is CEO of HealPros. This company saw a need for closing the gap in preventive care for patients with diabetes. The diabetic population is at risk for blindness due to retinal damage that is caused by chronically-elevated glucose levels. It can take years of asymptomatic progression of the retinal damage for visual changes to occur. Because of this, many patients do not bother to seek out the recommended annual exams that could identify problematic changes early enough to do something about it.

HealPros utilizes teleimaging capabilities coupled with on-site technologists who can do exams in a physician’s office or even a patient’s home. The company partners with health plans and physician offices to coordinate visits with patients and conduct the necessary eye exam.

They then communicate results to patient, doctor, and health plan company and can help facilitate getting access to appropriate advanced care if an abnormality is found.

Special Guests

Bailey Ernstes, CEO of Monitor Med Solutions

BS Biomedical/Medical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
National Merit Scholar
Campoamor Study Abroad Scholarship Recipient
Previous Research Assistant, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Jake Kaslow, Co-founder and CTO of Monitor Med Solutions

BS Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jim Sullivan, CEO of HealPros

BA, MA, Economics & Finance, State University of New York at Binghamton
Business Professionals Course, Linguistics and Business Philosophy, The Aji Network
Former Analyst, Goldman Sachs
Previous Owner, Medical Imaging Specialists

Pediatric Health Technologies

April 24, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Pediatric Health Technologies

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Pediatric Health Technologies

This week we had experts on the show talking about developments in Pediatric Health Technologies. We were joined in studio by Leanne West, Principal Research Scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute, and Paul Spearman, Chief Research Officer with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. They came by to talk about the innovative collaboration between academic research institutions, Emory and Georgia Institute of Technology, that help accelerate the rate that important technologies can be made available to the pediatric patient population in need. Carly Kiseleczynk, CEO/Founder of BrainChild Technologies also came by to talk about the intriguing technology that allows parents to have more interactive interaction with young infants through their pacifier-controlled device that interfaces and can control applications and toys through non-nutritional sucking patterns.

We discussed the goals of these important Atlanta research institutions of helping pediatric health providers to treat the unique needs of very young patients. They have what they call a “Quick Wins” program where they engage with promising technology companies to help them bring their solutions to market within a very-fast 18 months.

Carly talked about how they were able to advance their work on developing an interactive technology that allows infants to learn how to control toys and tablet-based applications with their sucking patterns. The infants are able to turn on a mobile or night light, or make remote-controlled toys move. And they’re able to advance language skills through interacting with special tablet-based applications that can provide data on certain developmental milestones.

Both of these initiatives can benefit from financial support to allow them to hasten the pace of their research and make these helpful technologies available to pediatric patients in need sooner.

Special Guests:

Leanne West, Principal Research Scientist with Georgia Tech Research Institute

Education, Vanderbilt University
Former High School Physics Teacher
17 years as Research Scientist Georgia Tech Research Institute
Recipient, 2014 Woman of the Year, Georgia Women In Technology

Paul Spearman, Chief Research Officer with Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta

Doctor of Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
Residency, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, The Ohio State University
Residency, Infectious Disease, Washington University in St. Louis
Professor, Emory University School of Medicine

Carly Kiselyczynk, CEO/Founder, of BrainChild Technologies

PhD, Medical Sciences, Neurosciences, Karolinska Institutet
Published research author
Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale Depression Research Group
Recipient 2012 Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award

Intellimedix and Life University

April 1, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Intellimedix and Life University

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Intellimedix and Life University

This week we sat down with experts from Intellimedix and Life University. Intellimedix is an Atlanta-based company that uses high-powered computing algorithms, coupled with genetic testing to identify existing medications that could potentially be re-purposed to effectively treat illnesses other than the ones they were originally designed to treat. One of the company’s founders has a child who suffers from a severe form of epilepsy. Unfortunately, there are limited treatments known to be available that will provide relief from this debilitating condition. His daughter’s story influenced the decision to focus the company’s initial efforts on uncovering existing medications that could be successfully re-purposed to help folks dealing with this type of epilepsy and other neurologic disorders.

Chief Science Officer, Jeff Skolnick shared the example of how a blood pressure medication (Viagra) was re-purposed to treat erectile dysfunction. He went on the discuss the physiology/chemistry behind why this is possible and why it makes sense to look for existing, approved medications that have the ability to improve quality of life for patients dealing with illnesses different from those the medications are initially intended to treat. This approach saves a great deal of time and money over the years-long, massively-expensive process of developing a medication from ground zero to treat a particular condition; allowing patients in need to receive access to an effective treatment sooner.

Dr. Gilles LeMarche, VP of Professional Relations at Life University came by to talk about the undergraduate and graduate programs available at their Marietta, GA-based campus. They offer a number of health, wellness, and sports-related degrees ranging from chiropractic medicine, to vitalistic nutrition, functional kinesiology, and others. He shared their approach to wellness, applying the philosphy of “vitalism” allows their graduates to help their clients/patients by helping the body to heal itself; as it is ideally capable of doing when interfering factors are removed.

Special Guests:

Steven Hickson, CFO, Intellimedix

MBA, Global Executive MBA Program, IESE Business School, Barcelona Spain
BA Accounting, NC State University
Previous Senior Auditor, Turner Broadcasting System
Former SVP, New Media & Premium Channels, Fox International Channels- Asia

Jeff Skolnick, PhD, Chief Science Officer, Intellimedix

Director, Center for Study of Systems Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology
PhD, Chemistry, Yale University
Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair in Computational Systems Biology
Associate Director, Integrated Biosystems Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology

Gilles Lamarche, DCM, VP, Professional Relations, Life University

Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College
Certified Six Advisors Coach, 6 Advisors Coaching Academy
Former Vice President, Parker College of Chiropractic
Fluent in French

Some backing music provided by: www.pacdv.com/sounds/

Diabetes Prevention Planning Team

January 21, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Diabetes Prevention Planning Team

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Diabetes Prevention Planning Team

According to the CDC, as many as 28 million Americans have diabetes. And as many as 1:4 of them do not realize they have it. That means today, potentially almost 10% of the US population are dealing with this chronic disease that puts them at risk for a myriad of health problems (many of them deadly), including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, limb loss due to amputation, poor healing after surgery, greater risk for infections, and more. It’s clearly a serious problem. And, with an ever-growing number of obese persons in the country, including a concerning number of young people, these statistics are likely to grow. In light of these sobering facts, a number of key players within the community from government agencies to health care providers, and innovative companies are beginning to put significant effort into preventing diabetes. In Atlanta, the Diabetes Prevention Planning Team is a group of forward-thinking executives, health experts, and political officers who are joining together to do just that.

This week we were joined in studio by Dr. Luci Ide, CEO of Rimidi Diabetes, and Karl Smith, PhD, Project Manager of Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential (GCAPP). Rimidi Diabetes is a health technology company that has developed and launched an application that enables diabetes patients to track and share key health-related data points with the clinicians guiding their care. With this information, the patients and providers are able to better monitor glucose levels and other indicators and determine how behavioral and medical treatment changes are impacting the patient’s condition. Luci is one of the team members for the Diabetes Prevention Planning Team and she talked about how increasing awareness of the disease and how it can be prevented are important facets of combating diabetes. She used the analogy of a bath tub, where how quickly it fills is determined by how much water flows out of the drain (patients dying as a result of the disease) versus how much is flowing in from the faucet (new diabetes patients). She went on to discuss the fact that today, more patients are living longer and managing their diabetes better than in the past. Our next challenge is to begin to decrease the number of new patients developing diabetes in populations where it can be prevented.

Karl Smith, also a member of the Diabetes Prevention Planning Team, shared how GCAPP is working to engage faith-based organizations in Atlanta communities that have populations that are at a high genetic risk for developing diabetes in an effort to educate young people who live there on how and why they can reduce their risk. He talked about how these communities tend to be “gymnasium deserts”, having few if any facilities that would allow kids to be physically active in a safe place. He went on to share how these communities also tend to have limited availability of quality whole foods that are healthy choices that decrease risk of obesity and are more heart-/diabetes-friendly.

Our discussion focused on how the Diabetes Prevention Planning Team is working to pull more resources together to help reduce the rate of new diabetes patients in our communities. We talked about how public service announcements are being put together by the county government, and how their team needs access to funding to support web development, additional PSA information, and more manpower to help handle some of the work necessary to grow the network of support/collaboration. We hope our listeners share this information so that we can have a significant impact on this disease that is costly in its effect on our community’s health as well as financially.

Special Guests:

Dr. Luci Ide, MD, PhD, CEO of Rimidi Diabetes

MD/PhD Emory University
Residency, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Magee-Womens Hospital
2014 Recipient, Ross Baird Award for Excellent, Village Capital
Former Associate, Monarch Capital Partners

Mark Smith, PhD, Program Manager of Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential

Doctor of Health Education, A.T.Still University of Health Sciences
MS, Exercise Science and Health Promotion, California University of Pennsylvania
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Exercise Is Medicine Specialist, American College of Sports Medicine

Diana Keough, CEO/Founder of ShareWIK.com

Journalism Instructor/Guest Lecturer, Emory University
Member, Koles College of Business Advisory Board, Kennsaw State University
Former Front Page Series Writer, The Plain Dealer
Former Reporter/Commentator, WKSU
Co-author, “Building a Business, Building a Life: The Incredible Life of a Woman Business Owner”