All posts by imreal

AssuredPartners Acquires Ventura Pacific Insurance Services


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“We feel this team is a great partner for us in a great territory. They value cultivating relationships with customers, and we look forward to collaborating with their team of experts,” stated AssuredPartners President and COO Tom Riley.

AssuredPartners, Inc. is pleased to announce the acquisition of Ventura Pacific Insurance Services located in Agoura Hills, CA. The team of 9 will remain under the leadership of Vincent Lopez and Keith Tisherman while the operation structure will report into Tolman & Wiker Insurance Services. Tolman & Wiker of Ventura, California recently joined AssuredPartners and will continue to operate their multiple locations while integrating Venture Pacific into the fold. The agency currently reports $1.6 million in annualized revenues.

“Ventura Pacific Insurance Services has 50 years of combined experience in providing personal and commercial insurance. We are dedicated to offering our clients the best available products and advice,” stated Vincent Lopez. “We are excited to join AssuredPartners and we believe that a larger partner allows us to better service our clients as we continually strive to provide quality services,” said Keith Tisherman.

AssuredPartners Regional President Mike Paschke stated, “Ventura Pacific Insurance Services possesses a strong dedication to understanding their client’s needs. We are pleased to have new members added to our growing team who are knowledgeable and passionate in delivering customer service excellence and industry expertise.”

“We would like to welcome the staff and clientele of Ventura Pacific Insurance Services to AssuredPartners,” stated AssuredPartners President and COO Tom Riley. “We feel this team is a great partner for us in a great territory. They value cultivating relationships with customers, and we look forward to collaborating with their team of experts.”

For more information on Ventura Pacific Insurance Services, please visit:

http://www.venturapacificinsurance.com.

ABOUT ASSUREDPARTNERS, INC

Headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida and led by Jim Henderson and Tom Riley, AssuredPartners, Inc. acquires and invests in insurance brokerage businesses (property and casualty, employee benefits, surety and MGU’s) across the United States and in London. From its founding in March of 2011, AssuredPartners has grown to over $1.2 billion in annualized revenue and continues to be one of the fastest growing insurance brokerage firms in the United States with over 250 offices in 30 states and London. For more information, please contact Dean Curtis, CFO, at 407.708.0031 or dean.curtis@assuredpartners.com, or visit http://www.assuredpartners.com.

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Anvyl Appoints Executive Leader to Prepare for Next Stage of Growth


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Bill Hobbs joins Anvyl as CRO

“The innovative platform Anvyl has built will transform the landscape of how companies manage and optimize supply chains. I am excited to work with Rodney and the Anvyl team to rapidly scale the business and deliver actionable supply chain solutions that drive transformational efficiency.” – Bill H.

Anvyl, an intelligent supply chain platform delivering automation and predictive analytics to the world’s largest global supply chains, announced the appointment of Bill Hobbs as Chief Revenue Officer. In this role, Hobbs will be responsible for go-to-market operations, expanding Anvyl’s presence globally. Hobbs’ appointment follows the company recently being named a Forbes Cloud 100 Rising Star and the completion of its Series A round of funding led by Redpoint Ventures.

“Over the past year, Anvyl has continued to grow at an accelerated pace, doubling our revenue and customer count, and launched a new Production Hub platform for those responsible for supply chain workflow across retail, DTC, and manufacturing companies,” said Rodney Manzo, CEO and Co-Founder of Anvyl. “As we enter another growth phase, Bill’s expertise in building top-line customer success, sales, and marketing teams and developing tested go-to-market product strategies will be critical.”

Recognized as one of the Top 100 Global Sales Leaders and Customer Success Strategists, Hobbs has built top-performing business units in the Fortune 500 world, led large-scale business transformations optimizing supply chains in manufacturing and distribution, and delivered consistent growth for software companies in New York and Silicon Valley. Prior to Anvyl, Hobbs led global sales at Totango, a leading enterprise customer success software company.

“Working with Anvyl allows me to not only leverage my experience in software transformation, but also apply much of the supply chain experience I gained while working in manufacturing and distribution,” Hobbs said. “The innovative platform Anvyl has built will transform the landscape of how companies manage and optimize supply chains. I am excited to work with Rodney and the Anvyl team to rapidly scale the business and deliver actionable supply chain solutions that drive transformational efficiency.”

About Anvyl:

Anvyl’s Intelligent Supply Chain Platform streamlines supply chain communication, automates workflows, and delivers real-time production analytics from order to delivery. Companies across the globe use Anvyl to mitigate risk across their supply chains and save millions of dollars in operational costs. Anvyl’s digital platform delivers transparency across the supply chain, surfaces key production insights for users, and provides predictive analytics to improve operational efficiency. A variety of customers across manufacturing and distribution rely on Anvyl for their operational success from COOs, global supply chain managers, and procurement leaders. You can find more information and see customer examples at anvyl.com/customers.

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New Laboratory of Industrial Fluidic Translation (LIFT) to Develop Microfluidic Device Tests for the Diagnostic Market


Cryopak Canada and Launchworks Manufacturing Lab are announcing a collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to create the Laboratory of Industrial Fluidic Translation (LIFT).

New Laboratory of Industrial Fluidic Translation (LIFT) to Develop Microfluidic Device Tests for the Diagnostic Market

“The NRC’s 20 years of experience in scientific development combined with Launchworks ISO 13485 manufacturing capabilities will provide point-of-care diagnostic companies a complete and cost-effective service solution,” said Jeff Kelly, VP of Corporate Development for Cryopak.

Cryopak Canada and Launchworks Manufacturing Lab are announcing a collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to create the Laboratory of Industrial Fluidic Translation (LIFT). By joining their knowledge in nanofabrication and lab-on-a-chip technologies and in manufacturing, LIFT will offer a competitive capacity to accelerate the creation, certification and deployment of microfluidic bio-devices, a one-stop shop expertise and service not available in North America.

LIFT will support the diagnostic device industry’s objectives by combining the NRC’s expertise in sciences, materials, and design with Launchworks’ expertise in cGMP and ISO 13485 manufacturing at clinical and industrial scale. Through this partnership, the organizations will work with diagnostic companies to translate microfluidic application ideas into workable devices.

“Microfluidic diagnostic companies are driving device development to be faster, easier to use and more cost effective,” said Jeff Kelly, VP of Corporate Development for Cryopak. “The NRC’s 20 years of experience in scientific development combined with Launchworks ISO 13485 manufacturing capabilities will provide point-of-care diagnostic companies a complete and cost-effective service solution to rapidly bring their ideas to successful commercialization.”

Design and development will be done at the NRC in Montréal, with manufacturing to be done initially at the LaunchWorks facility in Beverly, MA, and plans to develop an additional manufacturing facility with Cryopak Canada in the near future. Cryopak and LaunchWorks are affiliate companies both owned by TCP Reliable.

For further information, please visit http://www.LaunchWorksML.com, http://www.cryopak.ca, or https://nrc.canada.ca/en

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UMD Researcher Discovers a New Mechanism in the Liver that Helps Prevent Invasive Fungal Infections


Liver macrophage cells

Liver macrophage cells, Credit: Nephron

“This is a protective mechanism that is working once the fungus becomes invasive, or gets into the bloodstream, to prevent it from spreading. Stopping the dissemination process throughout the body is so important, because once you get dissemination, you get the disease.”

As a world-renowned expert using intravital microscopy to observe fungal infection progression in live samples, Meiqing Shi, associate professor with the University of Maryland Department of Veterinary Medicine, continues to make new breakthroughs in the field. In his latest paper published in Nature Communications, Shi and his lab have discovered a new pathway by which liver macrophages called Kupffer cells (KCs) capture potentially fatal fungi in the bloodstream before dissemination to target organs like the brain or kidney. This mechanism not only provides an explanation as to why individuals with liver disease tend to have enhanced risk of contracting fungal infections, but it also points to therapeutic options that could be used in the future to prevent fungal dissemination and invasive fungal infections, which kill 1.5 million people worldwide each year.

“Under intravital microscopy, we can directly see how the KCs catch fungi in real time,” says Shi. “This is a protective mechanism that is working once the fungus becomes invasive, or gets into the bloodstream, to prevent it from spreading. Stopping the dissemination process throughout the body is so important, because once you get dissemination, you get the disease. These findings suggest therapeutic strategies for preventing dissemination, and this could be applied across many types of fungal infections, since they work in similar ways.”

Fungal infections affect 1.2 billion people globally each year. In the current paper, Shi specifically examined two types of fungi – Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans. Both of these fungi, if disseminated to their target organs (the brain for Cryptococcus and the kidney for Candida), are fatal infections that are very difficult to treat once contracted. Cryptococcus, for example, is the main cause of meningitis. Each year, more than a million people are infected and contract meningitis, and 60% of those who are infected will die from the disease.

“Cryptococcus and Candida are fungi that are actually everywhere,” says Shi. “People with healthy immune systems can usually control the fungi after infection, but once it gets into the bloodstream, either one of these fungi can get into the target organs and become fatal. For Cryptococcus, this is especially a problem for those with impaired immune systems, like HIV patients or organ transplant patients. Patients with liver disease are also more prone to Cryptococcus infection, and no one understood why before.”

This new discovery that KCs or liver macrophages are responsible for catching free fungi in the bloodstream to prevent further dissemination helps explain this phenomenon, since if the liver is impaired as it is in patients with liver disease, it would stand to reason that this protective mechanism would also be impaired.

“This finding is very interesting and very unusual, because in the field of fungal infections, nobody focuses on the liver,” says Shi. “Researchers tend to look at the target organs like the brain or kidney. The liver is not a target organ, but it tries to clean out the fungus in the bloodstream. As the whole body is connected, this paper gives a more whole system approach to how fungal dissemination interacts in the entire body.”

With this whole body approach in mind, the discovery of this mechanism has implications not just for those with liver disease, but for the treatment of fungal infections as a whole by targeting this mechanism, preventing fungal dissemination, and treating invasive fungal infections.

The paper, entitled “Fungal dissemination is limited by liver macrophage filtration of the blood,” is published in Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12381-5.

This work is funded by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, grant AI131219.

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Cybera Earns Industry Accolades for Excellence in Technology and Services


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“We are extremely proud to have earned these awards for our product innovations as well as our dedicated support of customers,” said Bethany Allee, executive vice president of Marketing at Cybera.

Cybera, the leader in SD-WAN application and security services for the network edge, today announced industry accolades from two programs that recognize excellence in technology and services.

The first program, the 2019 Security Excellence Award from IoT Evolution World, was given to the company’s platform, the CyberaONE™ Solution, which applies software-defined networking principles to modernize the Wide-Area-Network (WAN) into a unique form of SD-WAN. Security is embedded in the CyberaONE Solution, using a services framework designed around the concept of micro segmentation. This approach ensures that each application can operate within its own virtual network and fits well for customers who want to tailor security and performance policies while also reducing networking costs.

“We are extremely proud to have earned these awards for our product innovations as well as our dedicated support of customers,” said Bethany Allee, executive vice president of Marketing at Cybera. “Our priority is to deliver the highest-quality network, security, and IT resources needed to operate a business at the edge of the enterprise. By fulfilling this essential need, we’re providing customers with the freedom to focus more of their time and resources on strategic business initiatives and growth.”

CyberaVUE™ also earned the highest designation of “Gold” for managed security service innovation in the Golden Bridge Awards, an annual recognition program honoring the best companies in every major industry in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin-America. The award honors organizations delivering exemplary software or hardware solutions that secure IoT devices and networks.

CyberaVUE provides customers with real-time analytics and visibility to monitor network health and performance while dramatically reducing costs. CyberaVUE also helps to optimize application performance, enhance brand protection, and accelerate speed-to-market at remote customer sites.

Additionally, the company received a “Gold” designation from the Golden Bridge Awards as the “support team of the year.”

More than 160 judges from around the world participated in the awards contest, and their average scores determined the 2019 Golden Bridge Awards Finalists and Winners. Winners will be honored in San Francisco on October 28, 2019, during the annual Red Carpet SVUS Awards Ceremony.

For more information on these and other industry awards Cybera has received, please visit http://www.cybera.com/company-about-cybera/achievements/.

To learn more about the CyberaONE™ Solution or CyberaVUE, or to schedule a demo, please visit http://www.cybera.com/solutions/.

About Cybera Inc.

Cybera is the only cloud-based managed application network and security services company to fundamentally change the way distributed businesses use technology. The company’s purpose-built SD-WAN Edge solution empowers secure, accelerated adoption of new applications and services. Cybera technology is customer-proven at more than 90,000 locations worldwide supporting point-of-sale, loyalty, mobile payment, tank monitoring, and digital signage applications. For more information about Cybera, visit cybera.com.

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© 2019 Cybera, Inc. All rights reserved. Cybera is a registered trademark of Cybera, Inc., in the United States and in other countries. Other brands, product names, or trademarks may belong to third parties.

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Bangers LP Selects Nightstick’s TWM-Series Full Size and TCM-Series Compact Weapon Lights


Bangers have established themselves as a leader based on their ability to provide their clientele with the latest professional-grade products, and we could not be more pleased to be their cornerstone lighting partner for the betterment of the entire shooting sports industry.

Nightstick is pleased to announce Bangers, LP recently added Nightstick’s full-size TWM-850XL and compact TCM-550XL handgun lights as its primary line of LED weapon lights. Nightstick’s partnership with Bangers, one of the leading hunting and shooting sports product distributors in the southwest provides enhanced choices to shooters and hunters who demand professional-grade lighting.

“Banger’s choice of Nightstick as their preferred weapon light provider makes a strong statement that they understand and take the needs and wants of the shooting sports community seriously,” says Russell Hoppe, Marketing Director for Nightstick. “The trust and widespread mass adoption of Nightstick tactical lighting by LE agencies and departments worldwide have not gone unnoticed in the retail marketplace. Bangers have established themselves as a leader based on their ability to provide their clientele with the latest professional-grade products, and we could not be more pleased to be their cornerstone lighting partner for the betterment of the entire shooting sports industry.”

Among the popular products from Nightstick now in stock and available from Bangers are Mini-Tac metal flashlights, 1000-lumen area lights with rare-earth magnet base and optional 6’ tripod, LED traffic safety light wands, USB tactical lights as well as polymer and all-metal duty-sized flashlights.

Dealers can place an order for Nightstick products through Bangers by calling 1-800-226-4377. To establish an account as a Bangers dealer, contact them through their website at https://www.bangersusa.com/dealer-registration

About BANGERS, LP

Headquartered in Birmingham, AL, Bangers LP is a leading wholesale distributor of hunting and shooting sports products with regional sales offices in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Learn more at http://www.bangersusa.com.

To learn more, please visit http://www.nightstick.com.

About NIGHTSTICK®

Designed and manufactured by Bayco Products, Inc., Nightstick is a global brand of professional lighting products, including flashlights, headlamps and Intrinsically Safe lighting solutions that continue to exceed industry standards in performance, quality, user-safety, and value. Nightstick’s vast line-up of LED lighting products delivers optimal performance with real-world applications in mind. With an unwavering commitment to product quality and exceptional customer service, Nightstick – Life Depends on Light™.

To find a global retailer near you, visit: https://www.baycoproducts.com/wtb-ns

Find us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.

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Global Wellness Institute Releases 2nd White Paper in its “Understanding Wellness” Series


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The wellness economy is now a $4.2 trillion global industry, yet the growth has been largely a private sector phenomenon and off the radar of most government leaders, policymakers and economic developers.

The Global Wellness Institute™ (GWI), a nonprofit research and educational resource for the world wellness industry, today released the second white paper in its “Understanding Wellness” series. The white papers are designed to serve as primers for policymakers, businesspeople, researchers and students on how wellness has become a major force around the world and the ways it will evolve in the future.

This second paper, “Opportunities and Impacts of the Wellness Economy for Regional Development,” outlines the ways a growing wellness industry can facilitate development and growth in countries, regions and communities around the world.

READ THE WHITE PAPER HERE

“The wellness economy is now a $4.2 trillion global industry, yet the growth has been largely a private sector phenomenon and off the radar of most government leaders, policymakers and economic developers,” explained Ophelia Yeung, GWI senior researcher and coauthor of the series.

“We think it’s time governments around the world start paying more attention to this crucial sector, not only because it enables economic development, competitiveness and growth, but because it has massive implications in the arenas of health, urban planning, environmental and cultural sustainability, workforce equity and diversity, social and cultural affairs, and much more,” continued Katherine Johnston, GWI senior researcher and coauthor of the series.

Wellness is now over half the size of global health expenditures, which were estimated at $7.3 trillion in 2015*. As an industry, wellness is a major force in the global economy—close in size to the information and communications technology (ICT) industry and larger than the sports, pharmaceuticals, and travel and tourism industries.

Expect in-depth, digestible analysis on the following topics:

Wellness is an economic growth driver.

  • Employment creation and small business development
  • Promotion of locally sourced, produced and branded products
  • Women’s empowerment and benefits to families


Wellness improves public health.

  • Mitigating rising healthcare costs
  • Improving health equity by engaging wellness workers in the community
  • Addressing the growing mental health epidemic
  • Harnessing indigenous wellness knowledge, traditions and modalities


Wellness supports the protection of natural and cultural assets.

  • Environmental protection
  • Preserve and celebrate local culture and heritage
  • Mitigate tourism-related challenges


Wellness supports workforce development and worker welfare.

  • Developing new models and solutions for businesses and workers


For more information, contact Beth McGroarty: beth.mcgroarty@globalwellnessinstitute.org.

About the Global Wellness Institute: The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a nonprofit 501(c)(3), is considered the leading global research and educational resource for the global wellness industry and is known for introducing major industry initiatives and regional events that bring together leaders to chart the future. GWI positively impacts global health and wellness by advocating for both public institutions and businesses that are working to help prevent disease, reduce stress, and enhance the overall quality of life. Its mission is to empower wellness worldwide.

*Global health expenditures data from: WHO, Global Health Expenditures Database, http://apps.who.int/nha/database/Home/Index/en. 2015 is the most recent year available.

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Clinicians Not Consistent With Guidelines When Managing HIV/HCV Coinfection


“In many cases where learners initially selected an option that differed from the guidelines, they indicated that they would change their treatment plan to match the guidelines after using the tool.” – Edward King, Executive Vice President of CCO

Many healthcare providers showed discordance from guideline recommendations in their first-line treatment selection for patients coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV), according to an analysis of data from an online treatment decision support tool developed by Clinical Care Options (CCO) during the past year.

The online tool allows users to define a patient case scenario using variables, such as current HIV therapy, HCV genotype, and liver histology, and receive instant recommendations from published guidelines. In more than one third of the 972 cases entered into the online tool between August 2018 and August 2019, users selected treatments that were inconsistent with guideline recommendations. Key areas of inconsistency involved user choices that were suboptimal due to drug–drug interactions, specific HCV genotype or HIV drug resistance, or the patient’s renal function or HLA-B*5701 status.

“In many cases where learners initially selected an option that differed from the guidelines, they indicated that they would change their treatment plan to match the guidelines after using the tool,” said Edward King, Executive Vice President of CCO. “Decision support tools such as this may improve outcomes for people coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C by helping healthcare providers to make optimal treatment choices.”

The results were presented October 3 at IDWeek 2019 in Washington, DC, and can be reviewed at https://www.clinicaloptions.com/publications/2019/10_2019_hcvhivcoinfection

About Clinical Care Options

Clinical Care Options, LLC, is a global leader in the development of innovative educational programs and technology platforms. CCO’s team has been a pioneer in the creation of continuing education and decision support resources for healthcare professionals both in the United States and around the world for more than 2 decades. For more information, visit clinicaloptions.com.

Contact:

Tradd Sanderson

Director of Marketing

Clinical Care Options

Telephone: 855.224.2241

tsanderson@clinicaloptions.com

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Top Insurance Experts Present A New Guide On Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online


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“With some driving habit changes and comparison shopping, you can reduce the overall costs for auto insurance. Visit our website for more car insurance info,” said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com has published a new guide to comparing online car insurance quotes.

For more info and free quotes, visit http://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com/learn-how-to-get-and-compare-car-insurance-quotes/

Car insurance rates are calculated based on the risk of insuring a person. They directly influence the premiums and overall insurance costs. In order to have an idea of how much they are expected to pay, clients should get free quotes from http://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com/ and compare prices!

There are several rules to follow when comparing quotes:


  • Understand the main factors that influence premiums. There are many factors taken into consideration when determining insurance costs. The most influential factors are: car’s make and model, driving history, demographic factors, recent claims and traffic violations and coverage options. Each factor must be properly analyzed.
  • After understanding his own risk profile, a client should get car insurance quotes. Make a list with top reputable companies and get quotes for each one of them. Additionally, use brokerage websites to get multiple quotes at once. There will be many smaller, more local companies included in those quotes obtained from brokerage websites.
  • Brokerage websites allow for faster price comparison. Furthermore, all results are obtained using the same data and for the same product. This gives no room for errors. Clients who use brokerage websites can quickly sort offers by prices. But do not be guided only by price. Check what other benefits and bonuses can be obtained by applying to each offer.
  • There are several ways to improve rates. Making several changes will help drivers get better rates. Driving less than the average driver, graduating defensive driving courses or installing safety gear will greatly improve the rates.

Cheapquotesautoinsurance.com is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.

For more information, please visit http://cheapquotesautoinsurance.com/

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PotentiaMetrics Announces the Appointment of Dr. Jerry Henderson as Chief Medical Officer


“I could not be more thrilled to add Jerry to the team. His experience and expertise in the field will be invaluable to PotentiaMetrics.”

PotentiaMetrics, an Austin, TX based healthcare data and artificial intelligence company, appointed distinguished innovator, Dr. Jerry Henderson as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Henderson will be responsible for the development and management of the firms’ clinical data registries analytics platforms.

Dr. Henderson previously served as Chair of both the Informatics Governance and the Inpatient Clinical Informatics Committees at MD Anderson. During his 15-year tenure at MD Anderson he implemented an Oncologic Emergency Medicine fellowship, the first of its kind in the world. He also designed and implemented Zero-G, an oncologic-specific electronic health record that led to him receiving The Innovator of the Year award.

Dr. Henderson has special interest in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine-learning, and deep learning to support and improve patient care. The MyCancerJourney platform provides patient-specific survival estimates while improving clinical outcomes and empowering patients to become partners in the decision-making process.

Dr. Henderson earned his medical degree from Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and completed his MBA at Rice University. He maintains a board certification in Clinical Informatics.

Robert Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, stated, “I could not be more thrilled to add Jerry to the team. His experience and expertise in the field will be invaluable to PotentiaMetrics.”

About PotentiaMetrics 

PotentiaMetrics develops unique outcomes and insights solutions to support more informed, value-based treatment decisions that lead to better outcomes and reduced costs.

To learn more about PotentiaMetrics, visit: http://www.potentiametrics.com 

To learn more about MyCancerJourney, visit: http://www.mycancerjourney.com

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