Campus & Community

A crowd of more than 200 gathered yesterday for the Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce’s economic forum luncheon to hear more details about the new partnership between Palm Beach State College and Modernizing Medicine.

During the event, Modernizing Medicine CEO and founder Dan Cane and Palm Beach State President Ava Parker, J.D., spoke about the memorandum of understanding signed between the two organizations earlier this year to create an innovative training hub at the College’s new Loxahatchee Groves campus. The training is geared toward students preparing for health information technology careers and medical professionals learning to use systems for digitizing and managing patient records.

“Our physicians today spend more time treating their patient’s charts than they do their actual patients,” said Cane to the crowd, which included public officials, community leaders, entrepreneurs and local residents. “The demands placed on our healthcare system are strained and only getting more strained. That’s why it was important for us to reach out to educational institutions and start engaging students in their learning much sooner using the best and latest technology.”

Under the agreement, Palm Beach State students will have access to Modernizing Medicine’s groundbreaking iPad-based electronic health record (EHR) system,  EMA™, and Practice Management system™.

According to Cane, Modernizing Medicine has already developed a proven ophthalmology technology model. It is currently used in Palm Beach State’s Ophthalmic Medical Technology program, where students use the EHR system throughout the program.

“All 47 graduates of Palm Beach’s State’s ophthalmology program have already secured great jobs,” said Cane. “We are looking forward to taking the successful model and expanding it to multiple different verticals.”

Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who was filling in for Gov. Rick Scott, also addressed the crowd, noting how the agreement between PBSC and Modernizing Medicine supports the governor’s “Degrees to Jobs” initiative. Scott canceled the night before to help with Hurricane Hermine relief efforts in the Florida Panhandle.

“We are going to provide Palm Beach State with all the technology they need to have advanced classrooms and curriculum’s,” said Cane. “We’re also going to provide access to specialized programming and specialized certificate programming. And, the students will have an opportunity to connect with Modernizing Medicine employees and clients which will help them get hired right away after they graduate.”

In exchange, Modernizing Medicine, which employs approximately 500 people,  will have access to certain campus facilities, which Cane says will be used to provide training for the company’s employees and potential customers and for PBSC students learning the technology.

According to Cane, more than 2,600 practices have licensed Modernizing Medicine’s Technology.

“These practices are absolutely chomping at the bit to hire somebody right out of school who has already used and knows our technology,” said Cane.

Parker spoke about the great opportunity this partnership will be for students, as well as the employers who will hire them.

She also spoke about the Loxahatchee Groves campus and how it came to have a health science and health technology focus. The campus is set to open in the spring of 2017.

“We knew we wanted to have a campus that was STEM focused but also met the needs of the community,” said Parker. “I thought if we are going to be a real economic engine in the county, wouldn’t it be great to partner with a company to ensure we are putting together programs that our students can directly benefit from. That’s when we started the conversations with Dan, who has been such a good partner so far that it was only natural that we expanded it to our new campus.”

The luncheon was held at the Wycliffe Golf & Country Club in Wellington.