Hartford Business Journal

4 Hartford Business Journal•March2,2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com Hartford Business Journal (ISSN 1083-5245) is published weekly, 53 x per year including three special issues — one in September, one in November and one in December — by New England Business Media LLC, 15 Lewis Street, Suite 200, Hartford CT 06103. Periodicals postage paid at Hartford, CT. Tel: (860) 236-9998 • Fax (860) 570-2493 Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Hartford Business Journal P.O. Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894 www.copyright.com w w w. 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Lambot Sr. Accounts Manager, ext. 128 wlambot@HartfordBusiness.com Brittney Michaud Accounts Manager, ext. 133 bmichaud@HartfordBusiness.com Stephanie Kucharski Custom Publishing Projects Manager, ext. 129, skucharski@HartfordBusiness.com Kim Vautour Human Resource Director Raki Zwiebel Credit and Collections Manager Valerie Clark Accounting Assistant/Office Manager Gail Lebert Chair, Executive Advisory Board P r O d U C t I O N Lynn Mika Production Director/Marketing Coordinator, ext. 140 lmika@HartfordBusiness.com Christopher Wallace Art Director, ext. 147 cwallace@HartfordBusiness.com Vlada Shelkova Graphic Artist, ext. 148 Graphics@HartfordBusiness.com Peter Stanton CEO pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Joseph Zwiebel President & Group Publisher, ext. 132 jzwiebel@HartfordBusiness.com Mary Rogers Chief Financial Officer mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Subscriptions: annual subscriptions are $79.95. to subscribe, visit HartfordBusiness.com, email hartfordbusiness@cambey- west.com, or call (845) 267-3008. Advertising: for advertising information, please call (860) 236-9998. Please address all correspondence to: Hartford Business Journal, 15 lewis street, suite 200, Hart ford Ct 06103. News Department: if you have a news item: Call us at (860) 236-9998, fax us at (860) 570-2493, or e-mail us at editorial@HartfordBusiness.com Hartford Business Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does not return them to the sender. innovation coming from other areas, which is where we have directed our investments," Michaels said, adding that CI plans to increase its outreach to hospitals. Reputation leads to partnership Velano Vascular co-founder Eric Stone said he is well aware that Griffin's investment is atypical. Many medical tech startups like his turn to larger academic hospitals for ven- ture funding, he said in an interview. But it was actually Stone who sought out Griffin and Charmel last year, on the advice of a board member. "I've spoken with a lot of venture firms, and we wanted to ensure we had the right par- ties around the table," Stone said of Griffin. The board member, former Humana execu- tive Dr. Jack Lord, was familiar with Griffin's reputation in what the industry calls "patient- centered care," a philosophy and set of prac- tices that focuses on providing a better patient experience within the hospital. Charmel co- authored a book on the subject in 2004. Grif- fin also has a subsidiary nonprofit business, Planetree, which offers patient-centered care consulting and advisory services to a network of approximately 280 hospitals, mainly in the United States. Velano's technology fits right into that philosophy, Charmel said, because it aims to reduce patient discomfort. Needles can be painful and are a common phobia among patients. By using Velano's device to draw blood through an existing IV, medical staff can avoid sticking patients with additional shots. Stone met with Charmel at a Cleveland conference last year. Shortly after, both sides agreed Griffin would chip in some cash for an equity stake in Velano. Charmel believes the technology could catch on, and he sold his board of trustees on the investment. Stone said he wants Griffin to be among the first hospitals to use the device. That could happen soon because Velano Vascu- lar's product just won marketing clearance from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. An entrepreneurial hospital Griffin's modest size belies its entrepreneurial bent over the years. Plan- etree, which it acquired in 1998, is just one example. In the mid-2000s, a Griffin-based team developed a nutrition scoring algorithm that aimed to improve upon existing nutrition labels displayed on products. In 2008, the hospital parent's for-profit subsidiary, GH Ventures, formed NuVal LLC with Illinois- based Topco Associates to market the sys- tem to supermarkets. Today, NuVal ratings — displayed on blue octagonal stickers — can be found in the aisles of Big Y, Price Chopper and a number of other grocery chains. Charmel said developing the algorithm was more expensive than Griffin's recent investment in Velano — though he would not say by how much. However, he said the hos- pital made its money back on NuVal. As with the Velano deal, the nutrition-rat- ing system is in Griffin's healthcare wheel- house, which is why it made sense as an investment, Charmel said. "A hospital our size has limited capital to invest in something like this," Charmel said. St. Francis Hospital last year joined a Chicago-based technology accelerator to potentially help develop technology that could improve patient care, said CEO Chris Dadlez. They haven't made any investments yet, he said, but they are exploring opportunities. "We are just trying to find ways to improve the delivery of health care and if we can make money at it too, why not?" Dadlez said. n Greg Bordonaro contributed reporting to this story. Diversification By the NumBeRs Griffin Hospital (fy '13) $129.5M Operating Revenue $127.4M Operating Expenses $2.1M Operating Margin 1.63% Operating Margin s O u R c e : O f f i c e O f H e a l T H c a R e a c c e s s Diamond VIP Diamond VIP Diamond VIP Diamond VIP Diamond VIP Date: March 11, 2015 Awards Dinner: 5:30pm-9:00pm Connecticut Convention Center 400 Columbus Boulevard, Hartford Attire: Black Tie Optional eme is 'Sparkle' It's Time to Shine at a special evening Honoring past and present Best Places To Work in CT Award Recipients Presented By: Presenting sPonsor: event Partners: event sPonsors: Central Connecticut's Trusted Business News Source www.HartfordBusiness.com TICKETS: $85 each $800 per table of 10 Single tickets - $95 and Tables of 10 - $900 AFTER March 4th For tickets, contact Amy Orsini at aorsini@HartfordBusiness.com or 860-236-9998 ext. 134 or go to HartfordBusiness.com and click on 'Our Events' Enjoy dinner, networking opportunities and a fun social evening as the past and present Best Places To Work in CT gather under one roof! 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