Program turns ideas into businesses

|tab|

Ask Dr. William Reynolds anything about plastic surgery or the issue of hard-to-heal wounds, and you will get an expert opinion.|ret||ret||tab|

Ask him about Medicare regulations, computer technology or how to write a business plan, and you may just get a shrug.|ret||ret||tab|

So when Reynolds got involved in telemedicine offering medical care over the Internet he conceived an idea for a new business Care One. |ret||ret||tab|

Ideally, trained nurses anywhere in the state could e-mail him pictures and other data regarding a patient's condition, and he would respond with a planned medical treatment that could be put in action without him traveling to the patient's physical location. |ret||ret||tab|

This method, Reynolds said, could have profound application in nursing homes and rural areas where specialized medical expertise is not available or affordable. |ret||ret||tab|

However, such service is not regulated or reimbursable through Medicare. |ret||ret||tab|

Many nurses are not trained to either send the information with a computer or apply his recommendations once rendered. |ret||ret||tab|

Since telemedicine is a new frontier it is not yet legal to dispense medical treatment across state borders where Reynolds is not licensed to practice medicine.|ret||ret||tab|

These are just a few obstacles he has encountered since coming up with the idea for Wound Care One.|ret||ret||tab|

What he needed, Reynolds said, was business expertise to help him make his dream a reality.|ret||ret||tab|

"Suppose you could keep a person in a nursing home and render the same care as they would receive in a hospital?" Reynolds said of telemedicine. "You could transfer the information and not the patient."|ret||ret||tab|

Through a chance encounter with a home health care nurse, Reynolds heard about the services offered by the Missouri Enterprise Business Assistance Center. A non-profit corporation, the center helps innovative ideas become profitable and legal businesses.|ret||ret||tab|

Project Manager Randy Holiman, and the network available through the center, got to work and helped Reynolds form a business plan, identify funding sources and tap into sources of expertise outside Reynolds' realm of medicine. |ret||ret||tab|

The six-month project was done at no cost to Reynolds, until Wound Care One gets off the ground and becomes profitable.|ret||ret||tab|

One of the big obstacles in front of Reynolds and his idea was that "the technology is way ahead of the law," Holiman said. Even though Reynolds can render medical treatment through e-mail, digital photography and the Internet, it cannot be reimbursed under current Medicare regulations. |ret||ret||tab|

But Reynolds' interest in offering medical aid to elderly patients in nursing homes, and those in rural areas who cannot afford medical transportation costs lead him, and Holiman, to find other aspects of Wound Care One that could fund the effort.|ret||ret||tab|

In researching what Reynolds already does, offering continuing medical education hours to nursing professionals, Holiman incorporated Reynolds' training programs as a funding aspect to fuel Wound Care One's non-revenue generating services.|ret||ret||tab|

When Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, spending caps were placed on Medicare. In some cases, patients with chronic wounds would reach that cap without being fully healed. |ret||ret||tab|

"That is why it is so critical that programs like these are brought to rural areas," Holiman said. "The cost-savings are realized by local health service providers and the wounds get healed."|ret||ret||tab|

For now, Reynolds renders his telemedicine services to patients with hard-to-heal wounds in rural areas of the state at no charge. |ret||ret||tab|

But with the recently drafted business plan that Holiman and the Missouri Enterprise Business Assistance Center put together, Reynolds now has something concrete to use in getting grant aid or business loans.|ret||ret||tab|

Reynolds, who was introduced to telemedicine during his service in the U.S. Navy, said it is a way to "clone himself." When the idea expands and nurses in the area get trained in its application, Reynolds said he will be able to serve more patients than ever before.|ret||ret||tab|

"I was seeing a lot of referrals from rural areas," Reynolds said. "There were more than I could ever do individually."|ret||ret||tab|

Holiman said the same services offered by the center can be used in the private sector. However, most marketing firms prefer clients to have a finished product, rather than a raw idea like Wound Care One.|ret||ret||tab|

"What we did with Dr. Reynolds (developing a business plan), would have cost about $12,000 in the private sector," Holiman said.|ret||ret||tab|

And it will still cost Reynolds close to that amount. The benefit of working with the non-profit center is that he will not have to pay until the business become profitable.|ret||ret||tab|

Not all businesses are eligible for aid through the center. To qualify for aid with the Innovation Center program like Reynolds did, a business must either commercialize a new technology, provide new jobs to an area or increase local tax revenues, Holiman said.|ret||ret||tab|

"I do seven to 10 projects like this a year," Holiman said. |ret||ret||tab|

Holiman's office is located in Springfield, but the Missouri Enterprise Business Assistance Center also operates statewide, with other physical locations in Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia and Rolla. |ret||ret||tab|

An independent non-profit corporation, the center is funded through grants, and financial partnerships with state agencies such as the Missouri Department of Economic Development and federal government agencies.|ret||ret||tab|

Rick Prough is the Innovation Center director for the Rolla office, which works on all related projects in rural Missouri, including the southwest region.|ret||ret||tab|

According to Prough, state legislators created the Missouri Enterprise Business Assistance Center in 1983, to work in conjunction with the University of Missouri campuses.|ret||ret||tab|

"We originally started working with technology-based start-ups," Prough said. "In 1988 we expanded to helping existing businesses become more profitable."|ret||ret||tab|

The Springfield office opened in the spring of 1995, Prough said. |ret||ret||tab|

According to Prough, in the 1999-2000 fiscal year, the economic impact reported by the 17 Innovation Center program participants in the state measured $2.8 million in increased investments, $1.4 million in increased sales and approximately $29,000 in cost savings.|ret||ret||tab|

The center also has a related program, Mid-American Manufacturing Technology Center, which helps existing businesses with cost savings.[[In-content Ad]]