Dan Cane, CEO of Modernizing Medicine, right, and Dr. Michael Sherling, chief medical officer, in the company's Boca Raton headquarters. Photo by Natalie Fertig.
By Nancy Dahlberg / ndahlberg@MiamiHerald.com
About four years ago, Daniel Cane went out for a checkup and came back with a company.
The serial entrepreneur, who previously co-founded the education-tech company Blackboard, met his next co-founder in the doctor’s office.
After the appointment, over lunch, he and Dr. Michael Sherling talked about how inefficient and archaic the systems and technology were in physicians’ practices, even in 2010. And you know the story, there just had to be a better way. ...
Boca Raton-based Modernizing Medicine was hatched, and today the company has one of the leading electronic health record (EHR) applications for increasing efficiencies and improving treatment outcomes in particular specialties. One of four dermatologists in the nation is already using Modernizing Medicine’s Electronic Medical Assistant, or EMA, an elegant and intuitive doctor-friendly iPad application. And EMA is making traction in ophthalmology, plastic surgery, orthopedics, otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) and other specialties. The company of about 190 employees ranked No. 3 on the South Florida Business Journal’s 2014 Fast50 list of fastest-growing companies, with revenue of $17.3 million in 2013. Modernizing Medicine plans to hire another 30 employees by the end of this year.
Strong traction and financial performance aside, what Cane and Sherling say they are most excited about is the company’s recent partnership with IBM Watson, that supercomputer that won Jeopardy! a few years ago, and where it could lead. Modernizing Medicine was one of the first companies worldwide chosen to partner with Watson to bring its cognitive computing intelligence to healthcare. It’s part of IBM’s $1 billion project to bring Watson to the masses.