 
Key Personnel
Principals Jennifer J. Linville, CEO The founder and CEO of MedAxiom, Jen was previously the Executive Director of Jacksonville Heart for seventeen years and was the Executive Director of the Cardiology Leadership Alliance (CLA) for four years. She was responsible for creating the benchmark and trending reports for the CLA, which were later used as the cornerstones for the creation of MedAxiom. In developing MedAxiom, she added group-purchasing discounts, peer-to-peer meetings, listservs and practice-development services. She also opened the membership pool to include all cardiovascular practices across the United States. Her vision is to make MedAxiom membership an indispensable tool for all cardiovascular administrators, physicians and employees. Jen’s current projects within MedAxiom include an interactive, searchable database (MedAxcess) and a Knowledgebase (MedXpert) for all cardiovascular personnel to use, accelerating the evolution of cardiovascular practices nationwide. Patrick White, President Pat has been in the health-care management field for over thirty years, seventeen of which were in medical-group practice management. He received a master of public health degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and spent thirteen years with the Henry Ford Health System, including five years as the Administrator for the Department of Internal Medicine. He has also served as the Executive Director of Michigan Heart, a 36-member cardiology practice in Ann Arbor, for twelve years. Pat was also very active in the Cardiology Leadership Alliance (CLA) and served as its President in 2001. Doug LaFleur, Chief Operating Officer Doug's responsibilities include the development and oversight of goals and their attainment for the management team of MedAxiom. He is also involved in MedAxiom Consulting, and provides services to member practices and corporate partners that include Impact Groups, strategic planning, physician compacts and individual performance improvement projects. Doug's background includes a Ph.D. in applied behavior analysis and a master's degree in industrial/organization psychology from Western Michigan University as well as masters in business administration from Grand Valley State University. Member Relations John Helmer, Director, Member Services John brings 20+ years experience in the medical field to the MedAxiom team. He has worked in various roles ranging from Nuclear Cardiology technologist, to senior administration for medical diagnostic imaging groups as well as sales and clinical specialist positions for organizations such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and GE Healthcare. John holds a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership through Purdue University. Steven J. Dorval, Member Services Specialist Steve retired from the U.S. Navy in 1999. While in the service, he supervised and performed the repair and maintenance of radar, satellite-communications and navigational systems. After completing military service, Steve earned a bachelor’s degree in computer information and science with a minor in business administration. He continues to work part-time as a coordinator with the local, nonprofit United Services Organization (USO). At MedAxiom, Steve is responsible for assisting in contract, database, Website and listserv management. He also provides member support in updating records and providing access to MedAxiom Websites. Karen Ritchie, Member Services Specialist Karen has been with MedAxiom since 2003 working part-time as an administrative assistant. Previously, Karen worked as an advertising sales account executive for the Florida Times-Union for 15 years and also sold specialty advertising and floor covering for five years. Karen has recently expanded her duties to include human resources, accounting support, sales and marketing support, event/conference support, customer relations and general office management activities. As a native of the Jacksonville beaches, Karen enjoys her other half of the week with her 3 children. Corporate Relations Chris Romeo, V.P. Corporate Relations Chris worked in the cardiac-device field for more than seventeen years for companies including Terumo, Baxter, PLC Medical, ATS Medical and Shelhigh. The vast majority of Chris’s experience has been at the Regional, Director and Vice President levels of management. Chris holds a bachelor of economics degree from the College of William and Mary and studied in the MBA Program at George Mason University. Marketing Jim Gann, V.P. Marketing Jim brings 20 years of marketing experience to MedAxiom with most of that time spent as an agency account director developing advertising and marketing programs for local, national and international brands. He has experience with several medical practices, a hospital and urgent care center in addition to a variety of business and retail brands. Jim will manage brand development as well as marketing programs and support for the MedAxiom product lines. He will also work with the lines of business to expand their service offerings and develop new ones. Jim holds a bachelor's degree in advertising from the University of Florida. MJ Ruffing, Event Planner MJ joined MedAxiom in 2005 to take over the planning, coordination and management of MedAxiom's conferences and special events. MJ plays a tremendous role in delivering services to our members. MJ has a degree in Hospitality Management from Johnson and Wales University. She has twenty years of restaurant management experience which includes corporate and independent operations. MJ also worked as a consultant for a broadline distributor assisting restaurants, country clubs and government facilities in the Washington, D.C. area maximize their sales revenues and profitability. MedXpert Knowledgebase Joe Sasson, V.P. MedXpert Knowledge Base Joe’s background includes a Ph.D. in behavioral science and a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology. His expertise lies in improving organization, process and human performance in corporations. Joe has been a performance-improvement consultant in a number of industries as both an internal and external consultant. He has also taught at three universities and continues to remain on the faculty at two of them as an adjunct professor. He has spent recent years developing Web-based knowledge-management systems for the U.S. Department of Defense, including the United States Army, Navy and Coast Guard. Dr. Sasson is an active presenter at many domestic and international conferences, and he continues to publish in scholarly journals and popular outlets. His division aims to provide MedAxiom members with knowledge that will increase the productivity and efficiency of their practices. Teresa Stuckey, MedXpert Operations / Content Manager Teresa has worked in cardiology administration for over 24 years. Her diverse background includes experience in medical-office management, medical-transcription management, managed care, procedure coding and HR management. She has served as a branch manager of the Jacksonville Heart Center, where she supervised daily operations. She was also transcription-department manager and was responsible for daily operations of an EMR implementation. She also assisted in the merger of two cardiology practices. Teresa has been with MedAxiom from its inception, working in many capacities for the company, including overseeing member relations, customer service, meeting planning, HR, and database and listserv administration. She has contributed to marketing, Website development and group purchasing as well. Teresa is currently working in the Knowledgebase division of MedAxiom that compiles and shares knowledge to better serve our membership. Practice Development Shannon Loewy, Performance Improvement Specialist Shannon holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Florida State University and a Master of Arts degree in industrial/organizational psychology from Western Michigan University. Shannon has conducted research and performance improvement projects in a range of settings with a specific focus on healthcare. She conducted process redesign projects, as well as a large-scale study on e-prescribing, at a Baldrige Award-winning hospital. Shannon also assisted in the development of a Web-based knowledge-management system for the U.S. Department of Defense, and began working for MedAxiom in 2005 as part of the MedXpert team. Shannon now enjoys working with practices to improve performance as part of MedAxiom consulting, as well as contributing to the development and implementation of the Advanced Cardiology Leadership Workshops. Shannon is certified in Lean Healthcare by the University of Michigan and is very excited to be a facilitator for MedAxiom Consulting's newest service offering, MedWorkflow. Jim Palazzo, MedAxiom Authorized Consultant Jim is responsible for overseeing the continued development and implementation of MedAxiom’s Quality Initiative that incorporates many of MedAxiom’s existing offerings while expanding the clinical benchmarking component. He will also work as part of MedAxiom Consulting to aid in the expansion of services to include hospital management contracting and joint venture development. Lastly, Palazzo will take the lead in the launch of the MedAxiom Leadership Institute, a program designed for the administrative and physician leadership team within a cardiology practice. Palazzo earned his undergraduate and MBA from Brigham Young University with emphasis on health care administration. He is also a Certified medical Practice Executive (CMPE). Jim most recently served as CEO of Iowa Heart Center, a 58-physician practice with 49 cardiologists, six cardiac surgeons, and three vascular surgeons, and Administrator of Iowa Heart Hospital, under a hospital management contract. Palazzo also serves as Chairman of the Board for the Cardiology Advocacy Alliance (CAA) a national grassroots and legislative advocacy group serving the cardiology industry. Previously, Palazzo served as Administrator for Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists and as President for the Virginia region of the MGMA. Benchmarking Reports And Custom Surveys John Rennie, Systems Analyst John has more than fourteen years of experience in the IT profession. His area of expertise is in Excel macro and spreadsheet design, development and implementation. John has been the chief architect of the MedAxiom Benchmarking reports, including the current trending and landscape-benchmarking graph design and the outlier-analysis summaries. He also provides extensive customer support to CLA and MedAxiom customers and has developed numerous customized reports and spreadsheets for practice administrators and physicians. Business Office And Coding Network Marjorie A. Amato, Director, Business Office and Coding Network Marjorie A. Amato, MBA, RHIA, has worked in health-care administration for more than 23 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in health-information management and a master’s degree in business administration. Her health-care experience varies from coding and quality/utilization management to oncology service-line management. Recently, she has been devoted to cardiology-practice management. Before coming to MedAxiom, Margie served as Practice Administrator for Utah Heart Clinic in Salt Lake City, UT for ten years. Currently, she serves as the Director of MedAxiom’s Business Office and Coding Network, where she helps member practices improve the profitability and effectiveness of the entire billing process. This is accomplished through educational programs, networking and by utilizing a management system of key indicators to measure and benchmark each step of the billing process. Information Technology Shawn K. Smith, Systems Analyst Shawn served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he supervised and maintained the computer network of the Staff Judge Advocate. A Microsoft Certified Professional, he has more than ten years’ experience in the information-technology profession. He has extensive knowledge of computer hardware and software, including Microsoft, IBM and Hewlett-Packard products. As the Systems Analyst at MedAxiom, Shawn is responsible for installation, configuration and inventory of all computer hardware, software and network-communication equipment. He also troubleshoots network-performance issues, manages disaster-recovery plans, ensures network (LAN/WAN) security and provides technical support for the staff of MedAxiom. Craig Leidy, Systems Analyst Craig has forty years of data-processing experience. He has been programming application SQL databases for more than twenty years and has seven years of P&L experience. Craig is responsible for the MedAxiom application conversion to the new Web-based delivery system. This includes database design, referential integrity, database triggers, queries, reporting and graphing. Operations Carolyn Heap, Bookkeeper Carolyn joined MedAxiom in January 2006 in a part-time role to support the corporate office with administrative and conference activities and quickly showed her skills for customer service and accounting. Her background is in Property Management and Real Estate and in 1996 obtained her Florida Real Estate License and managed multi-unit properties, single-family homes and student properties for Florida State University. Today, Carolyn is the company bookkeeper responsible for all aspects of A/R, A/P and reporting. Carolyn has twin girls and is PTA President for her local elementary school for 2005-2006. |
