Trend Spotting
Catherine Russo Cobb • catcobb@mac.com catcobb@mac.com
WHEN IT COMES TO TECH TALK,
medical technology is a large but often
overlooked sector. Med tech lacks the
sex appeal of iPhone graphics or flash
applications, but it has the ability to
change and saves lives.
Joe Baez is a regional manager for
Atmos Inc. (www.atmosmed.us) and
has worked in the medical technology
field since the early 1990s. Parent company ATMOS MedizinTechnik is
based in Germany with its U.S. headquarters in Pennsylvania.
Baez, based in St. Petersburg, talked to us about the growing
use of Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES) and
VideoStroboscopy by ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialists for both
diagnostic purposes as well as medical procedures. The FEES system is a
portable, state-of-the-art swallowing assessment that unlike the traditional
test doesn’t expose patients to radiation, Baez says. VideoStroboscopy
illuminates the vocal folds and allows patients to see how their voice problems
change over time. “If patients can see what their vocal folds look like
they can more clearly understand the benefits of surgery,” he says.
Both technologies are growing, Baez says, because of a gradual
growth in the ENT specialty itself. “The aging of the general population,
as well as exposure to various environmental conditions warrants greater
access to early diagnostic interventions,” he says.
Ready, Set, TEC Launch!
STAR Technology Enterprise Center (STAR TEC), a technology manufacturing business accelerator in Largo, has a new program designed to support the growth of businesses that are not tenants at STAR TEC.
Jennifer Olsen, manager of the TEC Launch program, says it Jennifer Olsen, manager of the TEC Launch program, says it is a launch pad for inventors, entrepreneurs and even existing is a launch pad for inventors, entrepreneurs and even existing companies with new ideas. The program helps the companies get
started with early stage idea research, general market research
and custom research packages. It’s designed to identify early stage
technology and light manufacturing
companies, and assist them in market
development and expansion.
“There were a lot of great ideas coming in the door at STAR
TEC looking for help, but they really weren’t ready to come into the
accelerator,” says Olsen.
STAR TEC executive director Tonya Elmore says the program
is an entirely new concept for
the region that will become a
“one-stop shop” for emerging
technologies.
“TEC Launch will provide assistance
to early stage companies,
but also add value to some of the
larger technology generators – via
licensing, sub-contracting opportunities and Small Business Innovation
Research partnerships,” she says.
TEC Launch is an important step, Elmore says, in STAR TEC’s
goal of offering a full continuum of business services for emerging
companies in the technology and light manufacturing areas.
In other STAR TEC news, the accelerator has a new client:
WildBright Technologies (www.wildbright.com), an information
technology and business systems consulting firm specializing in
custom programming, client-server database design and web
development.
A Tech Upper
Not everyone is down on the economy.
Drew McCain, president and founder of St. Petersburg’s Aero
Technical Components, says he’s happy with the electronics
distributor’s progress this year and has been since setting up shop
five years ago.
“We are on pace, or better, with last year’s $2.8-million in
sales, and we’ve seen increases every year since we began official
operations in 2004,” he says.
Aero Technical (www.aerotechcomp.com) supplies electronic
components,
military hardware,
avionics and aerospace
material to
companies such as
Lockheed Martin,
Goodrich, L3, Raytheon,
Boeing, Northrop
Grumann and a wide host of subcontractors.
“We have built our success with strong relationships with our
customers and our worldwide vendor base,” says McCain. His
company’s first year sales were $400,000, he says, and have
grown at a steady pace ever since.
McCain started the business after working
for St. Petersburg competitor New Advantage
Corp., where he was a warehouse manager but
had a “foot in every department.”
“I learned a lot about the business and
decided I didn’t want to share 75 percent of the
money anymore. I knew enough to start my own
company, so I took the risk and did it, and here
we are,” he says.
The company has 12 employees and continues
to grow, but McCain says he doesn’t want
to get too big. “Sure, I want to add and always
upgrade, but I am content with keeping it a
small, family-owned business.”
Next Gen Research Park
Space Florida (www.spaceflorida.gov) plans
to expand at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with
a next generation research park.
Exploration Park, a registered trademark of
NASA, will be a mixed-use, multi-tenant technology
and commerce park supporting both
government and commercial space activities,
says Thomas A Harmer, project manager.
Located on Kennedy Space Center property,
the park will be close to existing launch and
payload processing facilities. “This will provide
a direct benefit to tenants with business models
that include gaining access to space,” says
Harmer, who is senior director of public-private
projects for Columbus, Ohio-based Pizzuti
Companies. Pizzuti has a Southeast regional
office in Orlando.
Harmer says Exploration Park will be a multiphase
project with approximately 315,000-
square-feet of educational, office-lab and
flexible high-bay facilities with eight buildings
on approximately 60 acres. The first building,
valued at $8- to $10-million, is expected to
be complete in the first quarter of 2011 and
expandable to 50,000 square feet at full buildout.
“One of Space Florida’s charges is to make
sure Florida has a continuous stream of new,
high tech companies emerging. Thus we are
looking at tenants that might do work for KSC
or in the industry or who do research for the
universities. Tenants will be situated outside the
security gates of Kennedy so they have more
flexibility to come and go as they need to do,”
he says.
Tech FYI
The Tampa Bay Technology Forum (www.tbtf.org) will hold its annual
Tech Jam on August 6 to raise money for the TBTF Foundation …
Clearwater’s iDatix Corporation (www.idatix.com) launched the iSynergy
Connector for eCopy ShareScan … St. Petersburg’ s FairWarning,
Inc. (www.fairwarningaudit.com) said it now protects patient privacy
in nearly 200 hospitals and more than 600 clinics, a 122 percent
increase since October 2008.
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