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Dr. Lenore Coleman with Healing Our Village

Small business owners these days often do not have much residual time to invest in the procurement of knowledge about the current Affordable Healthcare Act, and its impact on their business. In this LTSB we speak to Dr. Lenore T. Coleman about the new reform, how it will impact small businesses, and the importance that employee health plays on employer productivity and cost.

Meet Dr. Lenore T. Coleman. Dr. Coleman is the purveyor Healing Our Village, and the advocate of two important precepts in her service line: 1) The management of chronic disease through programming and wellness leaders, and, 2) The importance of data procurement for minority populations in clinical trials.

Dr. Coleman does not just cater to the Georgia market, she has 2 other locations in DC, and LA. As a small business owner herself, Dr. Coleman understands the importance of employee health, the idea, she says, is to engage employees in a health program that, ultimately, not only lowers the overall cost of health for the employer, but increases employee productivity. Dr. Coleman is engaged with several institutions on furthering this initiatives throughout her 3 locations (Atlanta, DC, and LA), the most notable in Georgia being Morehouse, which is one of the largest physician’s groups in the state.

Although Dr. Coleman has only been in Atlanta for 3 years, her practice has been around for 15 years altogether. That, coupled with her doctorate, also makes her a veritable well of knowledge for what the Affordable Healthcare Act really means for small businesses. Atlanta, considered the national hub of Medical IT, she suggests, would benefit greatly from the new Medicaid act. “Medicaid,” she says, “increases the number of clinics and expands the number of people who can enroll in the program,” which opens up the number of jobs for people in the IT medical field. Today, with telehealth, technological advancements, and the constant influx of innovation in the field, the expanded opportunities are endless.

Ultimately, this LTSB brims with education and information on the benefits of how to raise the bar for employees and their health, and provides vital clarification on the hot topic of healthcare reform for small businesses.

Dr. Lenore T. Coleman / Healing Our Village

Lenore T. Coleman, Pharm.D., CDE, received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of California, San Francisco in 1979. She completed an ASHP approved residency in Ambulatory Care at the USC School of Pharmacy in 1980.

Since that time, in every practice setting, Dr. Coleman has developed innovative programs to address medication adherence and barriers to health for minority populations.

Dr. Coleman has been a practicing pharmacist for over 30 years. She has worked as a clinical pharmacist in the acute care, ambulatory care and community pharmacy setting Within each of those practice settings, Dr. Coleman has focused on the care and management of people with diabetes and heart disease with a special focus on African Americans and Latinos.

Dr. Coleman holds the title of Adjunct Professor, Xavier College of Pharmacy and is the past Director of Diabetes Research for the Health Disparities Center of Excellence. She is also a Research Fellow, Center of Excellence, Howard University School of Pharmacy.

In 2001, Dr. Coleman founded Total Lifestyle Change, Inc. (TLC) and is currently the Executive Director and CEO. TLC a non-profit service organization (501 3 c ) and has most recently gotten the IRS designation as a pubic charity. Dedicated to eliminating health care disparities in ethnic populations www.tlc-global.org TLC has two primary programs that are provided in the US and abroad. Project FAITH is a church based program that provides wellness screening and educational workshop.   Operation DETECT is a Diabetes and Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Program that is provided to Community-Based Organizations.

Dr. Coleman is currently the President and Founder of Healing Our Village of Maryland, Inc. (HOV) www.healingourvillage.com). HOV provides minority recruitment for clinical research trials as well as a medication therapy management and health education programming in physician offices, urban hospitals and community health clinics.

In March 1996, Dr. Coleman became a Fellow of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists which represents sustained excellence in a practice area for more than 10 years. Dr. Coleman has 15 publications and provides professional training in the United States, Nigeria, Trinidad, USVI and Jamaica.

 

 

Todd Gray with Grady Health System and Dr. Alita Anderson with Eubio Medical Communications

How will opportunities in Georgia be affected by the changing landscape of healthcare? This question concerns practically every small business across the country. In this edition, we are joined by the Director of Supplier Diversity from one of the top medical institutions in the nation—Mr. Todd Gray, of Grady— and by an MBE that is capitalizing on a burgeoning field in healthcare/pharma— Alita Anderson, MD of Eubio Medical, a medical communications firm.

The opportunities, according to Grady, are great. In the next two years alone, Grady plans on creating 132 jobs, and Gray expects the minority inclusion on that to be 30%– an exceptional number for any organization. Grady plans on doing this through several initiatives, including a GMSDC partnership and through expanding the list of services and products that it will pull from (marketing, IT, untraditional suppliers, GOPs, etc.). His dialogue teems with advice such as:

  • Remember Healthcare is NOT fee-driven, but all about quality outcome
  • Think about strategic partnerships before setting your sights on a large bid
  • 2nd tier does not mean 2nd class
  • And consider how supplier rationalization factors in

On the other side of the field of medical/healthcare, meet Alita Anderson, MD. Alita found a need and turned it into an opportunity for her small business, Eubio Medical. In the growing field of healthcare, there are so many moving parts that the need for a clear voice is essential, and an overarching, clear vision is imperative. That’s where Alita comes in. Her firm, comprised of a virtual “A-Team” of professionals in scientific backgrounds, come in and facilitate a conversation with stakeholders about the product or service to reveal what is important about the data and she then comes up with “credible and compelling” communication surrounding that item or service. Once she gleans and crystalizes that information, she provides training to the professionals that need it, so that everyone in the system is up to speed on the critical facts.

Overall, through the lens of a supplier diversity professional from a large organization, and an entrepreneur who created a successful firm out of the need she saw as an opportunity, we learn that there are real, and concrete opportunities on the horizon in healthcare—we just have to go out and look for them.

Todd Gray / Grady Health System

Alita Anderson, MD / Eubio Medical Communications LinkedIn

Alita Anderson, MD is Principal of Eubio Medical Communications, a team of physicians, scientists, writers and designers that inspires clients to communicate medical and scientific information both credibly and compellingly. A graduate of Spelman College and Yale University School of Medicine Alita combines her passion for science, her love of the written word and her desire to positively impact other’s lives in her leadership of Eubio.