Healthcare is Music to Nashville’s Ears

Jennifer Dennard, E-Media Marketing Specialist
June 21, 2010

The city of Nashville, Tenn., is famously known for its country music scene. But that perception may change once the Nashville Medical Trade Center (NMTC) opens in 2013 in downtown Nashville.

Designed to serve as a one-stop resource for healthcare vendors, providers, educational institutions, trade events and industry organizations, the NMTC will offer 1.5 million square feet housing permanent showrooms, conference and meeting space, and temporary exhibition space.

Billian's HealthDATA sat down recently with Cole Daughtery, Vice President of Marketing at Market Center Management Co. - an international wholesale trade center and trade show management company based in Dallas that is developing the NMTC - to learn more about the impact this type of space will have on the industry. (Click here to listen to the interview in its entirety.)

"The overall goal of this trade center is to provide a single, year-round destination for healthcare ideas, information and innovation," says Daughtery. "It's as much a center for the exchange of information as it is a center for the exchange of products and services."

Healthcare vendors will have the opportunity to lease year-round showroom space in order to reach a larger number of decision-makers than typically afforded by temporary trade show space. Providers will have the opportunity to engage in one-stop shopping. NMTC will offer more than 600 permanent showrooms displaying products in such categories as healthcare information technology (HIT), healthcare furniture, capital equipment, home medical equipment/durable medical equipment/Rehab, nursing/assisted living, and dental, among others.


The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has signed up to establish a home for its Interoperability Showcase on the HIT floor of the trade center. The showcase will provide visitors with an interactive demonstration of how HIT applications share patient data across the healthcare continuum. HIMSS will also exclusively manage HIT continuing education; offer educational events, exhibitions and special activities; and promote its other projects.

Patient Impact
The value a trade center like the NMTC brings to the industry is obvious. What may not be as obvious is the trickle-down effect it will have on patient care.

"Patients' basic needs have not changed much," says Daughtery. "Those needs are respectful treatment and excellent, high-quality care. To achieve these goals, the impact of a trade center can really be multidimensional. First of all, it's a nexus for information. It will be a critical idea center at the forefront of sharing new ideas and methods for research.

"As a trade center, we're going to help make the entire process of delivering the latest products and services much more cost-effective," he adds. "We envision having a center that can help everyone save time and control costs, and enable people to learn more and make wiser resource decisions. We think all these things taken together can significantly improve patient care."

Nashville: A Hotbed of Healthcare
Organizers of the NMTC could look to no better location than Nashville, home to more than 300 healthcare companies, many in the HIT field.

"There's been a lot of pioneering work in HIT that's been done in the Nashville healthcare community," says Daughtery. Nashville is home to Vanderbilt Medical Center, a pioneer in the development and implementation of clinical IT tools for nearly 20 years. The region is also home to such companies as Emdeon, Passport Health Communications and CredenceHealth.

Trade center developers have found strong advocates for the project in city and state officials. Governor Phil Bredesen has been a long-time advocate of e-health initiatives, and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean has been a strong proponent of attracting the global healthcare industry to the city.

"The state and city leaders have been really enthusiastic from the very beginning," Daughtery says. "They were quick to recognize the value of this project. We're going to be reusing an existing building [the $250-million project will incorporate the site of the current Nashville Convention Center] establishing a permanent, local presence for hundreds of companies, creating jobs, attracting visitors. It's really a big win for Nashville and has terrific economic benefits year-round."

Though Nashville is still recovering from the record-breaking flood that ravaged the city in early May of this year, development of the NMTC has not been affected. It's safe to assume that a project of this magnitude will not only help grow the HIT industry as a whole, but also help to revitalize the city that is focusing such a strong spotlight on it.

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On a Side Note

• The NMTC will likely adopt typical trade center hours of 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, but Daughtery stresses that the center will be open for business any time its tenants are ready to do business.
• Companies that lease year-round showroom space will be required to staff that space with employees of their choosing.
• Management is considering opening up an educational space on the ground floor to the general public.

Click here to listen to Billian's HealthDATA interview with Cole Daughtery in its entirety.