Smart Choice MRI names new CRO, looks ahead

Smart Choice MRI, a Mequon company that offers MRIs for $600 or less, has named a new CRO as it approaches the end of a February funding round.

The company now has 17 clinics across three different markets, and CEO Rick Anderson says it is continuing to look into new ways to expand.

“We did what we set out to do,” Anderson said. “We’re seeing rapid growth in terms of patient volume. Consumers now know they have a choice, and are actively engaged in health care decisions.”

Michael Bartholomew joined as chief revenue officer last week, replacing Mark Lupo. Anderson says Bartholomew was brought on to fill a need for “broader knowledge of the payer and employer space.”

Bartholomew most recently worked as vice president of global commercialization for Porzio Life Sciences, a management consulting firm for various health industries. He is the co-founder and CCO for Promaxo, a company developing a portable MRI for the urology market.

Before working at Porzio, Bartholomew acted as vice president of sales and marketing for DDN Pharmaceutical Logistics, and has worked in sales and branding for Pfizer, Pharmacia and Baxter.

He also served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force, and got his Master’s of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Indiana University.

“I’ve worked with him in the past–super impressed,” Anderson said. “Michael is an outstanding leader with a solid track record of achievement in driving revenue, growth, market share and profitability.”

With the addition of Bartholomew, Smart Choice MRI is looking into new markets in 2017. The company is accredited by the American College of Radiology, and is in network for many major insurers, including United Health Care, Anthem and Humana.

“Eventually, you have to look at how our patient experience model can be applied to to other industries,” Anderson said. “It’s less about the markets we are already in, and more of an expansion to tell our story in new markets.”

He said the company is tentatively looking at expanding into northern California, and is “still trying to figure out where to go next.”

But the company won’t be trying to expand its offerings in the near future.

“We have a single focus approach–we’re not going to change it anytime soon,” Anderson said. “We don’t want to spread ourselves too thin.”

He says aside from the advantage of providing MRI’s for cheap, the company also has the newest GE equipment, 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner machines, which he describes as “the gold standard of quality.”

Smart Choice MRI is also working with GE as a pilot partner for two new machines: Explorer and Voyager. New machines have a wider bore, which makes getting scanned a less claustrophobic experience, and are almost 15 times quieter than legacy MRI machines, Anderson says.

“We are all focused on patient experience,” he said.

See an earlier story on Smart Choice MRI:
http://wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=370858