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Friday, August 7, 2009
eClinicalWorks CEO Navani discusses e-health initiatives
By Julie M. Donnelly
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Electronic medical record and health care practice management software developer eClinicalWorks LLC in Westborough hired 70 new employees in the first quarter of this year, and another 30 or so in the second quarter. CEO and co-founder Girish Kumar Navani has been paying close attention to the government’s health IT and electronic medical records initiatives. Navani spoke recently with staff writer Julie M. Donnelly.
How do you like government money?
Indifferent. We would have grown with or without the stimulus. I think the way we built the company, we were going to do well in this market. We believe the product has a clear value proposition. We wouldn’t have gone from zero to $100 million otherwise. If the stimulus came, it would be a little more accelerated. If not, we would have done it the old-fashioned way. Quite frankly, I don’t know which I would enjoy more. I probably would have liked the latter a bit more — we would have felt a bit more self-made. But I believe the positive aspect of the stimulus is jobs. We are hiring more people sooner, because we know the growth is going to come a bit sooner.
You have become a darling of the Massachusetts government apparatus, because you are creating these jobs. How does that feel?
I did meet the governor, and that was an amazing visit. I actually ended up having a very open conversation with him, and I was delighted that he chose to come here. But in general you won’t see us going to D.C. or going somewhere to just build networks. I believe you succeed with your customer, not with anything else. I’m open to working with the local community, or the local economy, or anyone else who might benefit from what we do. But otherwise I don’t think we take that too seriously.
When will your business see the impact of the stimulus?
I think you will see the impact of the stimulus next year. I think we’re still in the definition phase of what it would mean to earn the stimulus. So I think it will come into effect in terms of receiving any growth from that. Nonetheless a smart company prepares for it. So we’ve been stimulating by hiring now. But I think we’ll see the impact next year. I don’t know if it’s going to be an onslaught. I really think it’s going to be like a 20 or 25 percent increase It’s still going to take five or six years, not five months. People are going to take their time in switching over to electronic medical records and that’s OK.
What’s your ultimate goal?
The best outcome we’d like to see is that we’d like to help control chronic diseases like diabetes (or) hypertension with the use of our tools, and someday someone would write a report that eClinicalWorks helped reduce this percentage of patients with hypertension, reduced this much smoking, and created a better impact.
Would you want to take the company public, if the IPO window were to open again?
No. There is no question about it. There’s no way I would kill my freedom to be shackled by reporting to Wall Street every quarter. Plus, I don’t like answering to investors, I like answering to my customers. It’s a lot easier because there is a two-way relationship. I think going public is like the hangover after a night out. You really feel good about it the day you go public, and then after that it feels like a hangover — and it never stops.
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