LAS VEGAS, April 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- bioVIGIL, the company that reduces healthcare-associated infections though enhanced hand-washing compliance, announced the appointment of healthcare industry veteran Jason R. Howe as its new President, CEO and Director. Howe has the primary duty of leading North American and International commercialization and expansion efforts.
Howe has a strong and deep track record of successfully navigating companies through emerging market challenges, high growth phases, and leading companies to higher levels of performance.
Howe will succeed Brian Sheahan, who will continue to serve independently as the Vice President of Clinical Affairs.
"With Jason as our new CEO, I hand over the reins with full confidence in bioVIGIL's future. He is the complete package. He has all the requisite skills and experience to take us to the next level," stated Brian Sheahan. "It has been a sincere pleasure leading bioVIGIL for the past several years, driving our transformation from just a great concept - to our position today as one of the leading hand hygiene solution providers in healthcare."
"Jason Howe is the perfect combination for bioVIGIL: both a strategic thinker and a seasoned healthcare technology executive," stated bioVIGIL Founder and Chairman Dr. Steven F. Bolling. "His energetic leadership style and experience in driving innovation and operational excellence will help bioVIGIL leverage its strategic position and breakthrough bio surveillance technology to deliver strong growth ... and save lives two hands at a time!"
"I look forward to leading bioVIGIL through its next phase of growth and working closely with its highly talented founders, management and team," said Howe. "Hygiene is playing an increasingly critical role in hospitals and other high-touch healthcare market segments. bioVIGIL's bio surveillance and hygiene delivery expertise, intellectual property portfolio, unique technology platform, and deep understanding of healthcare provider infectious disease issues position the company to play a leadership role globally."
Howe further explained, "Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) are one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States. Accordingly, the WHO, CDC, and JCAHO require hospitals to execute hygiene improvement programs and report their progress to various regulatory bodies. In many cases hygiene compliance is less than 40% and hospitals report only rough estimates because monitoring healthcare workers has not been reliable or even technically feasible. Our patented breakthrough technology will allow hospitals for the first time to provide highly accurate fundamental quality metrics to healthcare stakeholders, making it possible to focus on improvement. And by using the bioVIGIL solution, an average hospital can expect to save millions of dollars annually in out-of-pocket costs resulting from HAIs. So, the return on investment can be measured not only lives saved, but hard dollars saved!"
bioVIGIL will demonstrate its third-generation bio surveillance solution for hand hygiene at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology (SHEA) 2011 conference, to be held April 1-3 in Dallas, Texas. SHEA hosts this annual technical conference to explore methods for reducing the incidence of HAI.
About Jason Howe
Most recently, Howe was the CEO of Awarepoint Corporation, which quickly became the leading provider of Real Time Location Solutions (RTLS) for major healthcare systems. Howe was successful in taking the company from virtually zero sales to over 20 million dollars in annual revenue in less than three years and capitalized Awarepoint with over 26 million dollars in supplementary venture funding. Howe was also instrumental in making Awarepoint one of the "Top 100 Places to Work in Healthcare" by Modern Healthcare Magazine for two consecutive years in 2008 and 2009.
Howe previously served as the CEO of CBS2 Consulting, an executive-level advisory and consulting service focusing on developing innovative solution-sales strategies for new market penetration into Fortune 500 companies and tier one Healthcare Corporations. Prior to running CBS2, Howe was Senior Vice President of Sales for Federation Software, where he facilitated the sale of the company to Lockheed Martin. Before Federation, Howe was the Senior Vice President of Sales of CreekPath Systems, where he successfully took revenue from zero to over 15 million dollars in annual revenue in less than two years. Howe has also served as Senior Vice President for Outerforce Systems, Unibex and Edgix Corporation and Vice President for Parametric Technology Corporation, Genzyme Bio-Surgical and Eli Lilly.
Howe graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Colorado with a dual BS in Marketing and Operational Management and a minor in molecular and cellular biology, and holds an EMBA from the Marshall School of Business in Entrepreneur Operations Management. Howe is an acclaimed thought leader on solution selling methodology focusing on the high tech and healthcare industries. Howe was named one of the "Top CEOs Under 40" by the San Diego Tribune.
About bioVIGIL
bioVIGIL (http://www.biovigilsystems.com), headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a leading provider of healthcare infection control and disease mitigation solutions that enhance the patient care environment improving patient safety, healthcare quality, and hospital bottom lines. The company has developed a proprietary bio surveillance solution, which is clinically proven to improve hygiene compliance and reduce HAIs in an acute care setting. The company holds a number of patents which protect its proprietary approach to hand hygiene monitoring, detection, intervention and reporting. Green Means Clean!