Clearwater company launches interactive telemedicine station

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INNOVATION

Doc in a Box

Clearwater-based OnMed has introduced an interactive telemedicine station that links patients with physicians and pharmacists via teleconferencing and then dispenses commonly prescribed medications.

The company’s OnMed Station — which can be set up in company offices, airports, medical facilities and college campuses, among other places — can measure height, weight, BMI, temperature, blood pressure and blood oxygen saturation. The station can also transmit test results to a patient’s primary care doctor. The first of the stations has already been installed in Mississippi at a rural location. The company plans to begin setting up stations in Florida this year.

HEALTH CARE

• St. Louis-based Centene is buying Tampa-based WellCare Health Plans in a $15-billion deal. The combined company will serve about 12 million Medicaid members and 5 million Medicare members.
• Karen Kerr, president of South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City, has taken on the additional role of president of Bartow Regional Medical Center.
• Sarasota Memorial Health Care System started construction on a 350,000-sq.-ft. hospital in Venice that’s expected to open in 2021 with 110 beds, 90 private acute-care suites and 28 emergency room beds.
• The Academy for Brain Health and Performance and Massachusetts General Hospital have started a long-range research project to study the brain health of Lakewood Ranch residents. The researchers chose Lakewood Ranch, a community that straddles Manatee and Sarasota counties, because of the community’s multi-generational makeup, high level of social engagement and access to medical and educational facilities. The first phase started with surveys of 454 adults and 42 children. The participants, all volunteers ranging in age from 17 to 81, will undergo various tests in years to come.

MILITARY

• Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. has become the new commander of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base. He replaced Gen. Joseph Votel, who retired.

EDUCATION

• Florida Polytechnic University plans to build a $39-million research building at its Lakeland campus. The 85,000-sq.-ft. applied research center, featuring labs and offices, will be the 7-year-old university’s second major building.
• Starting next fall, Saint Leo University in Pasco County plans to offer a Catholic Promise Scholarship for students who attended four years of Catholic high school in Florida and then enroll in Saint Leo. Each qualifying student will receive up to $14,000 a year for four years.

CULTURE

• Bradenton’s South Florida Museum, the longtime home of Snooty the Manatee, who died in 2017 at age 69, has changed its name to the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

• Polk County and Florida Polytechnic University are teaming up to explore the possibility of creating a high-tech-oriented research park that would encourage collaboration among Florida Polytechnic students and local businesses.
• The Scandinavian Tobacco Group, a Danish company that bought Tampa’s Thompson Cigar company just a year ago for $62 million, plans to shut down Thompson’s outlet store and distribution center in Tampa and lay off 112.
• Clearwater’s city council wants to build a $16.4-million, 4,000- seat concert pavilion as part of its ongoing Imagine Clearwater redevelopment project that aims to energize the city’s downtown.

FINANCE

• Carman Rich was named vice president and private banking officer at the Bank of Central Florida in Winter Haven.

GOVERNMENT

• St. Petersburg has opened a new police station, a $78.3-million, 168,000-sq.-ft. facility built to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds. It replaces a dated, 100,000-sq.-ft. structure that was too small, city officials say, for the department’s 562 officers.
• Hernando County commissioners are debating plans to add courtrooms and upgraded security at the Hernando County courthouse.
• Collier County is getting $40.9 million from the state Division of Emergency Management to reimburse the county for removing debris after Hurricane Irma hit the county September 2017.

MANUFACTURING

• Sarasota-based Ergotronix plans to open a 35,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in Bradenton. The company makes motorized products that lift and transport heavy equipment.
• Jabil, as part of a $67-million expansion of its St. Petersburg headquarters, has opened a 40,000-sq.-ft. research and development center. The rest of the improvements are to be completed by the end of 2021.

REAL ESTATE

• Chicago-based Providence Real Estate bought the Park at Via Rosa, a 390-unit apartment complex in Brandon, for $63 million. Grand Rivage at Brandon Lakes was the seller.
• Zons Development plans to build Skyway Plaza, a 13-story mixed-use development with office space, retail, a restaurant and a hotel, in Tampa’s West Shore business district.
• A 384-unit apartment complex in Temple Terrace called Allister Place has sold for $43.2 million. Aspen Square sold the property to a joint venture of GMF Capital of New York City and the Michaelson Group of Jacksonville.

TOURISM

• The Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina has been renamed Tampa Marriott Water Street following a $50-million renovation.
• A joint venture between Floridays Development and Butson Hotels plans to develop two Home2 Suites by Hilton hotels, one in Sarasota and another in Largo. Each hotel will have 118 rooms.

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Tags: Southwest, Healthcare, Technology/Innovation, Feature