In this episode, we celebrate 20 years of transforming cardiovascular care, together. From physician-hospital integration, to major legislative reform, to a global pandemic, the MedAxiom community, alongside the American College of Cardiology (ACC), has always found a way to meet the challenge of the day, pushing the needle towards innovation. On MedAxiom HeartTalk, host Melanie Lawson sits down with a powerhouse panel, who have been there since the start: Ed Fry, MD, FACC, Cathie Biga, MSN, RN, FACC, and Jerry Blackwell, MD, MBA, FACC. They discuss how it all began, the impact of collaboration, and their thoughts on what the future holds.
Guest Bios:
Jerry Blackwell, MD, MBA, FACC, is President and CEO of MedAxiom. Blackwell graduated from Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and completed residency/chief residency/fellowship at the Ohio State University and the University of Alabama - Birmingham. He earned his executive MBA from the University of Tennessee. He has more than 30 years of experience in cardiovascular medicine including academic cardiology, private practice and large integrated cardiovascular group leadership. Most recently, he served as executive vice president and chief clinical officer of the Ballad Health System.
Blackwell has a passion for physician leadership, teaching, and care transformation - particularly team-based care and organizational performance improvement. He maintains a clinical practice with special interests in advanced imaging, including cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging, cardiovascular CT angiography, and cardiac positron emission tomography.
Blackwell has been involved with both MedAxiom and the American College of Cardiology for many years. He has served on the ACC's Board of Governors, the board of directors for the Cardiology Advocacy Alliance, and the ACC's Health Affairs Committee.
Ed T.A. Fry, MD, FACC, is Chair of Ascension Health Cardiovascular Service Line and Vice President of the ACC. Fry attended medical school at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and completed his residency in internal medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. He completed a two-year cardiovascular research fellowship focused on pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of native and genetically modified plasminogen activators. He also completed a general cardiology fellowship at Washington University, where he then served as assistant professor and medical director of the cardiac transplant program before completing an interventional cardiology fellowship at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital – Indianapolis.
In 1991, he joined the cardiology practice at St. Vincent where he continues to be a busy interventional and general cardiologist and serves as chair of the Ascension National Cardiovascular Service Line. He helped launch Navion Healthcare Solutions, a subsidiary data quality management software company owned by Ascension, where he previously served as board chair.
Fry is past president and governor of ACC's Indiana Chapter. Within the ACC, he has served on the Audit and Compliance Committee (Chair), Digital Strategy Steering Committee; Interventional Section Leadership Council; Surviving MI Initiative; Integrating the Health Enterprise Health Policy Work Group; Clinical Quality Committee; Prior Authorization Work Group; ACC Telemedicine Project; ACC COVID-19 Hub; Board of Governors Steering Committee; Innovations Development Work Group; ACC Premier Oversight Work Group (chair); Board of Trustees (BOT) Task Force on Clinician Well-Being; Health Systems Task Force; ACC/AHA Ethics and Professionalism Consensus Task Force, and ACC Nominating Committee. He has been a presenter, moderator and session chair at ACC Annual Scientific Session, ACC CV Summit, MedAxiom CV Transforum, Heart House Roundtables and is a member of HeartPAC, ACC's political action committee. He currently serves on ACC's BOT.
Cathie Biga, MSN, RN, FACC, is President and CEO of Cardiovascular Management of Illinois, a cardiology physician practice management company. She works with more than 100 providers in the Chicago, IL, area and partners in their cardiovascular service lines at more than 14 acute care hospitals. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the Mayo/College of St. Teresa and Master of Science in nursing at Northern Illinois University School of Nursing.
Biga has more than 40 years of experience as a registered nurse, service line director, hospital vice president and CEO. She has 20 years of experience in physician practice management.
She has been active nationally in consulting in strategic planning, operational efficiencies, integrated financial and quality initiatives, and growth and development of the cardiovascular service lines. She is focused on facilitating the integration of strategic, financial and quality perspectives between cardiovascular service lines at practices and hospitals. In addition, she consults and lectures on numerous contemporary cardiovascular topics.
Biga is a member of ACC's Board of Trustees, Chair of the MedAxiom Board of Managers, a member of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and an ACC Fellow.
