Health care focus of State of County event

CINNAMINSON Health care and its rising costs are issues that will continue to challenge both business leaders and the public even with reforms enacted under the federal Affordable Care Act.

That was the message of Virtua CEO Richard Miller to the more than 200 business and local officials at the annual State of the County dinner Tuesday night. The dinner was at The Merion on Route 130 in Cinnaminson.

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Health care focus of State of County event

Jail health care up for vote

Published: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 at 3:55 p.m. Last Modified: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 at 11:19 p.m.

After close to a decade with the same private health care provider treating inmates in the county jail, the Volusia County Council will decide today whether to keep the countrys largest and perhaps most controversial jail medical contractor or switch to a new company.

Volusias expiring contract with Corizon, the corrections giant that has contracts in more than 500 facilities around the country, has opened up the Volusia Branch Jail to two new bidders: Correct Care Solutions, which is in almost 500 correctional facilities, and Armor Correctional Health services, which is in less than 60.

The decision is a roughly $25 million one, with a three-year contract up for grabs covering an estimated $8 million in annual costs. It will affect the health of thousands of people who spend time behind bars, many of them in poor health, facing untreated mental conditions or dealing with substance abuse.

People think we just shove people in the corner and give them an aspirin, Volusia County Manager Jim Dinneen said of the health care at the jail, which conducts about 25,000 medical screenings on intake each year. We do the things that we are legally responsible for, but also the things we think are morally appropriate.

Corizon, formerly Prison Health Services, has been under contract with Volusia since 2005. Before that, the contract belonged to the publicly supported Halifax Health system. The county initially had planned to recommend renewing the Corizon contract this year, then changed course and decided to accept bids. Dinneen said it was time to test the water, particularly because of the changes that have occurred in health care over the past decade. Halifax did not submit a bid.

The St. Louis, Missouri-based Corizon is the medical provider in 75 state correctional facilities in Florida (under a 5-year, $1.2 billion contract that started last year), along with eight county jails like Volusias. It has faced criticism over the years, including last week, when state Department of Corrections Secretary Mike Crews threatened to withhold payments amid concerns that the level of care continues to fall below the contractually required standard, according to a letter Crews sent the company.

The jail medical clinics are vastly different from prison clinics in large part because of the population. Prison inmates are in custody long-term. Jail inmates come and go, and many of them are less likely to get medical treatment after they leave the jail. That can lead to required further treatment if theyre arrested again.

We are the front line, Volusias director of public protection George Recktenwald said.

Like health care costs in general, jail medical costs have risen. The cases treated vary widely, from simple physical illnesses, dental issues and infections to specialty services that require hospital transport. Some of the jails recent expensive medical cases include an attempted suicide (six weeks of hospital care), an inmate with multiple gunshot wounds (three weeks in the hospital, plus 18 visits and several surgeries), a Pacemaker replacement and, in the past year, 10 babies delivered.

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Jail health care up for vote

Bredesen: More must be done for health care

Gov. Phil Bredesen addresses the audience at the Chattanooga Convention Center in this file photo.

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As former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen took the stage at The Chattanoogan hotel to address a room full of doctors Wednesday night, he began by saying that since the time mankind lived in caves, healers have been among the most honored people in society.

I want to say that at the outset, said Bredesen, because you are about to hear me be very critical of some of things in the health care system we have today.

Bredesen, who before his governorship was the founder of health care management company HealthAmerica Corp., spoke at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanoogas Internal Medicine Update.

Held on the one-year anniversary of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the evenings talks focused on evolving health care policy.

Bredesen said the new law does not get to the root of the unwieldy problems of the American health care system, which, he charged, is the most expensive in the world while its quality remains average or inferior to other comparable nations.

Instead, the law doubles down on a massively wasteful system that needs substantial overhaul.

If you took Americas current health insurance model and applied it to homeowners insurance, he said, damage repair would look like a bunch of disconnected construction: No general contractor, no building codes and with each worker spending money on whatever materials he thought necessary on the expectation that insurance would pay for it.

More standardized measures of quality care are essential to improve medical performance, he argued. And without more tension between buyer and seller in the health care market, health costs will only continue to skyrocket, he said.

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Bredesen: More must be done for health care

El Paso Rotary Club celebrates centennial with health care clinic

Paul Hutchton, M.D. and clinic manager Betty Gallegos inside the OBGYN exam room in the new RotoCare primary health clinic at 301 Schutz in El Paso's Lower Valley. (Rudy GutierrezEl Paso Times )

Looking for a signature project to celebrate the Rotary Club of El Paso's 100th anniversary, the organization recently opened the RotaCare Clinic in the Lower Valley.

"About 25 to 30 years ago, there were some doctors in California and Rotarions who set up a number of clinics in the Bay Area," said Greg Hartley, a Rotary Club of El Paso member.

"There's a couple in Oregon, and a couple in Washington State that were established in order to help the indigent and the under-insured and the working poor to get basic health care needs. We used their model and brought it back to El Paso."

The RotaCare Clinic at 301 S. Schutz St., in Ysleta neighborhood, is the first in Texas. It opened Sept. 13 and will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every other Saturday starting Oct. 11.

Stacy Nguy, center, a fist year medical student at the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and Cecyl Casta on, a freshman medical biology student at UTEP take inventory of medical supplies in a storeroom at the RotaCare Clinic at 301 S. Schutz Saturday. The volunteers were helping get the primary care clinic going. The Rotary Clubs of El Paso is helping to fund the clinic, which will be staffed by Texas Tech. It will start seeing patients Oct. 11. (Rudy GutierrezEl Paso Times )

RotaCare is a volunteer alliance of medical professionals, organizations and community members dedicated to providing free primary, quality healthcare services to uninsured families and individuals with limited ability to pay for medical care.

The clinic is staffed by resident physicians from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso.

"The clinic is open and free to anyone who needs help," Hartley said. "We're trying to get them basic health care and trying to get them into the health care system."

Dr. Richard McCallum, a professor and founding chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the medical school, serves the clinic's medical director.

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El Paso Rotary Club celebrates centennial with health care clinic

Gene interacts with stress and leads to heart disease in some people

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Oct-2014

Contact: Sarah Avery sarah.avery@duke.edu 919-660-1306 Duke University Medical Center @Duke_Medicine

DURHAM, N.C. A new genetic finding from Duke Medicine suggests that some people who are prone to hostility, anxiety and depression might also be hard-wired to gain weight when exposed to chronic stress, leading to diabetes and heart disease.

An estimated 13 percent of people, all of whom are Caucasian, might carry the genetic susceptibility, and knowing this could help them reduce heart disease with simple interventions such as a healthy diet, exercise and stress management.

"Genetic susceptibility, psychosocial stress and metabolic factors act in combination to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease," said Elizabeth Hauser, Ph.D. director of Computational Biology at the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute. Hauser is senior author of a study detailing the findings in the Oct. 1, 2014, online issue of the European Journal of Human Genetics.

Hauser and colleagues analyzed genome-wide association data from nearly 6,000 people enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). The MESA study began in 2000 to better understand how heart disease starts, compiling the participants' genetic makeup as well as physical traits such as hip circumference, body mass index, cholesterol readings, glucose levels, blood pressure and other measures.

In the Duke analysis, the researchers first pinpointed a strong correlation between participants who reported high levels of chronic life stress factors and increased central obesity, as measured by hip circumference.

They then tested genetic variations across the genome to see which ones, in combination with stress, seemed to have the biggest influence on hip circumference. It turns out that variations called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the EBF1 gene showed a strong relationship with hip circumference, depending on levels of chronic psychosocial stress. What's more, among those with this particular genotype, hips grew wider as stress levels increased.

"With further analysis, we found a significant pathway from high chronic life stress to wide hip circumference, to high blood glucose and diabetes, to increased cardiovascular disease, notably atherosclerosis," said Abanish Singh, Ph.D., a researcher in computational biology at Duke and the study's lead author. "But we found this only in people who were carriers of the EBF1 single-nucleotide polymorphism, and this was limited to participants who were white."

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Gene interacts with stress and leads to heart disease in some people

Drug Treats Inherited Form Of Intellectual Disability In Mice

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Newswise Studying mice with a genetic change similar to what is found in Kabuki syndrome, an inherited disease of humans, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have used an anticancer drug to open up DNA and improve mental function.

Along with a potential treatment for the intellectual disability seen in Kabuki syndrome, the studys findings also suggest a new way of thinking about a category of genetic diseases known as Mendelian disorders of the epigenetic machinery, the researchers say. In these disorders, a genetic mutation causes errors in the way proteins and chemicals bind to DNA, which in turn affects the rate at which DNA make proteins. In the case of a Kabuki syndrome-like condition in mice, the researchers found that those errors lead to a persistent but treatable decrease in new cell growth in one part of the brain. Their study adds to the growing evidence that intellectual disability may not always be irreversible.

A report on the research appears online Oct. 1 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Mendelian disorders of the epigenetic machinery affect how cells package and use DNA, so they tend to have complicated and far-reaching effects, says Hans Bjornsson, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics and genetics in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicines McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine. Finding that a drug can ease some of the symptoms in this group of disorders suggests that other Mendelian disorders of the histone machinery may be treated in a similar manner. Bjornsson led the study in collaboration with Harry "Hal" Dietz, M.D., the Victor A. McKusick Professor of Medicine and Genetics and director of the William S. Smilow Center for Marfan Syndrome Research.

Bjornsson heads the McKusick-Nathans Epigenetics and Chromatin Clinic. His research focuses on Kabuki syndrome, which is caused by mutations in one of two genes that govern proteins that DNA wrap around. DNA wound around the packaging proteins is known as chromatin; only by forming chromatin can several feet of DNA fit inside the tiny command centers of each cell. But in order for a cell to read the DNA and put it to use making new proteins of its own, the chromatin must temporarily open up.

Specialized enzymes, often called writers and erasers, add or subtract chemical groups to the packaging proteins to help induce the chromatin to open or close. In recent years, other researchers have found that Kabuki syndrome can be caused by mutations to one of two genes one for a writer, one for an eraser with the same net effect on chromatin opening. That finding led Bjornsson and his collaborators to suspect that Kabuki syndrome and similar conditions might be caused by an imbalance between chromatins open and closed states.

If true, that would mean that disorders of the histone machinery could be treated by altering the balance between open and closed states, Bjornsson says. To test the idea, Joel Benjamin, a graduate student in Bjornssons lab, used mice with a mutation in one of the Kabuki syndrome genes and a condition similar to Kabuki syndrome.

When the mice were at their young adult phase, the team treated them with AR-42, a drug developed for cancers of the blood that was already known to open up compacted chromatin. After two weeks of treatment, they put the mice through a drill called the Morris water maze, which tests their ability to form memories in a region of the brain called the hippocampus. The treated mice performed better than the untreated mice with the Kabuki-like condition about as well as healthy mice.

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Drug Treats Inherited Form Of Intellectual Disability In Mice

Genetic Analysis Fails To Support Vitamin D To Prevent Diabetes

A vitamin D pill cant substitute for a healthy diet and sunshine,a new genetic study published inThe Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinologysuggests.In recent years many people have been seduced by observational studies that found low levels of vitamin D in people who developed type 2 diabetes. The new study instead suggests that the association is not causal, and that raising vitamin D by itself will not be helpful.

Researchers in the U.K. performed a Mendelian Randomization study in more than 100,000 peoplein which they examined the effect of four separate, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on genes that have a known effect on vitamin D levels. Despite the significant effect of these genetic variations on circulating levels of vitamin D (25(OH)D), the researchers found no relationship between genetically determined levels of vitamin D and the risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

Added to previous evidence, write the authors, the results suggest that interventions to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by increasing concentrations of 25(OH)D are not currently justified. Instead, they write, our findings emphasize the need for investigation of the discrepancy between the observational evidence and the absence of causal evidence. Two possible confounders are physical activity and adiposity, they add.

Results of several long-term randomized trials will be needed to definitively prove that vitamin D supplements are not beneficial, say Brian Buijsse in anaccompanying editorial. He cautions that Mendelian randomisation studies need careful interpretation, but an analysis of previous trials do not offer much hope that vitamin D supplementation can be used to prevent type 2 diabetes. He concludes that the sky is becoming rather clouded for vitamin D in the context of preventing type 2 diabetes.

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Genetic Analysis Fails To Support Vitamin D To Prevent Diabetes

Fibromyalgia and the role of brain connectivity in pain inhibition

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

New Rochelle, NY, October 1, 2014The cause of fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome is not known. However, the results of a new study that compares brain activity in individuals with and without fibromyalgia indicate that decreased connectivity between pain-related and sensorimotor brain areas could contribute to deficient pain regulation in fibromyalgia, according to an article published in Brain Connectivity, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Brain Connectivity website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/brain.2014.0274 until November 1, 2014.

The new study by Pr Flodin and coauthors from Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) builds on previous findings in fibromyalgia that showed abnormal neuronal activity in the brain associated with poor pain inhibition. In the current study, "Fibromyalgia is Associated with Decreased Connectivity between Pain- and Sensorimotor Brain Areas", the researchers report a pattern of "functional decoupling" between pain-related areas of the brain that process pain signals and other areas of the brain, such as those that control sensorimotor activity in fibromyalgia patients compared to healthy patients, in the absence of any external pain stimulus. As a result, normal pain perception may be impaired.

"Fibromyalgia is an understudied condition with an unknown cause that can only be diagnosed by its symptoms," says Christopher Pawela, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Brain Connectivity and Assistant Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin. "This study by Flodin et al is an important first step in the understanding of how the brain is involved in the widespread pain perception that is characteristic of the disorder."

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About the Journal

Brain Connectivity is the essential peer-reviewed journal covering groundbreaking findings in the rapidly advancing field of connectivity research at the systems and network levels. Published 10 times per year in print and online, the Journal is under the leadership of Founding and Co-Editors-in-Chief Christopher Pawela, PhD, Assistant Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin, and Bharat Biswal, PhD, Chair of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology. It includes original peer-reviewed papers, review articles, point-counterpoint discussions on controversies in the field, and a product/technology review section. To ensure that scientific findings are rapidly disseminated, articles are published Instant Online within 72 hours of acceptance, with fully typeset, fast-track publication within 4 weeks. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Brain Connectivity website at http://www.liebertpub.com/brain.

About the Publisher

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Fibromyalgia and the role of brain connectivity in pain inhibition

A new target for controlling inflammation? Long non-coding RNAs fine-tune the immune system

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

IMAGE: Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR), led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Ganes C. Sen, PhD, Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, and Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD , Chairman,...

New Rochelle, NY, October 1, 2014Regulation of the human immune system's response to infection involves an elaborate network of complex signaling pathways that turn on and off multiple genes. The emerging importance of long noncoding RNAs and their ability to promote, fine-tune, and restrain the body's inflammatory response by regulating gene expression is described in a Review article in Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR), a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the JICR website.

In the Review article "Transcription of Inflammatory Genes; Long Non-Coding RNA and Beyond," Susan Carpenter and Katherine Fitzgerald, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, and University of California, San Francisco, CA, provide a detailed overview of the multi-layered gene regulation systems that are activated when the immune system recognizes a pathogen or other external danger signal. The growing understanding of the role that long noncoding RNAs play in regulating this complex circuitry could lead to their use as drug targets for developing selective antimicrobial therapeutics that do not cause damaging inflammation.

"This is a cutting-edge review from authors who are conducting pioneering research on the role of long non-coding RNAs in innate immune signaling," says Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research Co-Editor-in-Chief Ganes C. Sen, PhD, Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio.

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About the Journal

Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR), led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Ganes C. Sen, PhD, Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, and Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Chairman, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in print that covers all aspects of interferons and cytokines from basic science to clinical applications. JICR is the official journal of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research website.

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A new target for controlling inflammation? Long non-coding RNAs fine-tune the immune system

Researchers develop novel gene/cell therapy approach for lung disease

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Oct-2014

Contact: Nick Miller nicholas.miller@cchmc.org 513-803-6035 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center @CincyChildrens

CINCINNATI Researchers developed a new type of cell transplantation to treat mice mimicking a rare lung disease that one day could be used to treat this and other human lung diseases caused by dysfunctional immune cells.

Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report their findings in a study posted online Oct. 1 by Nature. In the study, the authors used macrophages, a type of immune cell that helps collect and remove used molecules and cell debris from the body.

They transplanted either normal or gene-corrected macrophages into the respiratory tracts of mice, which were bred to mimic the hereditary form of a human disease called hereditary pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (hPAP). Treatment with both normal and gene-corrected macrophages corrected the disease in the mice.

"These are significant findings with potential implications beyond the treatment of a rare lung disease," said Bruce Trapnell, MD, senior author and a physician in the Division of Neonatology and Pulmonary Biology at Cincinnati Children's. "Our findings support the concept of pulmonary macrophage transplantation (PMT) as the first specific therapy for children with hPAP"

"Results also identified mechanisms regulating the numbers and phenotype of macrophages in the tiny air sacs of the lungs (called alveoli) in health and disease," said Takuji Suzuki, MD, PhD, the study's first author and a scientist in the Division of Neonatology and Pulmonary Biology at Cincinnati Children's.

Suzuki and Trapnell discovered hPAP at Cincinnati Children's and first reported it in 2008. In hPAP, the air sacs become filled with surfactant, a substance the lungs produce to reduce surface tension and keep the air sacs open. Children with hPAP have mutations in the genes of GM-CSF receptor alpha or beta (CSFR2RA or CSFR2RB). These mutations reduce the ability of alveolar macrophages to remove used surfactant from the lungs of these children.

The used surfactant builds up in the lungs, filling the alveoli and causing difficult breathing or respiratory failure. The only current treatment for these children is whole-lung lavage, an invasive lung-washing procedure performed under general anesthesia. Although the procedure works, it is temporary, must be repeated frequently, and creates quality of life issues for affected children.

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Researchers develop novel gene/cell therapy approach for lung disease

Futurist hotel built by who?

Published October 01, 2014

The striking new hotel will soar above the L.A. skyline.(WilshireGrandCenter.com)

A view from the rooftop.(WilshireGrandCenter.com)

Korean Air, the countrys largest airline, is expanding its hospitality offerings with plans to build a new hotel in Los Angeles.

The 900-room hotel will top the brand new $1.1 billion Wilshire Grand Project development in downtown, slated to open in 2017. InterContinental Hotels Group has signed an agreement to manage the hotel.

At 73-stories totaling 1,100 feet, the new property is set to the tallest building in the Western U.S.

"InterContinental is an international luxury brand like Korean Air, and we share the same vision," said Heather Cho, vice president of Hanjin International Corp, in a recent press statement.

The luxury property will boast a lobby on the 70th floor. The first 30 floors of the development will be devoted to offices and retail stores, while the hotel will occupy floors 31 through 73, affording 360-degree views of the city.

Downtown Los Angeles is experiencing a revival with three new hotels under construction totaling over 1,500 rooms, according to Lodging Econometrics, a research firm, reported by USA Today. STR Global, a firm that tracks hotels around the world, reports that there are 11 projects in planning or construction phases totaling over 2,800 rooms.

The new project will the fifth hotel for Korean Air which currently operates properties South Korea and Hawaii.

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Futurist hotel built by who?

Futurist and Local Business Owner Jared Nichols Nominated to NSBA Board

Jared Nichols, The Jared Nichols Group, Charlotte, NC, was recently named to the National Small Business Association (NSBA) Leadership Council. Nichols, a recognized leader in the small-business community, joins the NSBA Leadership Council alongside other small-business advocates from across the country as they work to promote the interests of small business to policymakers in Washington, D.C.

As a small-business owner, I see daily the importance of being involved and active when it comes to laws and regulation, stated Nichols. Joining NSBAs Leadership Council will enable me to take our collective small-business message to the people that need to hear it most: Congress.

Jared Nichols is a futurist, executive advisor, speaker, and coach. He provides the tools to help leaders and organizations gain competitive advantage, seize new market opportunities, drive in new revenue, and increase profits. As one of the few people in the world to hold a Masters Degree in Strategic Foresight, Jared is sought out by leaders, organizations, and entrepreneurs to help them identify and create their long-term successful future.

Nichols joined the NSBA Leadership Council as part of his efforts to tackle the many critical issues facing small business, including tax reform, regulatory restraint, health care costs and how the Affordable Care Act will impact small business. The NSBA Leadership Council is a new council of the organization, focused on providing valuable networking between small-business advocates from across the country while ensuring small business a seat at the table as Congress and regulators take up key small-business proposals.

I am proud to have Jared Nichols in the inaugural class of our Leadership Council, stated NSBA President and CEO Todd McCracken. He came to us highly recommended and I look forward our coordinated efforts for years to come.

Please click here to learn more about The Jared Nichols Group.

For more on the NSBA Leadership Council, please visit http://www.nsba.biz/leadershipcouncil.

The Jared Nichols Group is a strategic foresight and executive advisory firm located in Charlotte, North Carolina. We work with leaders, organizations, teams, and individuals, to stay ahead of the competition, expand their market reach, and capitalize on changes in a volatile and uncertain environment.

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Futurist and Local Business Owner Jared Nichols Nominated to NSBA Board

Internationally Acclaimed Global Futurist to Keynote 2014 Emerson Global Users Exchange

Orlando, FL (PRWEB) October 02, 2014

Highly acclaimed global futurist Jack Uldrich has been confirmed as the guest keynote speaker for the 2014 Emerson Global Users Exchange in Orlando, FL.

The Emerson Global Users Exchange is a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, best practices, and proven solutions with the leaders in the process industry. They offer an immersive curriculum of workshops, courses, industry forums, technology exhibits and much more. Run by users, for users the 2014 Emerson Global Users Exchange is a user community committed to extracting the most from their automation investments and sharing their learning.

With those goals in mind they have selected trend expert and global futurist Jack Uldrich to keynote the Exchange on October 6th. As global manufacturers of electrical products for commercial, industrial, hazardous and adverse environments looking closely at future trends is essential. And Uldrich is well respected for his insights when it comes to future trends and preparing for change.

Uldrich says, "Each year information technology is only getting better, faster, and cheaper; and hundreds of millions of new individuals are being drawn into a hyper-connected and networked global economy. The previously unknown ideas and insights of those hundreds of millions of individuals are now being added to the global consciousness, further accelerating change."

His presentation for the 2014 Emerson Global Users Exchange is "designed to help them create the future by thinking about it in a new light."

Quoted as being "an extremely knowledgeable and engaging facilitator" and for "setting a tone of optimism and creativity that lasted the whole conference" Uldrich is sought after in several fields, from manufacturing to retail, energy to education, agriculture to finance to name a few. His clients include the National Association of Manufacturers, Verizon Wireless, United Healthcare, PMMI, ABB/Thomas & Betts, among others.

Parties interested in learning more about him, his books, his daily blog or his speaking availability are encouraged to visit his website. Media wishing to know more about either the event or interviewing Jack as a futurist or trend expert can contact Amy Tomczyk at (651) 343.0660.

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Internationally Acclaimed Global Futurist to Keynote 2014 Emerson Global Users Exchange