Project Management Manager

SIDNEY M. FURST

*** ********* **. • Ballwin, MO *3011

314-***-**** www.linkedin.com/in/sidneyfurst ************@*****.*** Professional Summary:

• Director level Program Manager with 20+ years of experience providing project/program leadership, application design, development, quality assurance and regulatory compliance.

• Serve as a technology visionary, experienced with relationship building to be able to interface between non- technical customers/business units and IT/development teams. Proven ability to bring technology products to market, develop and protect intellectual properties and patents and comply with FDA and ISO regulations.

• Possesses exceptional communication skills to be able to gather high-level project requirements from C-level managers and provide status updates through project/program completion. Areas of Expertise

• Business Development

• Team Leadership

• Business Informatics

• Budgets and Finance

• Cost Containment

• Operations Management

• Marketing Strategies

• Product Development

• Product Management

• Project Management

• Software Engineering

• Software Design & Development

• Strategic Planning

• Relationship Development

• FDA/ISO Product Certifications

• Quality Assurance

• Regulatory Compliance

• Application Development

• Access Security

• Multi Factor Authentication

• Healthcare Informatics

• User Interface/Experience UX/UI

• Microsoft Software

Professional Experience

FURST HEALTHCARE CONSULTANTS, St. Louis, MO 10/2014 – Present Senior Consultant (continued with Enovate Medical as Consultant) Offering full service healthcare process improvement, product consulting and marketing strategies for the healthcare industry. Develop long-term product design, development, implementation and use for the medical device industry. Assist healthcare organizations in developing and implementing their software applications. Design, develop and implement hardware and software solutions for the geriatric population. Project/Product management from conception through V & V and Government agency approvals. ENOVATE MEDICAL, Murfreesboro, TN (traveled to TN from STL weekly) 12/2012 – 10/2014 Director of Software Engineering

Responsible for healthcare process improvement utilizing Enovate Medical devices. Design and develop next generation products for the medical device industry. Assist healthcare organizations in developing and implementing their software applications utilizing Enovate Medical equipment. Design, develop and implement hardware and software solutions for the geriatric population. Project/Product management of our medical devices from conception through V & V and Government agency approvals.

• Designed and was responsible for programming, QA and V&V of the firmware/software of the Point of Care medication dispensing system (patent pending).

• Created the requirement/design document for next generation of non-invasive patient monitoring.

• Defined policy and procedures for software engineering documentation to comply with FDA and ISO certifications.

• Project manager for both the firmware and software products – utilizing both in-house as well as outsourced developers. Projects included software for desktop as well as mobile applications utilized by both in-house as well as clients.

• Developed the V & V tests to complete the software/firmware acceptance.

• Worked with the QI group to create, maintain and comply with guidelines for medical device manufactu

• Collaborated with the C-level executives to create a 5 year software product roadmap. Notable Projects:

Touchscreen built into the medical cart ($1.5M with ROI of 18 months)

• The purpose of integrating a touchscreen into the medical cart was to act as a user interface as well as a method of delivering cart/patient information to the user. The cart information contained the ability to control the med drawers, monitor the battery life, and allow for multifactor authentication (security of the cart and contents) as well as feedback on the patient monitoring system.

• Worked with C-Level Directors/CIOs, premier clientele and end-users to develop the requirements documen

• Developed the budget/project plans/timeline as well as developed the teams that would need to collaborate to get the project completed. This required the use of Mechanical engineers (do redesign the working surface to incorporate the touch screen), electrical engineers (to redesign the existing circuit boards to incorporate the additional features and requirements of the cart), RF engineers (to incorporate an active RF security system), Firmware engineers (to redesign the firmware of the onboard battery monitoring/charging system to incorporate an updated battery system) and software developers (to design both the functional system as well as the user interface of the new capabilities). Manufacturing to build five prototypes and get them into the hands of our initial clients.

• There were five distinct hardware projects as well as five software/firmware projects that I monitored and guided to a successful completion (On time and within budget).

• Most of the development work was done under the Microsoft software system (SQL, PM Project/Excel/Word/Visio/C++/Assembler). Prototyping was done using Axure and the documentation was done using MS Publisher/Word.

• The touch screen system was written in Java, C# and ran on the Android operating system.

• Developed software with both internal developers (7), 2 contractor companies as well as offshore developers

(4)

• Designed the V & V procedures for getting the system tested and approved by the FDA/ISO

• We used an Agile (with Kanban) project management system to schedule, assign projects and track progress on each of the projects.

• Worked with C-level clients as well as clinical staff to develop the initial set of requirements for the various software/hardware projects, while working directly with technical teams (internal/external developers, technical leads, testers, trainers, documentation specialists, UI designers and system implementers) as well as stakeholders/ management throughout the project to ensure deliverables are met on time.

• Led daily/weekly/monthly meetings with stakeholders/client, IT teams, etc. leading daily stand-ups, driving 2 week sprints, any assigning/reviewing any bugs discovered by the alpha testing team. Reviewing the causes of the bugs and isolating the bugs to try to minimize future bugs.

• By utilizing an Agile (with Kanban) project management scheme, kept the development team focused on the project and schedule.

• Designed system that was easy for clients to use and provide immediate productivity. Redesigned the Backend Software System (CAST) ($1M with ROI of 12 months)

• The CAST system was a software backend intended for the clients of the med carts to track the usefulness of the carts, battery life, utilization and even the location of the carts at any given time. The issues with the CAST software was that the system often went down, failing to update the backend, the reporting was minimal.

• Led a research project that met with our largest clientele and C-level executives of the company to create a set of requirements for an improved and more efficient system. Also was able to discern the difference between the clients “Wish List” of what they wanted as opposed to what they really needed.

• Developed the budget/project plans/timeline as well as developed the teams that would need to collaborate to get the project completed.

• Most of the development work was done under the Microsoft software system (SQL, PM Project/Excel/Word/Visio/C++/Assembler). Prototyping was done using Axure and the documentation was done using MS Publisher/Word.

• We used an Agile (with Kanban) project management system to schedule, assign projects and track progress on each of the projects.

• Worked with C-level clients as well as clinical staff to develop the initial set of requirements for the various software/firmware projects, while working directly with technical teams (internal/external developers, technical leads, testers, trainers, documentation specialists, UI designers and system implementers) as well as stakeholders/ management throughout the project to ensure deliverables are met on time.

• Led daily/weekly/monthly meetings with stakeholders/client, IT teams, etc. leading daily stand-ups, driving 2 week sprints, any assigning/reviewing any bugs discovered by the alpha testing team. Reviewing the causes of the bugs and isolating the bugs to try to minimize future bugs.

• Overall, the project was a success with a much higher reliability rate as well as improved client satisfaction with the system.

Develop and prototype the self-propelled advanced featured med cart (EVO) ($1.5M with ROI of 4 years)

• The EVO cart integrated an assisted drive mechanism controlled by pressure transducers built into the cart handle. The handle would direct the self-propelled DC motors at the base of the cart to drive the 4 wheels in the appropriate direction.

• A warning and brake system if the cart was nearing incorporating ultrasonic sensors mounted at the base of the cart and the monitor mounting stand, the system would prevent the cart from accidentally knocking into a patient or object that might be in the way of the cart.

• Facial recognition system that allowed for secure access to the onboard computer terminal. This facial recognition system, combined with the users RF badge would result in a multi factor access security system that would prevent unauthorized users from accessing the device or the medical record software that would be retrievable from the cart.

• Removable rechargeable battery system. This system would allow the cart to be in operation 24/7/365 with no downtime for recharging the built in batteries. Using a removable battery allowed the user to replace the battery with a freshly charged battery putting the discharged battery in a wall charger.

• An automated medication drawer system that would minimize medication dispensing errors as well as minimizing medication thefts. The medication dispensing system was integrated into the facilities EMR software through an HL-7 interface engine. The User would authenticate the patient by scanning their wrist band (with the built in scanner), the software would then pull up the patients EMR record and inform the User as to which medications need to be dispensed at this time for this patient. The cart would indicate which drawer the medication is in and unlock only that drawer. The user would remove the medication and scan it. The system would acknowledge if that was indeed the correct medication for that particular patient at that time. Once the medication was administered to the patient, the User would confirm the patient either took the medication or refused the medication. This bedside system allowed for the quicker dispensing of medications and at the same time created an electronic audit of the dispensing system.

• The development work was done under the Microsoft software system (SQL, PM Project/ Excel/ Word/ Visio/ C++/ Assembler). Axure was the prototyping tool, GIT was the version control system and documentation was done using MS Publisher/Word.

• I used an Agile (with Kanban) project management system to schedule, assign projects and track progress on each of the projects.

NIMBUS-EMR SERVICES, St. Louis, MO 2/2009 – 5/2012 CEO, Founder

Founded a company to design, program, market, and support an Electronic Medical Record System for the Long Term Care market using a cloud based SaaS model. Recruited programming staff and Health Care specialists. Formulated and implemented all business and technology procedures. Drove the business process evaluation/ improvement activities and created ROI and applicability studies to set the priorities of the IT engineering team deliverables. Leadership role in consulting with business units to define business opportunities and map potential technology solutions to enable strategic direction. Maintained strategic focus on developing new functionalities and modules to serve our users and potential clients and business partners. Managed R&D, programming, marketing, financials, and budgets. Developed both product specifications and design documents for the various modules. Project Manager with direct oversight of product development, testing. Worked with sales team for demonstrations, sales, implementation and final delivery.

• There were seven clinical projects, six financial projects, four hardware projects as well as an overall tool set project going on simultaneously. Most of the development work was done under the Microsoft software system

(SQL, PM Project/Visual Studio/ Excel/ Word/ Visio/ Silverlight/ Java/ C#). Axure was the prototyping tool and MS Publisher/ Word were the documentation tools.

• The hand held and touch screen systems were written in Java, C# and .NET

• Raised $3.6 MM for the startup, initial product development and operations of the company.

• Implemented MS Project/MS Excel to track budgets, timelines, deliverables, resource hours etc. throughout SDLC

• Developed the resource requirements initially and with the projected growth path. Determined how many resources will be needed from each team in a matrix environment.

• Developed software with both internal software developers (15) as well as offshore developers (10)

• Used an Agile (with Kanban) project management system to schedule, assign projects and track progress on each of the projects.

• Worked with C-level clients as well as clinical staff to develop the initial set of requirements for the various software projects, while working directly with technical teams (internal/external developers, technical leads, testers, trainers, documentation specialists, UI designers and system implementers) as well as stakeholders/ management throughout the project to ensure deliverables are met on time.

• Led daily/weekly/monthly meetings with stakeholders/client, IT teams, etc. leading daily stand-ups, driving 2 week sprints, any assigning/reviewing any bugs discovered by the alpha testing team. Reviewing the causes of the bugs and isolating the bugs to try to minimize future bugs.

• Keeping the development team focused on the project, while keeping the testing team from getting overwhelmed. Instructing staff on the benefits of having an Agile/Kanban project management system to breakdown each task and track its progress through the development cycle.

• Designed system that met CCHIT EMR Standards and “Meaningful Use” requirements.

• Deployed systems that met multi-state requirements as well as CMS requirements.

• Maintained an ISO 90003 as well as ISO 12207 and 62304 standards for software development.

• Collaborated with the University of Missouri on a CMS research grant involving the “Minimization of unnecessary hospital admissions from residents in nursing homes”. Notable Projects:

Clinical EMR system for rural hospitals and long-term care facilities.

• I designed the clinical component of the EMR system by a number of principals. The first is that the system needed to be an archival record of the clinical care of a patient. This means that there would be no way to delete or destroy healthcare information. The record could be updated or corrected, but the original record would still be maintained. Changes to the record were recorded as to who made the changes, when the changes were made, what the changes were and why the changes were made. (The original information is kept intact).

• The system was extremely reliable and available 24/7/365. (This means data redundancy).

• The system was designed as a single point of data entry system, removing the need to duplicate the same information within the various modules.

• The system was compliant with all health care agencies rules and regulations (both State and Federal).

• The system was a tool that clinical staff could rely on to generate “Best practices” based on historical results of procedures done at that specific facility, while comparing the results to other facilities. Financial system for rural hospitals and long-term care facilities:

• The Financial component of the system was guided by a number of fundamental guidelines. The first was that the system needed to authenticate the billing information based on the clinical care the patient received. This virtually eliminated situations where the payor refused to pay for a delivered service or procedure.

• The system needed to be extremely reliable and available 24/7/365

• The system needed to be a single entry system that removed the need to duplicate the same information within the various modules

• The system had to submit Medicare, Medicaid and insurance billing to electronic clearinghouses for the facility to be paid on the bills.

• The system was compliant to all health care agencies rules and regulations as well as payor requirements.

• The system would have the ability to capture chargeable procedures/services at the point of the services being delivered resulting in a higher percentage of charges being billed and not forgotten or skipped over. Touchscreen system for documenting patient care by nurse aids

• Designed a touch screen system to document daily care by non-clinical staff (some of which do not read or write English). The system used a series of pictographs that depicted the assistance each patient required on a daily basis.

• The system was designed to utilize touch screen computers mounted in the hallways of the various wings of the facility.

• A mobile app was designed that used tablet computers and smart phones as a data entry device. ACCESS DENIED SYSTEMS, St. Louis, MO 10/1998 – 2/2009 CEO, Founder

Established company to develop, market, and support computer security products. Recruited programmers, RF, and biometric specialists. Formulated and implemented all business and technology procedures. Managed R&D, marketing, financials, and budgets. Project Manager for the development of the hardware and software components of a high-level security system.

• Developed multi-factor access control systems for computers and medical devices.

• Integrated biometrics and RF technology to form multi-factor authentication systems.

• Negotiated successful contracts with Department of Defense (DOD) and various companies.

• Deployed units in White House, DOD, NASA, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, US Postal Service, various military branches, BMW, ESPN, and other clients.

• Used Microsoft Project Manager to track development of various components of security system, including both hardware and software.

• Presented security seminars for Bank of America’s premier and private banking clients. Notable Projects:

Multi-factor authentication system incorporating active RF badges and Biometric devices for access control to computers.

• I designed a system that integrated Active RF technology with various Biometric devices to create an active and robust access control system.

• When an authorized User approached the computer terminal, the system awoke and requested the Users biometric credentials. The User could use an iris scanner or fingerprint scanner to identify the User to the system. The terminal would compare the biometric data to the data stored in the Active Directory within the server. If there was a match, the system would resume the session at the same location as the User left the device. If the User left the immediate vicinity of the terminal, the terminal would instantly lock.

• The system was incorporated into the operating system and could NOT be overridden. There was NO backdoor.

• Since the system was totally locked at the Operating system level, unauthorized Users could not hack into the terminal nor override the security of the system.

• Although the system was used successfully in various high security locations, the target audience (Health care environments) was not interested in the system or technology. (It was ahead of its time).

• Project management of the various phases of the project included extensive testing of the active RF badge technology and receiver as well as testing various biometric devices to learn how to defeat each one. Only the most robust of devices was used within the system. LONG TERM COMPUTER SYSTEMS, St. Louis, MO 10/1985 to 10/1998 CEO, Founder

Created and launched company focused on developing software for long-term care industry. Responsibilities included product design, programming, and technology operations for patient care, accounting and billing systems, as well as additional components of the product. Managed design of hand-held computer pad to input patient data at the point of care in 1992. Was a finalist in Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the year” (I lost to the St. Louis Bread Company).

• Grew company to $10M per year and largest software company within the long-term care industry.

• Built staff to 95 employees and maintained 30% market share with 99.98% retention rate over 14 years.

• Introduced use of bar-coded labels to track inventory, first time in long-term care industry.

• Introduced hand held tablet computer for bedside charting and assessments in 1992.

• First Software company that incorporated a drug-interaction component that checked for drug to drug, drug to over the counter drugs, drug to allergies and drug to food interactions when the physician ordered the drug – before it went to the pharmacy to be filled.

• Selected to represent long-term care software on Sen. Clinton’s health care reform agenda.

• Served as Long Term Care Representative to HL-7 Patient Standards Committee

• Served as Long Term Care Representative to ASTM E31 Patients Records Committee.

• Member of President’s Advisory Council for American Health Care Association.

• Held status as only software vendor for long-term care facilities in West Virginia and Alaska.

• Recognized within industry for innovation, quality, and business practices. Notable Projects:

Clinical EMR system for long-term care facilities.

• I designed the clinical component of the system using BDIII. The system was run on DOS based equipment.

• A network version of the software was completed within the second year of the company. This was utilizing the Novell network operating system.

• The system was extremely reliable and available 24/7/365. (This means data redundancy).

• The system was designed as a single point of data entry system, removing the need to duplicate the same information within the various modules.

• The system was compliant with all health care agencies rules and regulations (both State and Federal). Financial system for long-term care facilities:

• The Financial component of the system was guided by a need to have a medical based accounting system that allowed for the various requirements of Medicaid, Medicare, Insurance and private billing.

• The system needed to be extremely reliable and available 24/7/365

• The system needed to be a single entry system that removed the need to duplicate the same information within the various modules

• The system was compliant to all health care agencies rules and regulations as well as payor requirements. Point of care bedside charting and assessment system

• Designed a system that allowed for bedside charting and performing required patient assessments.

• The hardware was first introduced in 1992 and I was one of the first users of the devices.

• We had over 750 devices in the long-term facilities by 1993. Additional Experience

LUNDY ELECTRONICS, Glen Head, NY 6/1983 - 10/1985

Vice President of Software Development

Led development of highly successful / profitable high-resolution computer graphics workstation used by both NASA and Ford Aerospace.

Notable Projects:

Repackaged the raster graphics terminal into a more suitable and compact configuration (Lundy 6000)

• Worked with C-Level Directors/CIOs, premier clientele and end-users to develop a requirements document.

• Developed the budget/project plans/timeline as well as developed the teams that would need to collaborate to get the project completed.

• Repackaged the existing raster graphics devices and separating the display device from the graphics controller boards.

• Designed a suitable housing for the graphics board that allowed the graphics monitor to be housed in a much smaller enclosure as well as having the ability to locate the graphics controller under the desk, thereby saving desk space.

• Repackaging the device reduced the cost of the packaging by 24%.

• The design of the repackaged graphics controller system made it easier to access the boards, thereby reducing the cost or servicing the device in both time and money.

• Manufacturing built a number of prototypes and get them into the hands of our initial clients for testing and evaluations.

Graphics software for the Raster terminals (Lundy 6000)

• Took over a project that was three years late – subcontracted to Tennessee Tech University to integrate the CGA graphics standard into the Lundy 6000 firmware. This would allow for standardized commands that would control the graphics driver of the terminal.

• I completed the project in 6 months and saved the company from their last payment of $125,000 for work that was not completed and three years late.

• Using the CGA toolkit, I was able to generate a number of displays that would show the capabilities of the terminal.

HONEYWELL DEFENSE ELECTRONICS, St. Petersburg, FL 11/1982 – 6/1983 Project Manager/QA

I took over the project management position of the printed circuit board design and layout department from the previous project manager. They brought me into reduce the failure rate of 68% on board design and layout.

• Over a period of 8 months, I reduced the circuit board design and layout from 68% to 6%.

• I created a new process plan to cross train the design staff as well as have a second person check the work

(as opposed to the same person doing everything from designing the board to laying out the components and generating the component insertion tapes as well as the drill tapes. By having multiple designers work on the same board, the rate of catching errors before the boards went to prototyping was greatly reduced.

• Employee moral increased due to a higher level of job satisfaction by having the boards’ work the first time instead of having multiple reworks due to errors in the layout. MCDONNELL DOUGLAS AIRCRAFT, St. Louis, MO 9/1977 - 11/1982 Senior Design Engineer

Worked on various projects – classified

Notable Projects:

Isoperimetric Bicubic flat pattern system (Fishnet)

• Developed a mathematical algorithm that would allow for the creation of a “flat Pattern” of a mathematically defined curved surface.

• The process allowed for the user defining the Warp and the Weave direction of the material to be draped over the curved surface.

• The system would then calculate the location of the edge of the material that would then be cut using a CNC knife cutter to cut the material. The fabricator would lay the material in the tool as indicated by the computer drawing.

• This process was used on the AV8B Harrier project whose skins were made of carbon fiber/epoxy fabric.

• By utilizing this software process, the layup of the material (which had to be performed in a refrigerated room preventing the epoxy from hardening) went from 8 hours to 1 hour and a savings of material of over 25%.

• Cost savings of this process was calculated at $250,000 per aircraft.

• I was the creator of the process and project manager of the software project involving six programmers.

• Project management tools were the Waterfall and STEP processes.

• A write-up of the process was done in the McDonnell Douglas journal (TIE)

• The first software patent issued in the United States was awarded to my director and myself for the process.

• The process is currently being used by Boeing and licensed to Brown shoe and Bata engineering. Education:

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS, St. Louis, MO 9/1980 – 6/1982 Graduate course work Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY, Teaneck, NJ 9/1973 – 6/1977 Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Professional development

• MS Developer

• McDonnell Douglas Management Training

• Xerox R&D Project Management Training (STEP)

• Hughes Project Management Course for Managing R&D Departments (STEP)

• RAPID Project Management Program

• Finalist in Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the year”

• Recipient of First Software Patent issued by the United States Patent Office. Affiliations

• ASME

• ASTM-E31 Medical Records Standards Committee (5 Years)

• HL-7 Standards Committee (7 Years)

• SNOWMED – Healthcare Nomenclature Standards Committee

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