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Rachel Finley
574 TNRB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-3598
prspecialist@byu.edu

The Joys and Hardships of Starting a Business: The CMT Story

Adam Green and Wylie van den Akker were on cloud nine after their business plan, Collective Medical Technologies (CMT), won the 2006 e-business category of the Business Plan Competition. However, after this initial success they soon learned that building their new business would hold its share of ups and downs.

CMT connects databases between medical facilities to prevent abuse of the health care system. Adam Green, co-founder of CMT, says the business has grown since graduation but not as much as anticipated.

“CMT has been a nearly linear growth track,” Green says. “We had hoped that the success rate would jump significantly after graduation but are coming to realize that the decision cycle for most hospitals is lengthy and challenging. Consequently, we are growing but are still feeling resistance as we work through the early adopters to the early majority on the adoption curve.”

Despite these struggles, CMT has experienced its fair share of success through its Internet service, the Emergency Department Information Exchange (EDIE). EDIE allows doctors, nurses, and social workers to share treatment plans and information online between medical facilities to curb patient abuse of the medical system. Although still in a post pilot stage, CMT has already seen growth with the EDIE program.

“A particular highlight that has recently happened is that the hospital where we tested our prototype of the EDIE program is being spotlighted in a new medical training manual about interdisciplinary care plan strategies,” Green says. “Knowing that our work is impacting the larger medical community in multiple ways has been very rewarding.”

CMT is also integrating the EDIE system in three of the largest hospitals in Idaho.

“We had a very successful pilot in Idaho,” says van den Akker, co-founder of CMT. “We have several hospitals that are in the process of integrating the software.”

Even though most of CMT’s success is currently in Idaho, the company plans on implementing EDIE to more medical facilities throughout the country. CMT is now researching and presenting the program in Utah, Massachusetts, and Texas.

This recent success, however, is a result of hard work, dedication, and patience. Through the challenges of CMT, both Green and van den Akker, former computer science majors at BYU, have learned a lot about building and managing a business.

“When we got out into the real world, we discovered there was so much more to a business than simply implementing the software,” van den Akker says. “There was a lot more to it than we expected.”