The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin area is the eighth-best-performing city in the U.S., according to the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities 2017 Index.

In the large city/metro area category, Provo-Orem, Utah, came in first followed by Raleigh, North Carolina, Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas, and the San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco area.

The index uses “fact-based metrics in nine categories to evaluate the relative growth of metropolitan areas. Metrics include growth in jobs, wages and salaries, and technology output over time. The index also measures high-tech fields whose concentrations in a metropolitan area are higher than the nation.’’

The Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities index (www.best-cities.org) provides an objective benchmark for examining which regional strategies are succeeding.

U-Haul data ranks state No. 5 in growth

Tennessee was the No. 5 growth state for 2017, according to U-Haul data analyzing U.S. migration trends.

Year-over-year arrivals of one-way U-Haul truck rentals rose 6 percent, while departures climbed 5.7 percent from Tennessee’s 2016 numbers.

Maryville, Murfreesboro, Columbia, Lebanon, Athens, Clarksville, Oak Ridge and Brentwood paced Tennessee’s net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks. Kingsport, Collierville and Franklin were among other cities to post strong net gains.

Arriving trucks accounted for 50.3 percent of all one-way U-Haul traffic in Tennessee –moving the state up seven spots in one year.

Growth states are calculated by the net gain of one-way U-Haul truck rentals entering a state versus leaving a state during a calendar year.

Migration trends data is compiled from more than 1.7 million one-way U-Haul truck rental transactions that occur annually.

Franklin firm announces Centerprise partnership

Franklin’s i2i Population Health, a health management and analytics solutions company, is partnering with Centerprise.

“Centerprise is very excited to collaborate with i2i Population Health,’’ says Shawn Frick, president and CEO of Centerprise, a community health center services company. “Part of our continued mission is to enable healthcare organizations to maximize the value they deliver to their patients, providers, payers, and communities.’’

With the healthcare market moving toward alternative payment models, i2i and Centerprise’s partnership will provide an end-to-end enterprise solution of best in KLAS software and consultative services. “Our team of consultants bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise by helping clients improve overall performance and enhance clinical, quality, operational, and financial outcomes,’’ says Shannon Nielson, Centerprise COO.

“By assisting organizations with optimization of their population health management tools, such as i2iTracks and PopIQ, they are better equipped and able to provide comprehensive, proactive, high quality care in today’s value based care environment.”

Health startup passes data security test

Nashville-based health startup axialHealthcare has announced it has successfully completed a comprehensive examination of its data security.

A national leader in pain management and medication solutions, axialHeathcare has fulfilled the requirements of a Systems and Organization Control 2 Type II and Health Information Trust Common Security Framework attestation examination.

The company chose to test against all five trust service principles – common criteria/security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy - to attain the most comprehensive attestation examination. axialHealthcare also incorporated the HITRUST CSF covering healthcare security control objectives, adding 66 additional implementation requirements.

Nashville firm launches exercise pain product

ProMera Sports, a division of Nashville-based Vireo Systems, Inc., has announced a new pain product for exercise-induced inflammation, also known as EII.

The company says it is the only product developed and researched to not only optimize recovery and but to address EII.

The product, Alpha-Recovery Plus with Alpha-GEE, relieves the pain of EII, while supporting the body’s own natural healing processes.

Clinical research demonstrates that when specific amino acids are conjugated into the compound Alpha-GEE, they effectively decrease tissue inflammation without the use of NSAID COX-inhibitors such as ibuprofen.

In addition to Alpha-Gee, the product contains BCAA’s (branched chain amino acids), electrolytes, and a more soluble Glutamine Hydrochloride, to promote full-spectrum recovery from exercise.

Concert Genetics gets capital funding

Concert Genetics, Inc., a Franklin-based technology and managed services company, has added growth capital funding to provide digital infrastructure for reliable and efficient management of genetic testing.

Concert’s software platform is used by thousands of clinicians and leading hospitals nationwide to navigate the cost and complexity of genetic test selection, ordering, and results retrieval.

The company also helps leading health insurers implement genetic testing and precision medicine strategies. Future releases of Concert’s platform will enable greater connectivity between providers, laboratories, and health insurers.

Leadership Franklin scholarship available

High school seniors and college students who live in Williamson County are encouraged to apply for a scholarship to be awarded by Leadership Franklin.

The non-profit organization will award one $1,500 scholarship to a student who meets the scholarship criteria. Applications are due March 2, 2018. Applications may be obtained online at www.leadershipfranklin.org.

Applicants must have a minimum 3.25 cumulative grade point average to be considered. A copy of the student’s transcript and a 500-word essay are part of the application requirement.

Scholarships are awarded based on a scoring process of scholarship application points: a combination of grade point average, school extra-curricular activities including sports and community outreach, and strength of writing/quality of essay. All students are encouraged to apply.

Now in its 22nd year, Leadership Franklin is a non-profit community leadership organization dedicated to educating, informing and empowering leaders to improve the quality of life in Franklin and Williamson County. Leadership Franklin is funded primarily by business, individual, and alumni contributions.

Clarksville getting new restaurant, brewery

The Cunningham family, which developed Old Glory Distilling Co., is adding Strawberry Alley Ale Works at 103 Strawberry Alley, which is due to open in March.

The development will include the restaurant, tap room and a private gathering space featuring made-from-scratch recipes, original beer selections brewed in-house, craft cocktails and top-quality wines.

The site of Strawberry Alley Ale Works is the combination of two historic downtown buildings that were formerly home to multiple restaurants and bars, including Brunie’s and Joe B’s.

The main dining level has 7,300 square feet of indoor restaurant seating. Included is a multi-level outdoor deck that offers guests expansive views of downtown extending to Cumberland River and beyond.

Aspire Health, myNEXUS team for home health

Aspire Health, based in Nashville, and myNEXUS have formed a collaboration to provide home health patients with a more comprehensive level of clinical support.

A technology-driven care and benefit management platform, myNEXUS will help identify patients who may benefit from additional home-based clinical support.

The partnership is designed to help ensure that patients receive the right level of care at the right time in the location of their choosing.

Using a proprietary algorithm jointly developed by the companies, myNEXUS will identify patients who are receiving traditional home health services who may benefit from an additional layer of in-home clinical support. Patients identified by myNEXUS will then be eligible for Aspire’s in-home services.

Midstate schools receive grants

Several Middle Tennessee school systems have received Work-Based Learning Grants from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

Recipients include Rutherford County Schools, Lincoln County Schools, Cheatham County School District, Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools, Houston County Board of Education, Smith County Smith County Board of Education, Marshall County Board of Education, Tennessee School for the Blind, Warren County School District, Sumner County Schools, Maury County Public Schools, and Robertson County Schools.

In total, TNECD awarded more than $710,000 to school districts that have designed programs to promote career skills and readiness among Tennessee students.

The grants will assist the development or expansion of work-based learning programs that promote career awareness and student readiness in grades K-12. Work-Based Learning is an education strategy that provides students with experiences to learn and develop career and job skills.

Aries Clean Energy gets $25M commitment

Nashville-based Aries Clean Energy, LLC, has announced it has issued approximately $21.4 million of new equity led by existing investors and received additional capital commitments from Spring Lane Capital.

Aries is the designer of the world’s largest downdraft gasification plant.

Aries received $25 million for equity in future gasification projects from Spring Lane.

Proceeds from the offering will be used to fund project development, retire debt and other general corporate purposes.

Spring Lane Capital is a private equity firm focused on project finance investments for smaller-scale solutions in the energy, water, food and waste industries.

Aries plans to use the proceeds from the investment to deploy an immediate pipeline of customer-ready projects using their proprietary waste gasification technology, as well as to accelerate business development in new markets within the U.S, increase efficiencies in current products, and advance growth outside the U.S. borders.