Meharry Medical College will receive $34 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies to help increase the number of Black doctors in the U.S. by reducing their debt burden.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the announcement.

The gift will provide scholarships for medical students with financial need, many of whom have faced increased financial pressures because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Current Meharry School of Medicine students with financial need could be eligible for scholarships of up to $100,000 over four years under the gift. The grant also covers “wrap around” services, such as financial counseling for students and resources to track the program’s success.

“This is a momentous day for Meharry Medical College, our students and the people we serve,” says James E.K. Hildreth, Ph.D., M.D., president and chief executive officer of Meharry. “We could not be more honored to receive this gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies or more excited about what it means for the future of minority health care for generations to come.

“Graduates of Meharry overwhelmingly choose to go into primary care so that they can make the largest impact on their communities,” Hildreth adds. “But primary care, particularly in rural areas, does not provide the same level of financial security as other medical specialties. This transformative gift will significantly ease the burden of debt for our students, allowing them to make decisions about where and how they practice based on their passion, not a paycheck.”

Three out of four Meharry graduates return to urban or rural areas across the country to provide medical care to those most in need.

Premise Health buys CareHere

Brentwood-based Premise Health, a direct health care provider, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CareHere, an operator of wellness centers for self-funded organizations, also in Brentwood.

With the addition of CareHere, Premise Health’s annual revenue totals approximately $1 billion.

The CareHere acquisition provides Premise Health with the opportunity to extend its integrated approach to care to additional markets, including municipal and state governments, universities and Taft-Hartley plans; offer the widest array of health care services to self-funded employers; and advance its digital and physical access models to drive better outcomes and healthier populations for employees and dependents.

“Premise Health has continually evolved our model to deliver unmatched access to high-quality, affordable health care for the nation’s largest employers and their employees and dependents,” says Premise Health CEO Stu Clark.

Century homes expanding to Midstate

Century Communities, Inc., a national homebuilder based in Colorado, will open nine residential developments in the Nashville area in 2020 and 2021.

Each community will feature 12 new single-family and townhome floor plans, starting from the $200s, and include popular interior features. Planned developments are:

• Antioch: Cambridge Forest, Hamilton Church Manor, Hamilton Crossing Townhomes and Pin Hook Ridge.

• Lebanon: River Oaks and Carver Creek.

• Fairview: Pennock Place and Richvale Estates.

• Gallatin: Cumberland Point

Novatech finalizes merger deal

Nashville-based Novatech Inc., and Copy & Camera Technologies have completed the merger of the companies.

“I’m happy to share that we will now fully migrate all branding of Copy & Camera Technologies over to the Novatech name and logo,” says Jim Haney, vice president of marketing at Novatech.

Customers in Louisiana and Texas will now have access to the expanded Novatech portfolio of Managed Office Solutions, which includes managed information technology, managed print, managed cloud and managed security, while still enjoying the same local numbers and local presence.

Founded in 1998, Novatech, Inc. is a nationwide office technology provider. The company eliminates the need for multiple managed service providers, hardware dealers and more.

TDOT picks Woolpert for mapping

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has selected Woolpert to provide on-call photogrammetric and mapping services to support the design and construction of roadways throughout the state.

The three-year contract has a ceiling of $5 million.

Woolpert Geospatial program director Sam Moffat says the firm will provide orthoimagery and lidar, digital terrain modeling and topographic mapping for projects that include lane and corridor expansions to facilitate growth and ease congestion, roadway design and landslide mitigation. The firm also will provide TDOT with land surveying and geospatial and topographic mapping services. Woolpert was previously contracted by the U.S. Geological Survey to acquire lidar elevation data across the state.

Moffat says the statewide lidar program has been a tremendous success, providing high-accuracy data to increase safety throughout Tennessee. That program is scheduled to be completed in 2021.

Madison development will offer solar option

Samaroo Development Group has partnered with POWERHOME SOLAR to offer solar panel installation as an option for homebuyers in the Madison area.

The Brownstones at Creative Way Village is an upscale community of townhomes, apartments and retail space for residents in the Madison neighborhood looking for quick access to downtown.

The three-story townhomes offer homebuyers the chance to own their power with the addition of solar panels on their rooftop. Phase One of the 35-townhome project is nearing completion.

Units range from 1,600-2,100 square feet and are being constructed to be solar-ready should homeowners opt to buy a solar panel system from POWERHOME SOLAR.

Last year, Nashville adopted a renewable portfolio standard with the goal to use 100% renewable energy by 2041. The Brownstones at Creative Way Village align with the community’s sustainability plans and will help homeowners reduce their carbon footprints.

POWERHOME SOLAR entered the Tennessee market in April. Those buying in The Brownstones community will have access to exclusive builder pricing on a solar panel installation. Solar solutions for the community’s common areas and for the 46 apartment units being built on the property are also being explored.

Study: Natural gas saves state money

A new report by the Consumer Energy Alliance states the availability of low-cost natural gas and investment in related infrastructure has saved Tennessee’s residents and businesses more than $14 billion between 2008 and 2018.

Households saved over $3.8 billion and commercial and industrial users saved more than $10.5 billion, according to the report, entitled “Natural Gas Fuels Growth and Opportunity for Tennessee.”

The report underscores the critical role affordable energy and natural gas have played in Tennessee’s past growth before the recent economic uncertainties. The turmoil caused by COVID-19 has shown how essential it is to the national supply chain and manufacturing infrastructure – particularly in attracting advanced manufacturing jobs.

As an example, natural gas availability was critical in attracting the construction, operation and expansion of the Volkswagen Assembly Plant in Chattanooga – which supports over 16,400 jobs, provides nearly $74 million in local tax revenue and over $8.56 billion in state economic activity.

OhanaHealth unveils its first tech platform

Nashville’s OhanaHealth has launched OhanaConnect, its first tech platform.

The company connects students with jobs at high-growth health tech companies.

The OhanaConnect platform will allow students access to a destination of thoughtfully curated internships and full-time jobs from health tech companies, making once obscure opportunities accessible.

“Health care is relevant to every person on the planet and frankly, it’s one of the most important opportunities of our lifetime,” says Daniel Oppong, founder, OhanaHealth.

“Previously, as talent director at health-focused venture capital fund Jumpstart Foundry, I consistently had students reach out for help finding a job in the health care space, and one theme was consistently clear: students were interested in health and health care, but didn’t want to become doctors or nurses.”

XOi joins forces with Key2Act

Nashville’s XOi Technologies now has an enhanced integration with Key2Act.

XOi provides a cloud-based mobile application that connects field service contractors with an online knowledge base and empowers them to complete more service requests. Key2Act is a hybrid construction and field service management solution that helps businesses in the construction industry to manage their business workflows and operations.

XOi’s new Deep Linking feature enhances the integration of XOi and Key2Act to ensure a quick, seamless transition between the applications, saving time for field technicians and helping contractors continue to provide service excellence as the industry adapts to the new normal of 2020.