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WebVMC Hires Three Marketing and Sales Executives to Support Company Growth in Virtual Medical Care; Five-Year Telehealth Growth Projected to Be 400 Percent

Posted on: Monday, 22 May 2006, 15:02 CDT

WebVMC, developer of the first comprehensive technology system for disease management, has hired three experienced sales and marketing executives to support the company's growth in the rapidly expanding field of virtual medical care.

Bill Behnke, a seasoned healthcare sales executive, is WebVMC's new executive vice president of marketing and sales. Marty Benson and Brendan O'Shea are the new regional vice presidents of sales in the Southeast and Northeast, respectively.

"We are fortunate to have these seasoned industry executives to support our expansion in this time of rapid industry growth," said Scott Sheppard, president of WebVMC. "Today, almost half of Americans suffer from a chronic illness, and one out of five has multiple illnesses. Managing the health of these patients, especially as the population ages, is a major challenge when there is a serious shortage of healthcare workers and healthcare costs are rising daily. Virtual medical care is the solution. With our experienced sales team, we can best serve the growing demand from home care agencies, hospitals and assisted living facilities for our system."

The Wall Street Journal reports that sales of telehealth products are projected to grow from $461 million in 2005 to over $2.5 billion in 2010, spurred by the burgeoning healthcare needs of aging Americans, the cost-effectiveness of remote disease management tools and changing reimbursement practices to healthcare providers.

Behnke joined WebVMC in the summer of 2005 as a marketing and sales consultant and became a permanent team member in January of 2006. Prior to his tenure at WebVMC, Behnke spent seven years with Cogent Healthcare, a provider of inpatient management programs for hospitals. While there, he took Cogent from the start-up stage to a national, profitable company by directing the company's business development throughout the United States. His efforts resulted in expanding Cogent into 19 markets and adding some of the nation's most esteemed hospitals as clients.

"It's exciting to be part of an organization at the forefront of a new frontier in healthcare," said Behnke. "WebVMC is a technology leader with the versatility and expertise to serve the new, changing needs of healthcare providers and their patients. With WebVMC currently the only company offering true virtual disease management tools that connect patients and caregivers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we are seeing an unprecedented interest in our services."

"Telemedicine, especially systems that are able to help healthcare professionals monitor chronically ill patients in their homes or other non-hospital settings, are critical if we are going to be able to care for our aging population," said Ron Greeno, M.D., chief medical officer of Cogent Healthcare, a leading hospitalist company and a member of WebVMC's advisory board. "The interactive nature and versatility of the WEbVMC product is unlike any that I have seen and appears to be setting the standard for managing patients remotely. The ability to monitor high risk patients in this fashion creates tremendous value for patients, hospitals and the nation's healthcare system."

With more than 15 years in healthcare technology sales, Benson is responsible for WebVMC's sales activity in the Southern region of the United States. He has extensive experience in home care, with a track record of consistently meeting and exceeding sales goals in past tenures with Misys Healthcare Systems, Per-Se Technologies and CareKeeper Software. He will be based in WebVMC's home office outside Atlanta, Georgia.

O'Shea, a top-producing healthcare diagnostic equipment and software solutions sales expert, drives WebVMC's sales activities for the East Coast. O'Shea has experience in the home healthcare market and has strong relationships with physician groups, group purchasing organizations and disease management companies. He will be based in Glastonbury, Connecticut.

About WebVMC:

WebVMC provides virtual healthcare technology using the Internet that creates a "Circle of Care" for the person with a chronic illness, connecting the patient, caregiver and clinician for 24/7 disease management from any location, in multiple healthcare delivery systems--home care, hospitals and assisted living facilities. With innovative capabilities, such as audio tracks, touch-screen access and instant messaging, WebVMC's products are user-friendly, comprehensive solutions that cost-effectively manage patients with chronic illness for better health status and better quality of life. For more information about WebVMC, visit www.webvmc.com or contact Bill Behnke at 210.240.9400.

Source: Business Wire

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