Team
Robert Palmer
Robert Palmer is President and Managing Director of PotentiaMED. Robert is a co-founder of PotentiaMED and has spent years developing the firm’s patented PMED analytics products and Predictive Model. He has industrial experience developing analytic and predictive models for healthcare payers, providers, life sciences, financial services and manufacturing firms. He has extensive operational experience owning and managing privately held finance, service, and consulting firms.
Robert holds an MBA with a focus on finance from Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School, and a BS in Business Administration with focus on finance from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. He is an adjunct advisor and coach with the Hatchery Program, Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Olin Business School and a frequent lecturer on business valuation, planning and financial modeling. Robert is also a member of the Young Presidents Organization, the Association for Corporate Growth and the William Greenleaf Eliot Society.
Amit Bhagat
Amit Bhagat is the Managing Director of Intelligence for PotentiaMED, and leads our technical services. He has lead PotentiaMED's effort to develop advanced intelligence solutions by leveraging his deep experience with IBM Cognos tools. His recent engagements include ground breaking work creating patient web portals and information management tools in the healthcare, insurance and financial services industries.
Amit is also the founding president and principal consultant at Amitech Solutions, a management and technology-consulting firm and PotentiaMED affiliate focused on business intelligence and corporate performance management that helps Fortune 1,000 organizations improve their financial and operational performance. Amit's principal responsibilities include developing and deploying business intelligence and performance management solutions and providing guidance to help healthcare and financial services organizations achieve their next level of performance by using an information-based business strategy.
Amit brings 16-years of experience in this field. Mr. Bhagat holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in finance and strategy from Washington University in St. Louis, Olin School of Business. He received his bachelor of engineering degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the Birla Institute of Technology, India.
James L. Cox, M.D.
James L. Cox, M.D. is the Medical Director for PotentiaMED. Dr. Cox trained in Cardiothoracic Surgery under Dr. David Sabiston at Duke University, where he remained on the faculty as an Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor of Surgery.
Dr. Cox subsequently became the first Evarts A. Graham Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, a position he held for 14-years. In July, 2000, he retired as the Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC. On July 1, 2006, Dr. Cox became the Emeritus Evarts A. Graham Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
He has been the President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Editor of the Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Editor of Operative Techniques in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Chairman of the Residency Review Committee for Thoracic Surgery, a Director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, and a member of the Surgical Study Section at the NIH.
Dr. Cox is best known for his work in the field of cardiac arrhythmia surgery and the development of the Cox-Maze Procedure which is considered the “gold standard’ for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Dr. Cox has trained many prominent surgeons in America, Europe and Asia and has served as the Guest Lecturer, Visiting Professor or Guest Surgeon over 200 times and in over 30 countries.
He has received many honors during his career but two stand out. In June 2000, Dr. Cox was honored in Paris, France as one of only thirty “Pioneers in Cardiothoracic Surgery” for the First 50 Years of the Specialty. In April 2005, Dr. Cox joined Dr. Michael DeBakey as only the second American cardiac surgeon ever elected into the Russian Academy of Medical Science.
Barton Hamilton, PhD.
Barton Hamilton, PhD. is Director of Medical Economics and Econometrics. Dr. Hamilton directs the healthcare management program at Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School in which professors from both the medical and business schools teach courses to both business and non-business majors. In addition to being an expert on healthcare economics, he also has expertise in entrepreneurship, and has directed the Hatchery™ Entrepreneurship Program at the Olin Business School.
Before joining Olin, Barton was an assistant professor of economics at McGill University for five years. He has extensive expertise in and publications on evaluating surgeon performance, surgeon costs and cost volatility, and the impact of surgeon specialization on patient outcomes. He earned his PhD in Economics from Stanford University and an A. B., Economics, with honors, from University of California, Berkeley.
Eric Armbrecht PhD.
Eric Armbrecht PhD. leads our outcomes analysis group. Eric is an Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, an Assistant Professor, Health Management & Policy with St. Louis University School of Public Health, and a faculty member for the St. Louis University Center for Outcomes Research (SLUCOR).
Dr. Armbrecht has previously served as Executive Director of a non-profit community health organization, Vice President of Research and Development for a diabetes technology company, Director of Health Improvement for an association of large employers and Principal of a public health research and consulting practice.
Eric holds a B.S. from the University of Notre Dame’s science-business program and a Ph.D. from Saint Louis University in health services research / outcomes research. He is a board member of the St. Louis Diabetes Coalition, the advisory board for the State of Missouri Arthritis and Osteoporosis Program, Co-Principal Investigator with the Washington University Diabetes Center and Co-Chair, Education and Research Committee for the National Business Health Coalition.
Pete Carnegie
Peter “Pete” Carnegie is Director of Sales. Peter has 10 years of experience in minimally invasive surgery. His experience in robotic surgery spans more than 7 years, most of which were spent in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery.
At Intuitive Surgical, Carnegie acted as the U.S. Program Development Manager for Cardiothoracic, Head & Neck Surgery. There, he refined, implemented, and supervised the clinical pathway for converting the Cleveland Clinic—the number one cardiac program in the country--to robotic mitral valve repair. He also helped launch other prestigious programs such as the robotic thoracic program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham and refined and promoted the robotic aortic valve procedure featuring percutaneous and transapical valve technologies applied robotically through a port-only approach.
As Cardiothoracic Sales Manager, Peter managed MIS robotic cardiothoracic surgeons in the entire eastern US and trained, developed and evaluated sales reps and sales managers in the cardiothoracic specialty. Support clinical teams during advanced cardiothoracic procedures achieving status as number one territory in the world in robotic mitral valve procedures. Prior to Intuitive, he worked at Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a Johnson and Johnson company.
Awarded the Douglas McArthur Leadership Award as the 1st Regimental Commander, Peter graduated with an undergraduate degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point as a Pre-Med major. He went on to serve his country as an Armor Officer in three tours in the Balkans: two consecutive tours in Bosnia and one in Kosovo. A decorated veteran, he holds the distinction of being the only Armor lieutenant in the history of the Armor Branch to earn the Order of St. Maurice, the Patron Saint of the Infantry.
Michael Demos
Michael Demos is Director and General Counsel of PotentiaMED. Mr. Demos is responsible for firm management, investment analysis and valuations, strategic initiatives, professional recruitment, and business development. Mr. Demos is also involved in the oversight, operation, and corporate strategy.
Prior to joining the firm, Michael worked as a patent attorney at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, and has experience in intellectual property, contracts, due diligence, and risk management. In addition, he has gained experience in deal structure, financial modeling, valuation, and mergers and acquisitions.
Michael holds an international M.B.A. with specialization in finance and China Business (with honors) from Hong Kong University of Science & Technology in Hong Kong, China. He also holds a J.D., (with honors) from Washington University, as well as a B.S. (highest honors) in chemical engineering from Washington University, where he graduated class valedictorian. He speaks Mandarin and Spanish. He is also a member of the Illinois Bar Association.
Krishna Nannapeneni
Krishna Nannapeneni is a Principal Consultant for PotentiaMED, with a primary focus on Cognos 8 assignments. He is the principal architect for PotentiaMED’s intelligence tools, service line dashboards and quality measures.
Krishna has over 12 years of experience in the area of information technology development across industries including healthcare, financial services, insurance, and manufacturing sectors focusing on business intelligence (BI) and performance management. He has extensive experience encompassing planning, architecting, designing and managing full lifecycle data warehousing projects in the US, Singapore and India. Krishna has substantial business intelligence architecture experience for a wide variety of Fortune 500 clients. He was previously engaged with EDS where he was inducted into the eminent EDS Top Gun program, representing the top 2% of its talent pool.
Krishna received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Madras University, India and holds numerous technology certifications to his credit in the BI area.
Naresh Sampat
Naresh Sampat is the Director of Recruitment for PotentiaMED. He has twenty-five years of Healthcare, Information Technology and Telecommunications background in the Organization Performance Management, Security Systems and Operations Technology areas.
Prior to joining Team PotentiaMED and Team PotentiaMED, Naresh successfully managed the relationship for key lines of business at Effective Healthcare Technologies, Inc. and at Netcom Systems.
Naresh holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Michael Lazzaro
Michael Lazzaro is an analyst for PotentiaMED. His focus at PotentiaMED is helping clients translate research and emerging developments in the fields of health care economics, public policy, and business economics into meaningful strategic insights. He brings 6 years of academic and research experience in both theoretical and applied economics, including business strategy, financial economics, health care economics, and econometrics.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Managerial Economics and Strategy from Washington University’s Olin Business School as well as a B.S. in Computer Science from Washington University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Shannon Palmer
Shannon Palmer is the Director of Marketing for PotentiaMED. Shannon is responsible for the firm's marketing, advertising, and public relations, and she is also involved in corporate strategy and development initiatives. Shannon has 16 years of professional experience in marketing and advertising. She served as the Director of Marketing for Amitech Solutions and the Director of Marketing for Fidelity Advisory Network. She also has experience owning a design consulting and furniture manufacturing firm. Shannon was the Senior Copywriter for Freestyle Interactive Advertising, an award-winning advertising agency in San Francisco, where she worked on accounts including Oracle, CBS MarketWatch, XO Communications, Sega Corporation, and others. She served as the Editorial/Marketing Director for AlcheMe.com. In addition, she worked in account management for Goldberg, Moser, O’Neil Advertising on the production of television and print campaigns for Cisco Systems.
Shannon holds a Bachelors in Journalism with a concentration in Advertising from The University of Missouri, Columbia. In addition, she studied Interactive Multimedia and Graphic Design at San Francisco State University and Interior Architecture & Design at The University of California, Berkeley.
