DENVER, CO – Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) held a pop-up party last night at Infinite Monkey Theorem, a trendy urban winery in Denver’s River North District, to celebrate its decision to join the upcoming digital health hub Catalyst HTI. Intended to introduce the national healthcare organization to the local innovators who had also joined the planned health-tech campus, the party featured several members of Colorado’s thriving digital health community.

“It’s really great to see MGMA embracing innovation and promoting the use of technology,” said Heather Schutz, the Director of Provider Operations for the digital health startup MyChoiceMD. Many attendees echoed her excitement.

“MGMA is a highly respected, ninety year old organization with deep roots across the country,” said Tom Base, the Managing Director of the Boomtown Health-Tech Accelerator. “To be co-located at a cutting edge innovation center like Catalyst HTI is exciting for the healthcare community in Colorado and the nation at large.”

Several digital health entrepreneurs were present at the pop-up party.

While the digital health entrepreneurs at the party that evening were thrilled at the prospect of sharing office space with the nation’s leading association of medical practice administrators and healthcare executives, the members of MGMA’s leadership appeared equally pleased at the chance to work side by side with the innovators currently trying to transform the healthcare industry.

“When I think of a digital health startup, one of the biggest challenges they face is connecting with the problems inside a medical practice,” admitted Todd Evenson, the Chief Operating Officer of MGMA. “If we can help them identify those problems and build solutions to those problems, then we can be a conduit to that medical practice.”

According to Andy Swanson, the Vice President of MGMA’s Health Care Consulting Group, MGMA’s decision to join Catalyst HTI – which when completed will cover an entire city block in the River North District and house major healthcare organizations and digital health startups alike – also provided the association with a means of positioning itself in the vanguard of innovation.

“People come to us because they’re seeking services to improve some operational component of the practice,” explained Swanson. “While we have our own perspective on things, it would be nice to connect with other players in the market who are trying to solve those same problems and learn some different perspectives on how to solve them.”

The excitement wasn’t limited to the entrepreneurs and MGMA executives, either.

“As a private practice physician, I think it’s critical that organizations like MGMA unite with the digital health movement to move innovation forward and make private practice viable in the future,” said Dr. Tim Gensler, a practicing rheumatologist and an advisor at Innosphere.

Having already shared the reasoning behind MGMA’s decision to join Catalyst HTI with the media, Dr. Halee Fischer-Wright, the President and CEO of MGMA, emphasized her organization’s willingness to work closely with healthcare innovators when she addressed the crowd at Infinite Monkey Theorem.

“We have a conference going on called Collaborate in Practice. It’s going to be held at the Broadmoor March 20^th to the 22^nd. I would like to invite digital health and health-tech companies to look us up online and register to attend.”

Mike Biselli speaks to the crowd at Infinite Monkey Theorem.

Throughout the entire evening, speculation was widespread that MGMA was only the first in a long line of major healthcare organizations that would soon be joining the upcoming digital health hub.

“The highest levels of this industry are looking at you right now,” Mike Biselli, the President of Catalyst HTI, told the gathered members of Colorado’s digital health community. “Our team, Halee’s team, and others are meeting with the largest companies in this industry, and they want to be a part of what’s happening in Denver.”

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