Monday, June 6: Ed Cantwell, Center for Medical Interoperability

Ed Cantwell is executive director of the Center for Medical Interoperability, providing strategic and tactical leadership. He spearheaded development of the initial Center concept while at the West Health Institute, where he led wireless initiatives. Previously, Cantwell served as director of 3M Corporation’s Wireless Business Unit and as chairman, president and chief executive officer of InnerWireless, which he founded in 2000. Cantwell’s wireless experience began while working for Texas Instruments, where he led a number of high technology businesses and successfully obtained spectrum allocations from the FCC. He also served as an Air Force fighter pilot for 12 years. Cantwell graduated from the University of Michigan’s executive training program and the Air Force’s fighter weapons school. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University.

About the Center:
The Center for Medical Interoperability is a 501(c)(3) organization led by health systems to change how medical technologies work together. The national lab will be based in Nashville and build-out is underway in the One City complex near Charlotte Avenue. The Center’s mission is to improve real-time information flow and make technology function seamlessly in the background so clinicians can achieve the best possible outcomes for patients.

The Center is currently focused on three primary initiatives:
-Creating a cooperative R&D arm for health systems, guiding innovation and providing a vendor-neutral focal point to work with solutions providers
-Establishing a centralized lab to cooperatively solve members’ shared technical challenges, and test and certify devices and IT systems
-Assembling a technology coalition to develop a vendor-neutral architecture that enables interoperability within health systems