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For MGM, an Incomplete Grade

By
Opinion

Editorial

It seems like longer ago — as in much longer — but it was almost exactly three years to this date that the casino era officially began in this region.

MGM Springfield was opened to considerable fanfare that hot August afternoon, and why not? The nearly $1 billion project, by far the largest private-sector development this region had ever seen, was more than five years in the making, and the buildup to that day was immense. There was a parade down Main Street. Some businesses actually adjusted their hours so employees could find parking spaces downtown amid what was expected to be a huge crush of visitors to the downtown area.

The expectations were sky-high for this gleaming resort casino, but almost immediately the numbers — in terms of visitors and revenues — started coming in lower than anyone hoped or anticipated.

And then … 18 months after that grand opening, COVID-19 changed the picture in a profound way.

So here we are, three years later. And in many respects, we’re right back where we were when the parade was making its way down Main Street. We can really only look to the future and project, because there simply isn’t enough data, enough evidence, to properly access MGM’s impact on the region.

Indeed, by now, we should have had a clear picture concerning whether this huge gamble — that’s what this is — has been worth it for Springfield and the region. Instead, because of COVID, we really don’t.

We do know some things. We know that MGM is not going to magically change the neighborhood around the casino and spur large amounts of additional development. That was the hope, but it won’t be the reality — unless things change in a dramatic fashion.

A CVS was built there, and, partly because of that CVS, a Wahlburgers restaurant has opened in that area as well. But, unfortunately, most of the office buildings across Main Street from the casino and in that area remain mostly vacant, with few signs of pending development. There is hope that the transformation of property in Court Square into market-rate housing — yes, MGM is a key partner in that project — will promote other developments of that type and also bring new service businesses to the area. But thus far, we certainly haven’t seen the scope of investments that had been anticipated.

We also know that gaming itself is not going to bring more vibrancy to the downtown area — or beyond, as some had hoped, with people maybe combining trips to the casino with visits to the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Big E, or other attractions. There are some visits to area restaurants, but what we’ve observed mostly is just what many feared — that those coming to gamble are single-minded in that purpose, and they’re getting back in their cars after their time on the casino floor is over and driving home.

The biggest impact from the casino has been its special events — concerts and shows — that bring people to this area, not just for that event, but for a night or even two. Such shows help pack area restaurants and bars and, when combined with other happenings, such as Thunderbirds games, create traffic (desirable traffic) and a buzz about Springfield.

The region was starting to see more of that buzz in the months before COVID hit, but, sadly, there has been very little of it since.

But there is hope that it can return — and soon.

Hope — and expectations — were all we had when the casino opened to all that fanfare three years ago. Now, we don’t really know what to expect, largely because of the pandemic and how it has changed the landscape and will continue to change it. But there is still that hope.

The hope that this $950 million investment will fulfill all that promise and become a real economic force in the region.

Right now, if we had to grade MGM Springfield and its impact three years after the doors swung open, that grade would have to be ‘incomplete.’

An Opportunity for the Region

By
Opinion

Editorial

As 2020 prepares to come to what we hope will be a merciful end (only if our collective luck changes), it is time to look ahead.

It certainly beats looking back.

And as we look ahead, we need to consider what the world might look like when and if something approaching normal returns, and what it means for us. At both the micro and macro level, it doesn’t mean going back to the way things were before.

The world will have changed, in all kinds of ways, and a good many of these changes will be permanent, as in, there’s no going back to the way we were. This goes for the services we offer to customers, how we do business, and where we do business.

Yes, everyone hates Zoom — or really hates Zoom, as the case may be. But even the most ardent of haters will admit that a Zoom session beats investing the time and energy in a drive to Worcester, Boston, or wherever. A Zoom session beats getting up early — and getting dressed (don’t forget that part) — to go to a morning board meeting or perhaps even a session with a client.

And that’s just one example. The same goes for the modern office. As much as we all hear that businesses will return to the office, that workers need the camaraderie, that teams need to be in the same room to be effective, it’s clear that things simply will not be as they were.

“We’re encouraged by a more aggressive attitude toward taking advantage of what appears to be an opportunity for the region.”

Companies have learned they can make do with less office space — or without any office space. Individuals have learned they can do their jobs from home, and that ‘home’ doesn’t necessarily have to be close to the office. Which means it doesn’t have to be a densely populated — and very expensive — area. Businesses owners may gradually ditch the current mindset that they need to be in Seattle, Boston, Cambridge, or the Research Triangle, “because that’s where the workers are.” The workers, at least for some jobs, can be anywhere.

If you’re an optimist, this bodes well for the region, and we like to be optimistic. Which is why we’re encouraged by a more aggressive attitude toward taking advantage of what appears to be an opportunity for the region. Groups like the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council and the Springfield Regional Chamber appear to moving from ‘we might want to think about this’ to the ‘let’s do something about it’ stage.

By that, we mean they’re moving more assertively when it comes to trying to tell this region’s story and putting information in people’s hands — with the goal of motivating people, small businesses, and maybe major corporations to consider the 413 as a place to put down roots or expand.

It has always been that way — and we have always sold it as such — but we haven’t done well in pitching people on the concept, even as Boston has become more expensive and its roads have become more congested.

Maybe the pandemic and the lessons learned while navigating our way through it will change this equation. Maybe. After all, there will be considerable competition from other cities, states, and regions who have learned the same lessons. Meanwhile, this region has never been able to muster the kind of marketing muscle it takes to get a message across to a broad audience.

But it doesn’t hurt to try, and as we thankfully turn the calendar to 2021, it is time to look back a little, reflect on what we’ve learned, and do what we’ve all been trying to do since March — be in a better position after the pandemic than we were before.

The Region’s Health Leaders on What’s New — and What the Next Decade Will Bring

By
Health Care

Vision 2020

Few industries change as rapidly — and as dramatically — as the broad, multifaceted realm of healthcare. From oncologists’ use of cancer fingerprinting and gene therapy to facial transplants for accident victims; from cutting-edge protocols to save the lives of stroke and heart-surgery patients to a dizzying array of new treatments to improve vision … the list is seemingly endless, making it impossible to paint a full picture of where healthcare has come in the past decade.

But we at BusinessWest wanted to try anyway — and, at the same time, look ahead at what the next decade might bring. So, appropriately, here at the dawn of 2020, we invited a wide range of healthcare professionals to tell us what has been the most notable evolution in their field of practice in the past 10 years, and what they expect — or hope — will be the most significant development to come in the next decade.

The answers were candid, thoughtful, sometimes surprising, but mostly hopeful. Despite the many challenges healthcare faces in these times of advancing technology, growing cost concerns, and demographic shifts, the main thread is still innovation — smart people working on solutions that help more people access better care. After all, healthcare is, at its core, about improving people’s lives, even when they seek it out during their direst moments.

Innovation and promise. That’s what we believe a new decade will bring to all corners of the healthcare world — that is, if these leaders, and countless others like them, have anything to say about it.

Administration

Joanne Marqusee

President and CEO, Cooley Dickinson Health Care

Joanne Marqusee

The most significant recent development in healthcare administration has been a recognition of the role patients play in their own healthcare. “Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century,” published in 2001 by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, called for a massive redesign of the American healthcare system. Specifically, it provided “Six Aims for Improvement,” five of which focused on safety, effectiveness, timeliness, efficiency, and equity. Not talked about as much, the sixth aim was to make healthcare ‘patient-centered.’

While we still have a ways to go to truly be patient-centered, we have witnessed a sea change in the past decade in this regard. Patients are increasingly active participants in their care, questioning their doctors and other providers to ensure that they understand their options, using electronic medical records to engage in their care, and speaking out about what they want from treatment or forgoing treatment at the end of life. The best healthcare providers — both organizations and individuals — embrace these changes, welcoming patients as more than recipients of care, but rather active partners in their own care and decision making.

My hope for the most significant development over the next decade has to do with providing universal healthcare coverage while controlling healthcare costs. While we almost have universal coverage in Massachusetts, too much of the nation does not. A hotly debated topic, universal healthcare has many benefits, including increasing access to preventive and routine medical care, improving health outcomes, and decreasing health inequalities.

Surgical Technology

Dr. Nicholas Jabbour

Chairman, Department of Surgery, Baystate Medical Center

Dr. Nicholas Jabbour

The most significant development in surgery over the past decade has been the move toward less invasive surgical approaches made possible through advanced technology. These approaches include robotic and minimally invasive surgery, including intraluminal surgery in areas such as gastroenterology, cardiology, and neurosurgery — for exemple, the passage of an inflatable catheter along the channel inside of a blood vessel to enable the insertion of a heart valve instead of making a large opening in the chest. As a result, we have seen a big shift from inpatient to outpatient surgery with shorter hospital stays and improved post-op recovery.

In the next decade, we foresee these innovations in less invasive surgery will be enhanced by better computing and software integration. This interaction will include the merging of radiological and potentially pathological information — which is currently available in a digital format — with real-time visualization of anatomical structure during surgery. This will offer surgeons the opportunity to improve the accuracy and speed of a surgical procedure while minimizing the risks.

The next decade will also see major innovation in the area of transplantation with the development of tissues or whole organs through bio-engineering manipulation of animal or a patient’s own cells. The integration of this bio-engineering manipulation with currently available technology, such as 3D printing and 3D imaging, will provide patients with the needed tissue or organ — including valves, bone grafts, hernia mesh, skin, livers, and kidneys — in a timely manner. This development will revolutionize the field of transplantation and surgery in general.

Behavioral Health

Karin Jeffers

President & CEO, Clinical & Support Options Inc.

Karin Jeffers

Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen a growing adoption within the behavioral-health and medical fields of holistic treatment models. While the two disciplines were once treated as different animals, the entire health field is now moving to treat both the body and the mind — together. The next 10 years are likely to bring these two fields even closer.

Today, you’re seeing behavioral-health clinicians being hired into physical health practices. Likewise, physical health providers are cross-training to better understand behavioral issues. Whereas, a decade ago, a behavioral-health client might be assigned a therapist or a psychiatrist, they are now gaining access to more robust set of supports, including nursing, case management, recovery coaching, and peer support from those with lived experience. Government mandates and payment model changes are forcing outcomes-based integration, too. Pediatricians, for example, must now do behavioral-health screenings of all youth under 21. In the mental-health space, you’re seeing clinicians ask about weight, exercise, and other physical factors.

We’re seeing significant movement on both the state and federal levels to value outcomes over volume. It’s reflected in the criteria set by the Excellence in Mental Health Act for certified community behavioral-health clinics, a designation CSO has earned, and in the work we have done with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Our ability to tailor programs, like our grant-funded work at the Friends of the Homeless shelter in Springfield, has literally saved lives among those experiencing homelessness and co-occurring conditions, like substance-use disorders.

In the coming years, we hope to see integrated care models become even more mainstream. Things appear headed in the right direction, but government action establishing payment reform within the behavioral-health field needs to be taken — and the integrated models need to be appropriately funded. Such changes would affirm overall health and wellness to include both physical and behavioral health.

Weight Management

Dr. Yannis Raftopoulos

Director, Holyoke Medical Center Weight Management Program

Dr. Yannis Raftopoulos

Weight management is a rapidly evolving field, and I am fortunate to be part of it. One of the most significant innovations this field has experienced in the last 10 years was the development of a new gastric balloon. Packaged in a small capsule and swallowed with water, the Elipse balloon provides satiety while requiring no procedure or anesthesia for its placement and removal. Together with its excellent safety profile, the Elipse balloon is the least invasive and yet effective weight-loss modality available today. Elipse is manufactured in Massachusetts by Allurion Technologies.

I had the opportunity to be an investigator in the European trial which led to the Elipse market approval in the European Union in 2016. Recently, Holyoke Medical Center was among 10 U.S. sites in which an FDA-regulated trial was conducted. The trial was completed successfully, and Allurion has submitted data requesting FDA approval to market Elipse in the U.S. The balloon’s use in Europe shows that patients can lose more than one-fifth of their initial weight.

A New England Journal of Medicine study reported that 107.7 million children and 603.7 million adults, among 195 countries, were obese in 2015. High body-mass index accounted for 4 million deaths and contributed to 120 million disability-adjusted life-years. Obesity is a chronic disease, and its management requires long-term guidance and close patient-physician communication. Successful collaborations between existing best practices with technology innovations that will allow delivery of effective weight-management care on a massive and global scale could be the most significant evolution in the field in the next 10 years.

Cancer Care

Dr. Hong-Yiou Lin

Radiation Oncologist, Mercy Medical Center

Dr. Hong-Yiou Lin

The advent of new medical oncology drugs has improved control of microscopic and, to a lesser extent, macroscopic disease, allowing local treatments, such as surgery or radiotherapy, to increase survival. To cure cancer, we need to eliminate cancer cells where they started, as well as any microscopic cells traveling through the body. The idea of using immunotherapy to fight cancer has been around for decades, but bringing this idea to the clinic has been hampered by the cleverness of cancer cells knowing how to evade detection by our immune system. Recently FDA-approved immunotherapy either takes away that ‘invisibility cloak’ or wakes up our dormant immune cells to start fighting cancer.

The biggest development in oncology in the next 10 years will be personalized precision medicine, which allows the oncology team to tailor treatment to each patient’s unique cancer biology and life circumstances. Meanwhile, improvements in cancer diagnosis will come from novel PET radiotracers and new MRI sequences that allow for more accurate staging and identification of the best site to biopsy. Pathologists will use novel tools such as genome sequencing to supplement traditional microscopy to subclassify the specific type of cancer within a certain diagnosis instead of grouping into broad categories.

Surgical, medical, and radiation oncologists can then use the above information to decide on the best sequencing between surgery, systemic therapy, and radiotherapy to minimize side effects and maximize cure. Medical oncologists will be able to offer more drugs that target new mutations, overcome drug resistance, increase specificity to a mutation, or better fine-tune immunotherapy, targeting only cancer cells by enlisting gene modification as well as natural killer cells. Radiation oncologists will have new radiomic and genomic tools to personalize the radiation dose and volume, and when to offer radiotherapy.

In short, over the next 10 years, cancer care will continue to move away from the traditional one-size-fits-all model toward a more personalized approach.

Allergy and Immunology

Dr. Jonathan Bayuk

Medical Director, Allergy & Immunology Associates of New England

Dr. Jonathan Bayuk

There have been incredible and exciting advances in allergy and immunology in the last two years. However, the unmet needs of allergic and autoimmune-disease-afflicted patients has grown dramatically in the last 20 years. In response to the increasing prevalence and acuity of allergic diseases and autoimmune diseases, the world has launched products to help address these very severe patients. These medications are indicated for many conditions and work very well. They are generally safe, but are very expensive. These medicines are different than traditional pharmaceutical drugs as they are not chemicals, but biologically derived medicines designed to augment or modify the immune response. As such, they are call biologic medications.

In the field of allergy and immunology, we can now dramatically treat and potentially cure many diseases that in the past were very challenging to manage. The biologic medicines that we have now treat asthma, eczema, allergic disease, and hives. The patient selection is based on severity of their condition, and these medicines are only for moderately to severely affected people. If, as a medical profession, we were to place as many people as possible on these therapies, the cost would be astronomical and not sustainable.

However, is it fair to deny any of these patients access to these treatments who truly need them? I would argue that choice is a very difficult one to make, and as physicians, our primary goal is healing at whatever cost. As a nation, we have a dilemma. Can we afford the medicines we have or not? It is unclear that any serious legislative body is willing to tackle that question. For now, the use of these medicines is changing lives dramatically, and it is an exciting time to be able to use these newer tools to help our patients live better lives.

Eye Care

Dr. David Momnie

Owner, Chicopee Eye Care

Dr. David Momnie

What are the most significant advancements in eye care in the last decade? It depends on whom you ask. Retinal ophthalmologists would probably say it’s the treatment of wet macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness, with anti-VEGF injections. Cataract surgeons would most likely cite small-incision surgery and new lens implants that often leave patients with 20/20 vision. Glaucoma specialists might tell you it’s the development of MIGS, or minimally invasive glaucoma surgery. These operations to lower the pressure in the eye use miniature devices and significantly reduce the complication rate.

Primary-care optometrists and ophthalmologists would no doubt talk about the advances in optical coherence tomography, a remarkable instrument using light waves that gives cross-sectional pictures of the retina. The technique is painless and non-invasive and is becoming the gold standard in eye care because it has revolutionized the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma and macular degeneration. For optometrists specializing in contact lenses, using newly designed scleral lenses to restore vision in people with a corneal disease called keratoconus has been a major development. There are many other specialists in eye care, including LASIK surgeons, that have seen remarkable changes in technology.

What will the next decade bring? Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more accurate for screening, diagnosing, and treating eye conditions. AI systems can increasingly distinguish normal from abnormal pictures of the retina. Where there is a shortage of ophthalmologists and optometrists, AI screenings combined with telemedicine, providing remote care using communications technology, may be able to find and treat more people who are falling between the cracks of our healthcare system. The term 20/20 is the most common designation in eye care, and the year 2020 will probably usher in another decade of remarkable developments in our field.

Information Technology

Teresa Grogan

Chief Information Officer, VertitechIT

Teresa Grogan

From the perspective of technology that enables healthcare, the biggest game changer of the last decade has been the iPhone — and now, essentially any smartphone.

Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone in 2007 (a little over a decade ago), and physicians embraced it quickly. It started as a simple tool for doctors (applications like the PDR, or Physicians’ Desk Reference) for looking up drug interactions. Today, it’s a portable EMR, a virtual visit facilitator, and a remote-monitoring device for many healthcare providers, as many patients have embraced — and insisted on — this technology to improve access to care. As the cost decreases and cellular bandwidth improves, the rapid growth of the IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) will place smartphones at the center of the next wave of healthcare technology breakthroughs.

Looking forward, I’d like to see complete elimination of passwords to access electronic information. While there has been some movement toward this with ‘tap and go’ badges and fingerprint readers, a single standard is needed that would work regardless of the software program used. I hope there are greater strides in the creation, deployment, and adoption of other biometric technologies, like iris, face, or voice recognition, so that a healthcare professional could walk into a patient room — or into a hospital — and the computer systems would know his or her identity in immediate and secure fashion. If access to the data needed by a healthcare provider were as easy as turning on a light switch, the improvements in quality of life and efficiency in work for that provider would translate to improved patient outcomes.

Cardiovascular Care

Dr. Aaron Kugelmass

Vice President and Medical Director, Heart and Vascular Program, Baystate Health

Dr. Aaron Kugelmass

We have seen many improvements in cardiovascular care over the last 10 years, but the development, approval for clinical use, and dissemination of transcutaneous aortic valve replacement (TAVR) stands out as the most dramatic. This new technique allows cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, working together, to replace the aortic valve without opening a patient’s chest or utilizing heart-lung bypass, which has been the standard for decades. This less invasive approach is typically performed under X-ray guidance and involves accessing a blood vessel in the leg and guiding a catheter to the heart.

The TAVR procedure was first approved for clinical use in November 2011. It was initially limited to very sick patients, who were not candidates for traditional surgery because of the risk it posed to them. TAVR allowed patients who otherwise could not receive life-saving valve surgery to have their valves replaced with improvement in longevity. With time and experience, the procedure was approved for lower-risk patients as well, and more recently has been approved for the majority of patients, including those with low operative risk. TAVR has been shown to be equivalent or safer than traditional aortic valve-replacement surgery, and is quickly becoming the procedure of choice for most patients who require an aortic valve replacement. Since the procedure typically does not require open-heart surgery, recovery time is much shorter, with some patients going home within a day or two.

In the next 10 years, we expect that similar less-invasive procedures with shorter recovery time will be developed for other heart-valve conditions in patients who otherwise could not receive therapy.

Memory Care

Beth Cardillo

Certified Dementia Practitioner and Executive Director, Armbrook Village

Beth Cardillo

During the last 10 years, neuroscientists have been researching the causes of Alzheimer’s disease. There has been much discussion about which comes first — the amyloid plaque or the fibrillary tangles that develop in the brain, which are roadblocks to cognition, thus causing the difficulties with Alzheimer’s and other related dementia. That question has not been answered yet. Researchers were able to isolate the APOE gene, which is a mutant gene that is found in familial Alzheimer’s disease, helping us to better diagnose it. We have also better understood how diet, exercising both body and brain, and lifestyle contribute to the disease. Currently there are 101 types of dementia, with Alzheimer’s accounting for 75% of cases.

The next 10 years will result in more preventive actions. One major action will be to help people avoid developing type 2 diabetes, which may be labeled the next cause of Alzheimer’s (this type of Alzheimer’s is already being called type 3 diabetes). There has been a major link between sugar in the hippocampus and Alzheimer’s disease. Though there is no cure yet for Alzheimer’s, we are finding more information based on genetics, diet, and PET scans, which can show shrinkage in the brain.

Every year, researchers are more hopeful that a new drug will be developed to eradicate the disease. The last new drug from Biogen was looking hopeful in clinical trials, but that turned out to be not the case. Prevention continues to be at the forefront, as well as participating in clinical trials. More people who do not have dementia or mild cognitive impairment are desperately needed for clinical trials so comparisons of the brain can be made.

Nursing Education

Ellen Furman

Director of Nursing, American International College

Ellen Furman

As in all healthcare, the one thing that can be ascertained is constant change. The same can be said in nursing education today. No longer is the instructor-led lecture method of teaching considered best practice in education, but rather the shift to using class time to apply learned concepts. One way this is done is through the ‘flipped classroom.’ Using this educational modality, students study the concepts being taught preceding the class, followed by class time where students apply these concepts in an interactive activity, thereby developing students’ abilities to think critically, reason, and make healthcare judgements based upon the application of knowledge.

Another change in nursing education is an expanded focus away from pure inpatient (hospital-based) clinical education to outpatient (community-based) clinical education. While hospital-based education remains essential, the realization that most healthcare provided is in outpatient settings has broadened the clinical experiences required to prepare the graduate registered nurse for care provision.

Additionally, with healthcare as complex as it is, nursing students are being taught to be prepared for entry into practice. Education regarding the use of evidence-based practice, how to apply for the licensure examination, preparation to be successful on the National Certification Licensure Exam, nurse residency opportunities, interviewing techniques, transitioning from student nurse to registered nurse, etc. are all taught using a variety of educational modalities based upon the current best available evidence in nursing education.

As we forge ahead in healthcare, nurse educators will continue to evolve to meet healthcare needs through the education of nursing students so as to prepare them to provide care to meet the needs of those we serve well into the future.

Orthotics and Prosthetics

James Haas

Co-owner, Orthotics & Prosthetics Labs Inc.

James Haas

Advances in prosthetic technology have clearly been the most significant development in my field over the past decade. From knees and feet that adapt to different walking speeds and terrains to hands that send sensations of touch to the brain, every aspect of patient care has changed and continues to change at a rapid pace.

Prosthetic feet, knees, and sockets have been greatly impacted. Once made from multi-durometer foams and wood, the prosthetic feet of today are made from carbon, fiberglass, and kevlar laminated with modified epoxy resins. They store energy and adjust to uneven terrain and hills. Microprocessor knees have on-board sensors that detect movement and timing and then adjust a fluid/air control cylinder accordingly. These knees not only make it safer for a person to walk, they also lower the amount of effort amputees must use, resulting in a more natural gait. Sockets once made from stiff materials are now incorporated with soothing gels and flexible adjustable systems that allow a patient to make their own adjustments to improve their comfort.

As for the next decade, I hope to see national insurance fairness. Devices typically last about three to five years. Some people make them last longer, but others, especially growing children, need replacements more often. Many private insurance plans have annual caps and lifetime limits on coverage for orthotics and prosthetics. The Amputee Coalition of America authored insurance-fairness legislation and has lobbied for its implementation for over a decade. This legislation has been ratified in 20 states, including Massachusetts. The Fairness Act requires all insurance policies within the state to provide coverage for prosthetics and orthotics equal to or better than the federal Medicare program and have no coverage caps and lifetime restrictions.

Dental Care

Dr. Lisa Emirzian

Co-owner, EMA Dental

Dr. Lisa Emirzian

The most significant development in the field of dentistry over the past decade has been the integration of digital technology into our daily practices. There are three components of digital dentistry: data acquisition, digital planning, and, finally, the manufacturing of the restoration to be created. Data acquisition today is accomplished with digital radiographs, paperless charting, intra-oral scanners, cone-beam 3D scanners, and video imaging. For the planning process, we now have the ability to merge the data with software that enables computer-aided design and digital smile design, allowing dentists to perform complex procedures, including guided surgical treatments and smile designs, with optimum results. Fabrication and execution of the final restorations can be done in the office or, more often, in laboratories with highly sophisticated digital milling machines, stereolithography, and 3D printing.

In the next decade, we will see data fusion to ultimately create the virtual patient. The next-generation digital workflow will merge intra-oral 3D data with 3D dynamic facial scans, allowing dentists to create 3D smile designs and engineer the dentofacial rehabilitation. The integration of scanners and software will expedite the delivery of ‘teeth in a day.’ In addition, multi-functional intra-oral scanners will allow for early detection of carious lesions and determine risk levels for different patients.

Above and beyond this foreseeable future, artificial intelligence (AI) will be the next paradigm shift. Companies are already looking for big-data collection and deep machine learning to help the practitioner in their everyday chores of diagnosis and treatment. AI cloud-based design platforms will input data, and AI engines in the background will aid in all parts of dental treatment, including diagnosis, design, and fabrication of final restoration.

Let us not forget one thing: the future is all about us — people utilizing technology to enhance the human connection between doctor and patient.

Rehabilitation

John Hunt

CEO, Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Western Massachusetts

John Hunt

A significant rehabilitation development from the past includes one that may surprise you. Time. A luxury we once knew, time meant patients could recover in a hospital longer after a surgery, an accident, or an illness. Nurses had more time to assess patients to know exactly what they needed. Insurance companies approved longer patient stays through lengthy consideration. Ten years ago, a stroke survivor could recover for two weeks in a hospital and then join us for a rehabilitation stay that would last several weeks.

Today, a three- to five-day stay in the referring hospital, followed by a two-week stay in rehabilitation, is the norm. We are seeing significant decreases in the age of stroke survivors as well as an increase in the number patients who survive with cognitive and physical disabilities. Yet, we also see medical breakthroughs, including the discovery of tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) — nothing short of a miracle. TPA actually reverses the effects of an evolving stroke in patients when used early on, making recoveries easier.

With new advanced technologies being introduced every year, rehabilitation continues to progress at a rapid speed. Looking into the future, evidence-based research will continue to grow to help us make knowledgeable decisions that ultimately impact patient outcomes. Increased clinical expertise will lead to higher functional gains in shorter amounts of time. As a result, acute inpatient rehabilitation will impact the lives of patients like we’ve never seen before.

Hearing Care

Dr. Susan Bankoski Chunyk

Doctor of Audiology, Hampden Hearing Center

Dr. Susan Bankoski Chunyk

The most common treatment for hearing loss is hearing aids. Although digital processing has been available in hearing aids since 1996, the past 10 years have offered great leaps in technology for people with hearing loss. Each generation of computer chip provides faster and ‘smarter’ processing of sound. Artificial intelligence allows the hearing-aid chip to adjust automatically as the listening environment changes, control acoustic feedback, and provide the best speech signal possible. People enjoy the convenience of current hearing aids’ Bluetooth streaming, smartphone apps, and rechargeable batteries.

These features are ‘the icing on the cake,’ but the real ‘cake’ is preservation of the speech signal, even in challenging listening situations. Since the primary complaint of people with hearing loss is understanding in noise, new hearing-aid technology works toward improving speech understanding while reducing listening effort in all environments. This significantly improves the individual’s quality of life.

The negative effects of untreated hearing loss on quality of life are well-documented. Recent research has also confirmed a connection between many chronic health conditions — including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, balance disorders, depression, and early-onset dementia — and hearing loss. This research shows that hearing loss is not just an inevitable consequence of aging, but a health concern that should be treated as early as possible. My hope for the future is that all healthcare providers will recognize the value of optimal hearing in their patients’ overall health and well-being and, just as they monitor and treat other chronic health conditions, they will recommend early diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss.

Community Bank, N.A. Works to Live Up to the Sign Over the Door

By
Mike Buckmaster
Banking and Financial Services

What’s in a Name? Plenty

Mike Buckmaster

Mike Buckmaster, vice president of Commercial Lending for Community Bank, N.A.

Since entering the market in 2017 through the acquisition of Merchants Bank and its branch in Springfield’s Tower Square, Community Bank, N.A. has been working to build on its foundation in this region. It brings to the highly competitive local banking landscape both considerable size and an operating mindset commensurate with the name on the letterhead.

Mark Tryniski acknowledges that it sounds illogical that a financial-services institution with $12 billion in assets and more than 230 branches could call itself a community bank — let alone call itself Community Bank, N.A.

But Tryniski, president and CEO of the Syracuse, N.Y.-based institution, said ‘Community Bank’ represents more than a name — and one that fits. Indeed, it’s more like an attitude.

“As our name suggests, we’re a community bank — that’s how we’ve always operated,” he explained. “And when you put the name ‘Community’ on your bank, you’d better function as a community bank — and we do.

“There is such a thing as a community-bank model,” he continued. “You push authority down to people in the branches, as opposed to the big-bank model, where you walk in the door looking for a home-equity loan and they put you on the phone with a 1-800 number and someone working in another country. Community banks don’t do that.”

Mark Tryniski

Mark Tryniski

 “When you put the name ‘Community’ on your bank, you’d better function as a community bank — and we do.”

This operating mindset has enabled the institution to grow considerably over the past several years and into a number of different markets, including Springfield, accomplished through the acquisition in 2017 of Merchants Bank, which had previously acquired NUVO Bank, which operated a single branch within the 413 within a large footprint in Tower Square.

Since putting its name over the door on Main Street, Community Bank, N.A. has downsized that space considerably, while simultaneously working to establish itself and broaden its horizons within this market.

It has done so by essentially living up to the name over the door, said both Tryniski and Mike Buckmaster, vice president of Commercial Lending. They both said the institution possesses the formula that’s required to succeed today — a community-bank feel, but a large size that is necessary in a changing, quite challenging financial-services marketplace today.

“I think that, over a period of time, the market has accepted the fact, to a degree, that this is a consolidating industry,” said Buckmaster, who has logged more than 30 years in the banking industry, locally and in the U.K., and has carried business cards bearing the logos of NUVO and Merchants Bank, among others. “The differentiating factor tends to be the commercial banker, and if the commercial banker can continue to deliver in terms of service and business development, there tends to be a good degree of customer loyalty toward the banker, even through various acquisitions.”

That lengthy explanation helps explain why the Springfield facility has been able to enjoy steady growth in its portfolio even as the name on the wall of Tower Square has changed several times this decade.

Tryniski agreed, but said the combination of size and small-bank attitude is becoming ever more important as the consolidation movement continues without any signs of slowing down.

“I’ve been around the banking industry for a little more than 30 years, and there’s been a dramatic change in the banking landscape, mostly centered around consolidation,” he explained. “When I started, in the ’80s, there were 16,000 or 18,000 banks; now, there are roughly 6,000 banks.

“And I think the trend toward consolidation will continue because of efficiencies that can be garnered by scale and technology,” he went on. “The bigger you get, the more you can justify investments in technology to give you more efficiency. It’s hard for the smaller banks — you have to really be efficient and disciplined.”

Overall, Community Bank will look to get bigger still, and is looking at opportunities to expand within the Western Mass. and Connecticut markets, said Tryniski, but “haven’t found what the right opportunity is yet,” as he put it. Elaborating, he said growth for this institution will continue to come as it has historically, through a mix of organic growth and acquisition, with more of the latter than the former, especially in areas with slow or no growth but more than enough competition, and Western Mass. certainly fits that category.

In such markets, growth can come only by taking market share from other institutions, he went on, adding that this is generally difficult to do. Community Bank has had a good amount of success doing just that, however, because of that aforementioned enviable combination of large size and smaller-bank feel.

Community Bank, N.A.

Mark Tryniski says Community Bank, N.A. will look for opportunities to expand locally beyond its location in Tower Square.

For this issue and its focus on banking and financial services, BusinessWest talked at length with Tryniski and Buckmaster about how Community Bank, N.A. has firmly established its presence in the local market and how it intends to secure additional market share and perhaps expand its footprint in the 413.

By All Accounts

Since acquiring Merchants, and therefore all its branches, Tryniski has visited Springfield on several occasions as part of his efforts to fully understand the broad geographic area served by the institution — one that stretches from the Northern Kingdom in Vermont to the Southwest corner of New York to the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania — and meet both team members and customers.

“We spend a lot of time on the road,” he said of the management team at the bank, adding that, when he does visit Springfield, or any other community served by the bank, he makes a point of learning as much about the region as he can.

In the City of Homes, he’s become familiar with some of the players within the business community, has found a few restaurants he likes, and is both impressed with and encouraged by the high level of energy he’s seeing in the central business district.

He said there are a great many similarities between Springfield and Syracuse, and in some ways, that has helped him understand the dynamics of not only the communities themselves, but the banking environment here.

“They’re remarkably similar, actually,” he said. “They have the same population, they have an industrial history, they have a stable-but-not-growing population, there’s a lot of education, the downtowns look very similar … they’re very much alike. Springfield feels to me like Syracuse.”

From a banking perspective, that means a community that, as he said, is experiencing comparatively little growth, population-wise and new-business-wise, and has a crowded field of competitors for financial-services products — banks and non-banks alike.

In this environment, operating with that community-bank model — but with roughly $3 billion in assets behind the institution — is what amounts to a competitive advantage — a large competitive advantage, said Tryniski.

“We tell our branch managers that we want them to be the president of the bank in their town,” he explained. “And we give them the authority to do that; we give them lending authority and authority around charitable contributions, fee waivers, fee adjustments, things like that. We try to vest as much authority in our branch managers locally as we can, and let them make decisions about their customers and their market.

“We probably have more of a community-bank business model than most community banks,” he went on, “because most don’t operate like that.”

However, in this market, there are still a large number of community banks — more than in many other markets — and this simple math requires that small-bank mindset. Meanwhile, the field of competitors continues to change and grow, thanks to technology, which has brought many non-bank players into the mix, said Tryniski.

“We compete now with all sorts of non-bank competitors on the lending side — for everything,” he told BusinessWest. “Whether it’s personal loans, business loans, car loans … it doesn’t matter what kind of loan you’re making, you’re competing against a multitude of other, non-banking enterprises. And the same is true on the deposit side as well.”

Buckmaster agreed, noting that, on the commercial-lending side, with all that competition, as well as all that consolidation, having a local address is not the same thing as having people who know the local market and have worked within it for years, if not decades.

“All that competition puts the emphasis very much on the banker and being able to provide the service and support growth going forward as clients need,” he said, adding that Community Bank is large and stable, and thus able to provide commercial-banking products of all sizes, including dollar amounts beyond the scope of many of the smaller community banks that populate the region.

The sweet spot for the bank, though, is loans between $1 million and $3.5 million, he said, adding that the bank is able and willing to continue writing loans for small-business owners, something the very large banks seem less interested in doing so.

This flexibility has enabled the institution now known as Community Bank, N.A. to continue to serve the customers added to its portfolio when it was NUVO, he went on, adding that loans have been written for businesses across virtually all sectors and for a number of commercial real-estate acquisitions as well.

“We’ve have some customers who were initially small back eight or nine years ago who have grown into significant customers that require a significant increase in loan support going forward,” he told BusinessWest. “We’ve seen some good growth in commercial and industrial customers over that period of time, and in addition, we’ve also seen significant new dollars in different types of commercial-investment real estate, whether it be locally in Western Mass. or further afield.”

Worthy of Interest

Returning to some of those numbers mentioned earlier — the 230 branches and current status as the 125th-largest bank in the country — Tryniski said they certainly make Community Bank, N.A. sound big. And it is.

“But we’re a lot close to the smallest bank in the country than we are to the biggest, even though the numbers say we’re one of the biggest,” he noted, adding that, in today’s banking climate, it’s not how big a bank looks on paper that matters, but how big it acts in the markets it serves.

And with that as the benchmark, this institution does indeed live up to the words on its stationary and over those 230-odd doors.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Tourism and Events Continue to Drive Region’s Hotel Demand

By
Mary Kay Wydra (left) and Alicia Szenda
Tourism & Hospitality

Rolling Out the Welcome Mat

Mary Kay Wydra (left) and Alicia Szenda

Mary Kay Wydra (left) and Alicia Szenda say the GSCVB works closely with area hotels as part of efforts to draw conventions and other events to Greater Springfield.

There’s more than one way to look at a number. That’s especially true when it comes to hotel occupancy rates.

Take Greater Springfield’s occupancy rates through the last six months of 2018. At almost 67%, they’re 5% higher than they were over the same period in 2017.

That’s good news on its own, but especially positive when considering the capacity added over the past 18 months, from Holiday Inn Express on State Street in Springfield to Fairfield Inn & Suites in Holyoke; from Tru by Hilton in Chicopee to, of course, the hotel at MGM Springfield, the resort casino which is perhaps the region’s top tourism development in decades.

“We’ve definitely seen growth,” said Wydra, president of the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau (GSCVB), adding that the average daily room rate also rose by $3 over that time frame.

“The fact that we added inventory and we’re still able to grow rate and grow occupancy is a really good thing,” she noted. “In analyzing that, a lot of it is the MGM factor, and it’s conservative because MGM didn’t open until the end of August. We don’t even have a full year’s picture of them being fully operational, but in just those four months, it’s helped.

“And by charging a higher rate for their rooms,” she added, “it allows everyone else in the marketplace to go up a little bit, which from our perspective is really good because, before they got here, we weren’t moving that needle.”

“The fact that we added inventory and we’re still able to grow rate and grow occupancy is a really good thing. In analyzing that, a lot of it is the MGM factor, and it’s conservative because MGM didn’t open until the end of August. We don’t even have a full year’s picture of them being fully operational, but in just those four months, it’s helped.”

But MGM is just one factor in drawing visitors to the region and increasing demand for hotel rooms. In fact, the relationship between hotels, tourist attractions, convention business, leisure travel, and a host of economic benefits that follow in wake of all that is the result of a coordinated dance between the various players — a dance that has continues to pick up the tempo.

Go for the Juggler

Greater Springfield still runs slightly below the national average in hotel occupancy rate — 63.6%, to be exact, compared to 66.2% nationally. And it doesn’t compare to a city like Boston, which hovers around 79% occupancy.

“Remember, hotels serve the leisure traveler, conventions, bus tours, corporate travel, and also having businesses surrounding you. Boston has growth from the companies being built. It’s not all tourism. It’s business travel as well,” Wydra said. “There’s clearly corporate travel in our area too, probably not to the extent that a major city like Boston has. We’re more focused on other things: the conventions, the leisure, the bus tours, sports.”

The GSCVB has, indeed, seen an uptick in conventions in recent years, and believes MGM is just one more perk to draw in convention groups looking for a vibrant scene, which Western Mass. offers, especially during the summer.

The new Tru by Hilton in Chicopee

The new Tru by Hilton in Chicopee is one of several hotels that have recently opened in the region.

“You’ll see that with some of the national conventions we work with,” said Alicia Szenda, director of Sales for the GSVCB. “We’ve hosted the National Square Dance Convention, the International Jugglers Association … those events take place in the summer, and people participate in them not for their job, but for their leisure activities, their hobbies, so they look forward to that week every summer, and that’s their family vacation.

“So they’re here,” she went on, “and they’re participating in educational seminars and shows and the dancing or whatever it is, but they’re also going to Six Flags, they’re going to Yankee Candle, they’re going to the museums, and doing some sightseeing while they’re here. A lot of the conventions we work with build that social component into their event schedules, so people get to experience the area they’re in. So the more attractions we have, the more variety of hotels, the more attractive we are to different groups.”

And a dynamic hotel scene is, indeed, a key element, which is Wydra is happy to see new names on the scene and planned renovations as well, such as Tower Square Hotel’s plan to return the Marriott name to its complex.

“I think one of the good things about new properties coming into the market is it keeps everybody in a position of having to keep up,” she said. “You’ve got to be reinvesting in your property and making changes; it’s survival of the fittest.”

As part of her role in recruiting conventions to the region and guiding them through the process (more on that later), Szenda also works directly with hotels, asking them to quote rates and block off a certain inventory of rooms, sometimes three years out.

“What the hotels give back depends on where they’re located, what other business they have, and whether they want to roll the dice and let other hotels get the group business,” Wydra said. “They might say, ‘I don’t want that. I’m going to roll the dice and see if I get the leisure visitor.’ They can charge leisure travelers a higher rate — because Alicia’s going to beat them up and say, ‘I want the best rate I can get for my group.’”

Besides attractive hotel rates, the GSCVB might find local ties to entice a convention group, Wydra said, giving the hypothetical example of bringing in a convention of railroad hobby enthusiasts and trying to set up a tour of the CRRC rail-car manufacturing plant in Springfield. “We try to tie in local business with the groups that we have.”

Holding Hands

But there’s far more to the equation, Szenda noted.

“Some groups come to me and say, ‘this is everything I need.’ But a lot of groups I work with don’t have that. It might be their turn to host, and they’ve never planned a national convention before. I sit with them and go through everything they need. Then I send those leads out to our members. Depending on what they need for space, the lead could go to Eastern States, or the Mullins Center, or the MassMutual Center, all three.”

Then she gets to work finding the aforementioned local connections, setting up reasonably priced hotel options, and assembling tourism information about the region.

“Really, it’s the destination a lot of times that’s going to sell that piece of business,” Szenda said, “because you’re trying to convince that one person to bring thousands of people here. They have to make sure each person has something to do that interests them. And, once we win that piece of business, we continue to hold their hand through the process.”

“I think one of the good things about new properties coming into the market is it keeps everybody in a position of having to keep up.”

Part of that is a hospitality program that many similar-sized cities don’t offer, she said, which includes everything from airport pickups and hotel greeters to downtown maps and goodie bags.

“A lot of the business we get is repeat business because we’ve done a good job from the very beginning — meeting them, listening to what they need, giving them what they need, and holding their hand until the event occurs,” Wydra said. “And while the event occurs, we don’t disappear. Even with groups we’ve hosted for years, we never want to rest on our laurels and say, ‘well, we’ve got them.’ It’s a very competitive business, so we want them to know how much we appreciate they’ve selected Western Mass.”

And it’s not just repeat business from that convention group at stake, she added. Oftentimes family members tag along, extending the trip with some family time.

“You never know which of those participants might want to come back,” Szenda said. “They might belong to another association and want to bring a group here or come back with the family. A lot of people to do that.”

It’s always interesting to see what impresses event planners, Wydra said. Once, Springfield was competing with a city in New Hampshire, and when the group heard that welcome signs would be hung downtown, it was a game changer. The planner had previously walked the streets of unfamiliar downtowns, getting permission as she went to tape up handmade signs.

“She didn’t want to do that; she had a day job,” Wydra said. “The minute we take that out of their hands, make it easy, the results are often good for us.

“We work hard to get the groups, so at the very least we want to keep them,” she went on. “We want repeat business. Alicia loves when someone signs a multi-year contract, and we can count on them for years to come.”

What’s in a Name?

If Tower Square does bring back the Marriott name — and makes the upgrades required to do so — that will be another note of progress for the region’s expanding hotel scene, Wydra said.

“Brands are important,” she noted. “I think a brand kind of promises something, if the property does it right. People know what they’re going to get. They know they’re going to get a certain style room, they’re going to get a free breakfast, affinity programs, whatever it is they want.”

Greater Springfield is a brand of sorts, too, even though it can be a tough sell during the winter, which is why events like the recent AHL All-Star weekend are so desirable, driving room nights during a challenging time of the year for the hospitality industry.

But there’s still plenty of room for hotels to flourish, Szenda said, as evidenced by the challenge of cobbling together enough rooms when multiple conventions and event planners want to swoop in during the same weekend — typically between spring and fall.

“During the summer months, we do quite well on weekends, with Six Flags and other activities,” Wydra said. “It’s always midweek that we’re trying to find business, and especially in the winter.”

But a rising tourism brand, buoyed most recently by MGM Springfield — and increased convention volume, much of which promises to become repeat business — is certainly changing the demand picture for the better.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

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