Everett graduate heads medical technology company | News

You are on a cross-country skiing holiday and a medical emergency arises.

Getting the correct treatment and diagnosis may depend on the provider’s ability to maintain your correct medical history.

But will this story be correct – or even yours?

An Everett Area High School graduate and the company he now runs are committed to ensuring that it stays that way.

Ritchey, who graduated from Everett in 1989, became Chief Executive Officer of Verato, a leading provider of identity resolution technology, effective April 30.

He replaces retired CEO Mark LaRow, who has led Verato since 2015.

“We are happy to welcome Clay to Verato. After an extensive search process, we are fortunate to have found someone with Clay’s successful experience in healthcare and software-as-a-service (SaaS). We are confident that, under Clay’s leadership, Verato will continue on its mission to transform the healthcare landscape with more complete and trustworthy patient information, ”LaRow said in a press release. “It’s been an incredible six years with Verato and I’m proud to have seen the dramatic growth during that time. With a strong foundation, I know that the team will be successful for many years to come. “

Ritchey takes over the helm of Verato after several decades of leadership roles in healthcare technology including serving as CEO of Evariant, a SaaS CRM and big data analytics company in the healthcare sector that is driving the company’s growth and leading to a successful merger with Healthgrades in January 2020; Chief Marketing Officer of Imprvata, CEO of Equinox Healthcare in Maryland, and vice president of marketing and strategy for Hill-Rom IT Solutions.

“This is my third opportunity to become the CEO of a healthcare technology company,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to have a very fulfilling career so far.”

In his early days at Verato, he described it as “a bit of a fire hose, but a lot of excitement”.

He said that a few years ago Congress required the electronic collection of medical records with the idea that “your digital health information would be stored somewhere in a cloud” and that it could be accessed by providers anywhere if needed.

The catch, he explained, is that the quality of care the patient receives depends on the patient’s being properly checked against their records, which he called “building a master patient index.”

It’s been a Ritchey dream for a long time.

After completing his education, which included an MBA from Harvard School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Penn State, he was fine but “realized that a job for a job’s sake wasn’t so rewarding. You want to do good while doing well financially. “

That led him into his career in medical technology.

“Health care is so inefficient,” he said. “I wanted to do something that could use technology to provide better health care.”

Ritchey stated that the US spends twice as much per capita on medical care as any industrial company while getting “mediocre” results.

“That got me thinking: How can we use technology to provide better care at a lower cost?”

So Verato’s mission.

Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington, DC, the company also has a suburb of Boston, where Ritchey will have offices, and a third location in Mexico, where much of the engineering will be done.

He noted that one of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is that “the way a business can be run efficiently and productively remotely has really changed,” with the new norm being, “Talent.” to consider first and geography second.

He and his wife celebrate their 20th anniversary on Memorial Day. They have three children, the first two adopted from Guatemala, and “our miracle baby”.

A standout athlete at Everett, Ritchey said, “I appreciate the experience I’ve had in athletics.” He had high praise for basketball coach Jeff Batzel, now Northern Bedford’s sports director and athletics coach.

“He was a great person who helped me understand leadership concepts,” he said.

Ritchey also recalled math teacher Linda Dodson and physics teacher Jeannie Kline, who “challenged me every day to think big and challenge me to do more.

“Growing up in Bedford County was such a blessing,” he continued. “Very good values; The community support has been really amazing. “