Page 6 - HMEB Business, February 2017

Editor’s Note
The HMEB Players
Let’s recognize the most talented, skilled, hard- working team in the magazine business.
Volume 24 Number 2 February 2017
Editor Products Editor
Publication Design Production Coordinator
Director of Online Product Development
Group Publisher
David Kopf
(949) 265-1561
Sydny Shepard
Wendy Byle, Byle Design Charles Johnson
Marlin Mowatt Karen Cavallo
(760) 610-0800
Anybody who knows me person- ally knows that I’m nuts about soul music. I don’t know what it is, but the glory days of Stax, Motown and Atlantic (as well as the lesser known labels) produced music that absolutely moves me.
Mind you, this is not the music of my high school or college cohort. I’m your classic GenXer, and the hot music of my youth was new wave, punk, synthpop and all sorts of music that was just about as far removed from soul as you can imagine. But play a YouTube snippet of Otis Redding playing in England with Booker T & The MGs backing him and I will immediately be sucked in.
My fondness for soul started back when I was in high school. I heard some Rufus Thomas and Sam and Dave, and I was instantly intrigued enough to head to the record store. I still remember the car stereo blasting a newly acquired cassette of “James Brown’s Greatest Hits” on the way home.
From then on it’s been a life-long love affair. So much so that even as a dorky middle-aged guy on the cusp of 50, I dragged my family to the Stax Museum in Memphis this summer to take in all
it had to offer. Sure, Elvis Presley’s Graceland was cool, but did it have Albert King’s flying-V guitar, or Isaac Hayes’ gold-plated Cadillac?
One of my absolute favorite things about soul acts is when the front man or woman would take a moment to recognize or interact with the band and its members. James Brown calling out to his horns to hit him one more time, or Archie Bell enlisting each of the Drells to contribute to the “Tighten up?” Boom. I’m hooked. I think it’s because all those artists work together as a team to make a unified sound. Sure, each artist has
a moment to shine, but they are all working on something that is bigger than themselves.
And maybe that’s why I picked writing and editing for periodicals as my career. I like being on a team. I like working with a group of people to produce a publication that other people enjoy or find useful. A magazine is more of than the words on the pages. There is a whole lot of work by a whole lot of people that go into making it. From the sources we interview to the staff doing final page checks before we go to press, it’s a team sport.
Bearing that in mind, permit me to introduce the HME Business band:
On the editorial team, besides myself, we have Sydny Shepard who is handing our prod- ucts coverage. She works in our Dallas office, here she puts together our Product Solutions and Inventory departments, as well as Medtrade product roundups.
Joseph Duffy is a name you probably recognize. Since 2008, Joe has been a primary freelance contributor to HMEB. In addition to writing feature and department stories, Joe is often the person who puts together our special supplements and publica- tions, such as DME Pharmacy.
Newest to the team is Leila Meyer. Leila is a longtime freelancer for some sister publications
on 1105 Media’s Education publications, and now she’s started to branch out into covering the HME industry. You’ll see her in our online news coverage on HME-business.com and in the print magazine’s News, Trends & Analysis section (page 8) at first, but I’m guessing it won’t be too much longer before she starts tackling larger assignments.
Putting the pages together, we have freelance designer Wendy Byle, who’s been working with us over the last couple of issues. Take one look at 2017’s eye-grabbing covers and feature stories so far and you can see she’s helping us shine.
When it comes to HME-business.com, Marlin Mowatt, who heads up our online site production, is a pivotal player in ensuring that the site runs properly and that we are adding new features for readers. Moreover, she handles all the logistics of our webinars; doing all the heavy lifting of setting up the presentations in our webinar system and keeping everyone on-schedule.
Lastly, helping keep the whole show together is Chuck Johnson, our production coordinator. Not only does he help make sure that every element of every issue goes exactly where it should, but he’s also a wildly talented jazz musician.
So that’s the HME Business team. I hope you enjoy this hard-working group of performers as much as I do.
David Kopf Editor
HME Business
Steve Ackerman
President Spectrum Medical
Jeffrey S. Baird, Esq.
Chairman of the Health Care Group of Brown & Fortunato, P.C.
Rob Baumhover
Director of Retail Services for VGM Retail Services
Georgie Blackburn
Vice President, Government Relations and Legislative Affairs BLACKBURN’S
Todd Blockinger
Senior Director of Sales The MED Group
Rob Boyeye
Executive Vice President of HME Brightree LLC
Sandra Canally
President
The Compliance Team Inc.
George Coppola
Director of Marketing CAIRE Medical
John C Eberhart
President Eberhart Home Health Inc.
Brian LaDuke
Vice President, Marketing for North America Invacare Corp.
John Letizia
President of Laurel Medical Supplies Inc.
Joe Lewarski
Vice President of Global Respiratory and Sleep Drive Devilbiss
Ron Resnick
President Blue Chip Medical Products Inc.
Tom Ryan
President and CEO AAHomecare
Wayne Slavitt
Founder and CEO Mobül: The Mobility Store
Wayne van Halem
President and Founder The van Halem Group LLC
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS GROUP
President & Group Publisher Group Publisher Group Circulation Director Group Marketing Director Group Social Media Editor
Chief Executive Officer Chief Operating Officer Chief Technology Officer
Executive Vice President Executive Chairman
REACHING THE STAFF
Kevin O’Grady Karen Cavallo Margaret Perry Susan May Matt Holden
Rajeev Kapur Henry Allain Erik A. Lindgren
Michael J. Valenti Jeffrey S. Klein
Editors can be reached via e-mail, fax, telephone, or mail. A list of editors and contact information is at www.hme-business.com.
Email: email is routed to individuals’ desktops. Please use the following form: firstnameinitial,lastname@1105media.com. Do not include a middle name or middle initials.
Telephone: The switchboard is open weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. After 5:30 p.m. you will be directed to individual extensions.
Dallas Office: 14901 Quorum Drive, Suite 425, Dallas, TX 75254 (972) 687-6700; Fax: (972) 687-6799; www.1105media.com
Corporate Phone: (818) 814-5200; Fax: (818) 734-1522
6 HMEBusiness | February 2017 | hme-business.com
Management Solutions | Technology | Products