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BY DEBRA SOLOMON
BAKER
SKIP
SALLEE, M.D.,
Quick Study Radiology, Inc. |
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Skip Sallee,
M.D. has found a unique niche. A radiologist-turned-businessman,
he now runs Quick Study Radiology, Inc., his third start-up in the
imaging sector. QSR provides smaller health care facilities with
the equipment and the technical support necessary to digitize their
radiology departments.
Sallee wrote a business plan for QSR while working on his Master
of Business Administration from Washington University’s Olin School
of Business. Since then, he has raised $14.76 million from 11 different
venture capital firms, including eight local investors, and currently
employs 62 people.
QSR is located in the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise, a
business incubator that nurtures new companies.
Sallee’s unusual background allows him to understand firsthand the
enormous benefits reaped when hospitals and imaging centers have
digital radiological services.
First of all, he explains, this technology allows a patient’s scans
to be accessed from anywhere in the world. Therefore, if a person
were injured while on vacation, for instance, previous images could
be downloaded in minutes.
In addition, it helps doctors be more efficient. Rather than waiting
days for a radiologist’s report, which causes a medical “bottleneck,”
according to Sallee, doctors with access to digital technology view
images immediately.
“They can log on from a bedside from the intensive care unit, or
from the emergency room…they can look at images from anywhere,”
Sallee says. “This system allows them to be both more productive
and more accurate.”
Also, because QSR provides a way for community hospitals to convert
their imaging departments into completely digital entities, the
need for off-site storage can be eliminated. Instead, the images
are stored in an archive.
“We’re really the only company around that is targeting smaller
hospitals,” Sallee says. “The challenge is getting the message out
that this type of technology is available.”
Unlike larger hospitals, which can opt to install this Picture Archive
& Communication System (PACS) themselves, smaller hospitals often
do not have the capital necessary for such an undertaking. They
also tend to not have sufficient information technology specialists
needed to install the system and keep it operational. Sallee and
his staff at QSR install the equipment, charge a per-scan fee, train
hospital staff, and then monitor the whole system.
Sallee’s clients include two imaging centers in St. Louis, community
hospitals in Ste. Genevieve and Perryville, and one in Grinnell,
Iowa. QSR is also installing a system in Kirksville. Sallee expects
QSR to grow rapidly within the next several years, including national
expansion.
Debra Soloman Baker is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer.
LEADERSHIP CIRCLE INSIGHTS 
If you had $1 million to give away, to whom would you give it and
why?
“I would contribute these funds to the renovation efforts underway
in Forest Park. Not only was Forest Park our platform for the 1904
World’s Fair, but today it fills a much-needed collaborative
role in bringing the city and county together in a way that symbolizes
the quality, energy, spirit, and pride in St. Louis.”
JERRY MATTHEWS,
vice president-executive services,
Right Management Consultants
“Since my son is a leukemia survivor and my daughter was his
bone marrow donor, I would fund a Chair in my mother’s name
at a leading medical university for leukemia research.
My mother was our strength.”
JOYCE EISEL, DR. P.H.,
president and CEO,
Gateway Blood Association
“United Way is a great community builder.
I would also contribute to causes with values that have eternal
significance, such as Habitat for Humanity, which builds new homes
and helps families, or Young Life, which assists high school-age
kids in building a spiritual foundation for their lives.”
RICHARD MCCLURE,
president, UniGroup, Inc., parent company
of United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit
“I would either fund a special leadership institute for executives
of especially worthwhile not-for-profit organizations, or I would
make an investment in a fund that helps to capitalize on these organizations.”
KEVIN C. EICHNER,
president and CEO,
Enterprise Financial Services Corp.
For more information on Leadership Circle, please contact John
Diefenbach, associate vice president-membership, 314/444-1184
or jdief@stlrcga.org.
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