Portland’s Carenet Gains National Recognition as one of the Top 10 Small Businesses in Oregon
Portland, OR (January 30, 2008) — In recognition of the economic power of small, woman-owned and multicultural businesses, DiversityBusiness.com, the nation’s leading multicultural internet site, has named Carenet LLC, a unique health education and communications agency, as one of the “top 10 small businesses in Oregon” (Div100). Carenet also ranked 5th on the list of Top 100 woman-owned businesses, and 8th among top 100 diversity-owned businesses in Oregon.
The Div100 is the 8th annual listing of Oregon’s top 100 diversity-owned businesses. The companies listed on the Div100 represent Oregon’s top multicultural earners and challenge the long-held notion that a diversity-owned business is small or insignificant. Div100 members are sought after by major corporations wishing to increase spending with diversity owned companies.
“Diversity businesses and consumers are a growing force in the U.S. economy, and a force to be reckoned with,” said Kenton Clarke, CEO of Computer Consulting Associates International, the company that built DiversityBusiness.com. “This is a whole business segment that can carry its own, that provides jobs, products and services, and generates wealth for their communities. These are the new leaders in American business.”
Affected by recent economic and demographic trends and changes, Fortune 1000 corporations throughout the country have recognized that buying products and services from diversity owned companies positively impacts their business. Diversity-owned businesses contribute over $1.4 trillion in sales to the U.S. economy.
Woman-owned and founded and directed entirely by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, Carenet speaks with authority on health and medical issues. At the helm of Carenet, husband and wife team Kathleen McCarron and David McCarron, M.D., FACP take their medical knowledge and customer care operation experience to clients who have a health, medical or nutrition-related message. They apply their medical research experience to effectively convey the messaging for their clients.
“We have been honored by these awards for the past several years and we are delighted to have made it into the top 10 lists here in Oregon. We believe that our experience with swiftly ramping up the contact center including calls, online, message boards and other communications elements with healthcare professionals for new over the counter products like GSK’s alli™, the only FDA approved, over-the-counter weight loss product, and our knowledge of how the Internet has driven new trends in communications strategies for our clients has enabled us to continue to grow our business,” says the company’s co-founder, Kathleen A. McCarron, a 22-year veteran of customer care operations with a background in healthcare management and telecommunications.
Expanding partnerships with GlaxoSmithKline, Ethicon Endo-surgery, a Johnson & Johnson company, the National Toy Association, Fleishman-Hillard, Boston Scientific, ConAgra, Campbell Soup Company, and Shaping America’s Youth have accelerated the growth of Carenet. Business growth recently prompted a 300% increase in call center capacity. “Portland’s diverse healthcare workforce has made our accelerated growth possible”, McCarron stated.
Carenet provides what some clients are calling an outsourced consumer affairs department addressing element like consumer queries and fulfillment, patient recruitment, program development, management of governmental and health professional relations. In addition, healthcare communication solutions via the Carenet call center and web-based solutions for pharmaceutical companies, food and beverage companies, and medical centers are key outsourced client services. The firm’s health education consulting team mans a live, toll-free call center for consumer queries, helps with patient recruitment, program development and the management of governmental and health professional relations. Carenet is also in the business of developing non-branded educational websites for their clients seeking to provide online resource centers on specific health and medical issues.
“The Fleishman-Hillard Clinical Trials Division and Carenet enjoy a long-standing partnership that focuses on the development and implementation of strategic clinical trial recruitment programs. Carenet provides compliant patient confidentiality processes, database management, trained healthcare operators, senior-level project management and strategic counsel from start to finish. Carenet’s team is consistently responsive, results-oriented, and resourceful,” said Mindy Warner, Senior Vice President and Partner.
Carenet and its founders the McCarrons have been instrumental in such projects as the “Milk Mustache” campaign, and most recently, GlaxoSmithKline’s launch of alli™, the only FDA approved, over-the-counter weight loss product, and nationally recognized Shaping America’s Youth, a public / private initiative focused on addressing the public health crisis of childhood obesity.
The Div100 is a classification that represents the top 100 diversity-owned (Women, African American, Hispanics, Asians, Native Indian and other minority groups) businesses in the state of Oregon in sectors such as technology, manufacturing, food service and professional services. Large organizational buyers throughout the country that do business with multicultural and women-owned businesses use the list. The Div100 is produced annually by DiversityBusiness.com, the nation’s leading multicultural B2B Internet portal that links large organizational buyers to multicultural product and service suppliers.
Carenet will be honored at a special awards ceremony at DiversityBusiness.com’s “8th Annual Multicultural Business Conference”, taking place April 23 – 25, 2008 at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort in Orlando, Florida.
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About Carenet, LLC:
Carenet, LLC is a leading medical and health communications company conceived by academic professionals to serve as a singular source for communicating health-related issues to consumers and health professionals. Carenet works with leading pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organizations and food/beverage companies in developing effective communications strategies through consulting, telecommunications internet and other public media sources. The firm offers the combined technological and medical expertise necessary to meet the demands and expectations of today’s health-focused public.
About DiversityBusiness.com:
Launched in 1999, with over 35,000 members DiversityBusiness.com is the largest organization of diversity-owned businesses throughout the United States that provide goods and services to Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies and colleges and universities. Members use the sites technology to find and track new business opportunities. It also produces the country’s largest conference on diversity education and training for major corporations and small business. Its research on top businesses appears in Fortune, Forbes, Business Week and numerous magazines and media publications. The site has gained national recognition and has won numerous awards for its content and design. DiversityBusiness.com is produced by Computer Consulting Associates International Inc. (CCAii.com) of Southport, CT. CCA was founded in 1980 by CEO Kenton Clarke.
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