Greg Doucette finds the spotlight in Silent Sam flap

By Mike MacMillan

Greg Doucette thrust himself into controversy by protesting the UNC System’s $2.5 million payment to a group honoring Confederate veterans that wanted possession of Chapel Hill’s Silent Sam monument.

Greg Doucette rolls up to a 2 p.m. meeting right on time, straddling two parking places with his burnt orange “hot lava” 2016 Toyota RAV4 SE. That’s no problem on this early April afternoon: Thanks to the COVID-19 virus, there are four cars in a lot that could easily hold 50.

It gives the impression that the Durham attorney is planning for a quick getaway, which may be the case. He’s angered more than a few people for his effort to reclaim a $2.5 million settlement paid by the University of North Carolina System to the Sons of Confederate Veterans for the controversial Silent Sam monument, which sat in a prominent UNC Chapel Hill site for more than a century. He mentions a hearing at the Chatham County courthouse in February where he represented an anti-Confederate protestor charged with misdemeanors related to the Silent Sam ruckus. As he returned to his car, a member of the veterans’ group parked his vehicle to block Doucette’s exit. The lawyer reached for his 9mm pistol, unsure what would happen next. Fortunately, another driver in the line backed up, giving him a work around.

Such is Doucette’s life these days, a curious mix of pro bono social justice work, lots of Twitter rants and a legal practice built mostly around small business disputes and defending low-level drug offenders. The commerce side is slow as the courts have been mostly closed. But the Silent Sam controversy rolls on, fueled by various decisions by the UNC System Board of Governors.

Doucette, 39, rents an office in the former Durham public library on East Main Street, next to First Presbyterian Church. It’s a remnant of an older Durham, set back from the street and built in a diminutive Greek revival style with six Ionic columns supporting a modest portico. Going in, you expect to find languidly turning ceiling fans and lawyers lolling around in seersucker suits. Atticus Finch would be right at home.

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Keona is positioned to benefit from the switch to remote health care

by Mike MacMillan

A minor medical emergency, an unanswered call to the doctor’s office, and an unnecessary trip to the hospital in Chapel Hill in 2011 got Oakkar Oakkar to start thinking more broadly about how health care is delivered in the U.S.

“If someone had answered the phone that day, I would never have gone to the hospital,” Oakkar says. “It was an inefficient and expensive way to address what should have been a simple problem.” It was, he says, a matter of communication and of triage.

From that experience came Oakkar’s Keona Health, a Chapel Hill company formed in 2014 that develops software to help hospitals and clinics determine the level of urgency presented by patients seeking help through phone calls, emails, texts or other channels. The COVID-19 crisis has sent demand for Keona’s service skyrocketing as health care providers manage a flood of traffic.

“Some of our customers saw call volume jump by as much as 50 times” as the virus spread, Oakkar says. “At the same time, you have regular patients who don’t want to come into the office, and doctors who may be working from home, so you can use telemedicine to bring these two together.”

Keona’s revenue has doubled each year since 2015, according to Oakkar, who declined to provide details. Its software is used by about 12,000 providers serving more than 20 million patients in the U.S. and Canada. It employs about 20 people, mostly in Chapel Hill. Major customers include call centers and telepath programs run by Tampa, Fla.-based Sykes Enterprises and San Antonio-based Carenet Healthcare.

Keona’s technology is designed to help providers identify the most endangered — triage, in medical jargon — and improve patient experiences by avoiding unnecessary hospital visits. It also can help manage costs by providing remote access to nurses, doctors, schedulers and other health care professionals.

Many industries such as banking, retail and travel long ago moved customers toward more self-service, but health care has proven a tougher nut to crack. Privacy regulations are an important consideration, while customers have often been unwilling to provide as much compensation for telemedicine as in-office visits. Dealing with a caller’s health questions isn’t like using artificial intelligence or machine learning to put together a Spotify playlist. Medical advice must be right. The intellectual property behind that process is where Keona’s value resides.

But the coronavirus pandemic has prompted Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and other insurers to change payment policies to encourage remote health care. Keona is positioned to benefit from that switch.

The full story is here

Local leaders considering cashing in New Hanover Regional Medical Center

By Mike MacMillan

New Hanover County has a chance to land a $1 billion check or, alternatively, avoid having to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to support the anticipated growth needs of its biggest employer. It’s an unusual opportunity only possible because New Hanover Regional Medical Center is the third-largest county-owned health care system in the United States.

But selling the hospital and affiliated operations could eliminate local control and, some experts say, lead to higher medical costs in a monopoly market. It’s a momentous decision given the system’s payroll of 7,500 and annual revenue of about $1.5 billion. It’s the issue that Wilmington’s civic leadership is grappling with amid much public consternation. A decision on how to proceed is expected in the next few months.

Read more here.

CEO Lowe drives Cree in a new direction

Innovative lighting was the shining star of Cree for decades. Now, making parts used in hot new cars and cutting-edge mobile phones provides the Durham company’s glitter.

At Durham-based Cree, a light went on with the arrival of new CEO Gregg Lowe in September 2017.

More accurately, a light went off when the veteran semiconductor-industry executive succeeded Chuck Swoboda, who helped Cree grow from $6 million in sales to about $1.5 billion during a 24-year run, including the last 16 as CEO. Lowe immediately began a strategic review that would prompt a sale of its LED lightbulb business 18 months later. Lowe put his chips elsewhere, on nascent but promising markets for electric vehicles and the 5G technology standard for mobile phones.

Lowe landed at a Triangle company known as a technology pioneer whose achievements included commercializing the world’s first blue light-emitting diode (LED) in 1989. That advance led to creation of LED-based electronic displays that could employ the full color spectrum and light up hotels, convention centers, gas stations and many other venues.

Perhaps Cree’s most promising application for LEDs also carried the potential to turn its relatively obscure name into a major international brand: Replacing the centuries-old incandescent lightbulb. Blue LEDs made it possible to deliver a brighter, whiter light while significantly reducing power demand. They were expensive but long-lasting, and a steadily declining price prompted more uses, both industrial and residential.

In May 2015, after years of growth, research and development, and a bumpy financial performance, Cree and Swoboda were ready to redouble the emphasis on lighting and LEDs. To fund the plan, Swoboda announced a spinoff of Cree’s semiconductor-manufacturing unit called Wolfspeed. The business then had annual revenue of $124 million primarily from making semiconductors for managing power systems and radio-frequency devices. The more mature lighting and LED units were much larger, with yearly turnover of $770 million and $550 million, respectively.

The full story is here.