U.S. CIO role to Nashville techie

Long-time Nashville Information Technology veteran Richard McKinney has landed a big CIO job - heading-up that function for U.S. Department of Transportation. Right here.

Diagnovus News

James Stover at Diagnovus in Nashville announced a new cancer-related assay today, in the first offering for the 10-year-old lifescience startup. Their release is here.

Humanity Zeitgeist

Nick Holland passed-along this moving vid from Google. Searching for what unites humanity? Take a look here.

LaunchTN +1

LaunchTN (aka Tennessee Technology Development Corporation) added as a board member David Milhorn, Ph.D., who is EVP and chief operating officer of the UT System, according to Chattanoogan.com, Nov. 20. VNC's updated story is here.

ECD + TNInvestco (more)

A subcommittee of the General Assembly's government operations committee today voted in favor of extending the charter of the state's Economic and Community Development agency until 2017. Review of the State Comptroller's report on TNInvestco and other ECD programs, which have been cited by the Comptroller and ECD officials alike, as need improved administration and documentation, preceded the vote. Related VNC story here.

Bizplan contest in NVille

Plenty of new life-science companies showcased and/or competing for a $5K bizprize in Nashville later this week. The story's here.

VU Drug Discovery

Jeff Conn of Vanderbilt University center for neuroscience drug discovery is part of a broader alliance of scientists pushing for a new model for collaboration with Pharma. The story's here.

TNInvestco takes hit

TNInvestco administrators within ECD took it on the chin, along with some others, in the TN Comptroller's report issued today regarding the capital-formation program's management. The story's here.

Pathfinder Therapeutics gains ally

Pathfinder Therapeutics, the image-guided surgery technology firm that was spawned by VU School of Engineering and Medicine research, has agreed to integrate its offerings with those of NeuroLogica, release here.

Kustelski ETIX CEO

Joe Kustelski, who helped shape the early strategy for the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, and has more recently been a principal in the ETIX Rockhouse Partners team here, has been named ETIX CEO. Release here.

Healthstream IT 'challenge'

Healthstream CEO Bobby Frist told stock analysts in a teleconference this morning that the company faces "challenges" in finding enough Tech talent in the Nashville area and hopes its Austin, Texas, office will help. The company reported its earnings yesterday, close-on-the-heels of closing its acquisition of Sy.Med. More here. Based on its report, it seems likely to go over the 3 Million implemented subscribers mark in 1Q 2013 (and pass that mark in 4Q12, when non-implemented subs are included).

Tom Stephenson joins Condra's Dalcon

Tom Stephenson, the former president of Healthcare Management Systems (HMS), is now president and chief operating officer of Dalcon Communications Systems, founded by CEO David Condra. For more, read here. Condra has been a leader in Nashville's technology and Angel communities for at least 15 years, and founded Dalcon more than 30 years ago.

INCITE investment (add)

GOBA (Get out, be active) and Opti-Logic are the latest recipients of funding through Gov. Bill Haslam's INCITE co-investment program, administered by TTDC. The release is here.

Shoaf onboard Dobie

Forrest Shoaf, attorney, Cracker Barrel exec and investment banker, has thrown-in with Bruce Dobie at Dobie Media, right here.