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Cardwell Feagin
Chief Operating Officer at Viva Health
Professional Background
Cardwell Feagin serves as the Chief Operating Officer at Viva Health, a position he has held since 2006, where he has become a pivotal figure in the organization. He possesses over 20 years of experience in health care operations management, including 11 years in senior leadership roles. His tenure at Viva Health is marked by impressive achievements and a dedication to innovative and efficient healthcare solutions. Under his leadership, Viva Health has transitioned from a fully manual, paper-based system to a state-of-the-art, fully automated, and paperless environment. This transformation not only modernized operations but also significantly enhanced the company’s overall efficiency and client service delivery.
Education and Achievements
Cardwell's educational background is robust and well-aligned with his career in health services and management. He holds a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Health Services Administration and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a focus in Management Information Systems, both from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Additionally, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Auburn University, giving him a unique perspective on healthcare that intertwines clinical understanding with managerial expertise.
Throughout his career, Cardwell has been a critical member of the VIVA Senior Management team. His strategic guidance has led to significant advancements in membership, revenue, and workforce growth. Membership skyrocketed from 74,000 to an impressive 260,000 individuals, showcasing his ability to drive membership expansion effectively. Furthermore, under his administration, revenue increased by an astounding 260%, which contributed to the company's consistent profitability, a testament to his astute operational strategies and leadership skills. The workforce at Viva Health has also expanded considerably, growing from 160 to 500 employees, underscoring Cardwell's commitment to building strong teams and fostering a collaborative work environment.
In his role, Cardwell emphasizes the importance of process optimization and employee empowerment. He has implemented minimum performance and quality standards across multiple departments, including Health Services, Claims, Customer Service, Information Systems, and Provider File Maintenance. By doing so, he has ensured that employees are not only held accountable but also equipped with the tools and resources necessary to achieve success independently.
Leadership Philosophy
Cardwell's leadership style is characterized by a hands-on, approachable demeanor. He is a strong advocate for 'management by walking around,' which allows him to directly engage with employees across all departments. This practice not only increases senior management visibility throughout the company but also fosters an environment where employees feel valued and heard. By routinely visiting different departments and meeting with direct reports in their offices, Cardwell cultivates a culture of open communication and collaboration within the organization. His commitment to employee engagement has been instrumental in creating a supportive workplace that values innovation and teamwork.
Notable Contributions and Community Impact
One of Cardwell’s most notable contributions to Viva Health is the establishment of the first care management team, which he helped to grow into the largest team in the state. Currently, this dedicated group includes over 200 clinicians who work relentlessly to enhance health outcomes for more than 270,000 individuals. Their focus on delivering quality care reflects Cardwell's vision of improving access and efficiency in healthcare, ensuring that individuals receive the support they need to lead healthier lives.
Cardwell’s dedication extends beyond just operational excellence; he is deeply committed to making a positive impact on the community. By prioritizing the development of healthcare delivery systems that enhance patient care and services, he is playing a key role in transforming the healthcare landscape in his region. The commitment to ongoing community enrichment and support exemplifies Cardwell's understanding of the role that healthcare organizations play in public health and wellness.
Continuing Professional Development
As a leader in his field, Cardwell believes in the importance of continuous learning and professional development. His extensive educational background, combined with practical experience, serves as a foundation for his commitment to staying updated on industry trends and advancements in healthcare technology and management practices. He actively participates in industry conferences and forums, sharing his insights and learning from fellow peers in the field.
In summary, Cardwell Feagin is a highly accomplished Chief Operating Officer at Viva Health whose career is marked by innovative transformations and a commitment to improving healthcare outcomes. His leadership, coupled with a focus on automating operations and empowering employees, has led Viva Health to remarkable success as a key player in the healthcare sector. As he continues to navigate the challenges and opportunities within the healthcare industry, Cardwell's vision and dedication are certain to help even more individuals achieve better health outcomes in the future.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.