UWF Office of Economic Development and Engagement partners to bring jobs to the region

Aug. 22, 2012

The Office of Economic Development and Engagement at the University of West Florida announces the funding for the addition of more than 60 high-wage jobs at iSirona, a downtown Panama City-based medical software development company. This is the second economic development announcement that includes funding from the Industry Recruitment, Retention & Expansion Fund Grant Program (IRREF), which is administered by the University of West Florida. The program is available to the eight coastal counties counties of Northwest Florida that were most affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Senator Don Gaetz authored S.B. 2156, of which the Oil Spill Recovery Act was an important component. The Oil Spill Recovery Act allots $10 million per year for three years to the eight Northwest Florida counties for the purposes of research and development, commercialization of research, economic diversification and job creation.

iSirona, formed in 2008, has grown from 33 to 100 employees since January 2012 and projects to grow by another 100 jobs over the next three years. The company’s software helps healthcare providers make more informed decisions about patients by providing an easy-to-use approach to medical device integration. With iSirona, hospitals can connect almost any medical device to their clinical information systems, providing faster access to more accurate patient information and freeing nurses from the burden of hand-entering patient data.