The closure of the Verso Paper mill in Bucksport will probably be remembered as an important milestone in Maine’s economic transition.

Despite property tax breaks and a state-aided, low-cost power generation plant, the mill will shut down by the end of the year, a victim of global competition and a worldwide decline in demand for its product.

But an event last week also may have been a milestone.

In Portland, city officials, along with partners in higher education and the business community, announced they will be conducting a six-month study into the nascent cluster of health care-related information technology businesses that are prospering there, with the goal of building a new engine of job creation for Maine.

The team convened by the public-private Growing Portland collaborative is assessing what support existing businesses need to grow, what startups need to launch and what skills students should acquire if they want to work in the industry. The goal is to build relationships between the interested parties and make Maine the logical place to find a job or start a health informatics company, the way our state once was the logical place to build a paper mill.

“For once we can be more than a passive player in the national economy,” said Portland Mayor Michael Brennan. “We can proactively take steps for the future economy for the state of Maine.”

Health informatics is a field that uses computer networks and software programs to store information and make it available to doctors and nurses in clinical settings. It’s a growing business sector, as health care providers increasingly use large amounts of data to help make medical decisions, and the payment model is changing from fees for services performed to outcome-based rewards. It can employ a wide range of people, from software engineers to data entry clerks, with many good-paying jobs in between.

The partners in this Growing Portland survey, financed by a $25,000 grant from the Maine Technology Institute that was matched by interested businesses, include health care providers — like Maine Medical Center and Intermed — as well as information technology companies in the field — like Portland-based Winxnet and iVantage Health Analytics. Brennan believes that if the city can build the right relationships, greater Portland could attract investment and people to counteract the downward trend of the state’s traditional industries.

This particular cluster of businesses may never grow to replace the jobs that were lost in even one of the paper mill closures this year, but this effort could provide a model for the way Maine could make the most of the assets it already has. If so, this is a large step in the right direction.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: