Profile: Raymond W. Scott

NEW POSITION: CEO, Axolotl Corp., Tampa

PREVIOUS POSITION: Chief technology officer, Axolotl Corp., Tampa

Although based in Silicon Valley, as newly appointed chief executive of Axolotl Corp., Ray Scott estimates he will be spending 60 percent of his work time at the company's headquarters in Tampa.

Scott, a native of the United Kingdom, is a co-founder of Axolotl. "I had responsibility for a number of areas, including marketing and corporate strategy," he said. Moving into the chief executive role "gives me responsibility for sales and finance as well."

In addition to Tampa and Mountain View, Calif., the 7-year-old company has offices in New York City. Named for a Mexican lizard that has the capability of reproducing lost limbs and organs, Axolotl (pronounced ak-see-lottle -- rhymes with bottle) provides software services for physicians.

Scott helped start the company in 1995 and helped plan and develop its Elysium suite of products that connects physicians' offices with patients' electronic records. The leased software is called Elysium, Greek for heaven, because when it was designed, "we thought it would be 'heaven' for doctors," Scott said.

The company has trademarked the term "clinical messaging" to reflect its software designs that allow physicians to access hospitals, radiology centers and labs for patient information.

"They have all the information in one place. It is accurate. It speeds up their work. It reduces medical errors," he said.

With 60,000 physician customers, Axolotl sees itself as the "leading provider of clinical messaging solutions in the industry."

Axoloti also provides the nation's largest TV network for physicians, feeding a CNN-designed telecast into 11,500 TV kiosks in physician waiting rooms. Called AccentHealth, the telecast is focused on healthy living and lifestyles and is "designed to make the waiting experience seem shorter and more pleasant," Scott said.

Prior to Axolotl, Scott held executive positions at several European software companies. Earlier in his career, Scott designed and implemented the first criminal intelligence computer system for New Scotland Yard and the software that created the current designs for the United Kingdom bank notes.

Scott, 55, holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Cambridge University and is a member of the British Computing Society and a Chartered Engineer in England.

He relocated to San Jose, Calif., where he lives with his wife and two teenage sons, from Oxford, England, seven years ago when he helped start Axolotl. He has had to make some cultural adjustments.

"You adjust," he said. "There's a lot that's good about the U.S. I miss some things, some aspects of art and theater. Of course, I can get that in New York and bigger cities," he said. "It took me a while to get used to the architecture and some differences in values of life."

Scott said he is attracted to the software industry, particularly in the health care field. "I like the pace. I'm a builder. I like building things. At this stage in my life, I'm seeking to contribute something back to society," he said. "I think I'm an extremely good analyst in understanding business and in ferreting out good solutions."

Scott said that the technology is developing rapidly, and that the electronic world of physicians will quickly expand into handheld devices. "We've added transcription services," he said. "We expect them to dictate on the same handheld that they write prescriptions on.

"There are some huge leaps about to be made in the next decade. We're waiting a little bit for the handheld manufacturers. The software is the least of the problems," he said. "Everything we do is on the Internet so we have ubiquitous access."

Scott added that the company's name, while unusual, can be an asset. "If we're known as the company with the unpronounceable name," he said, laughing, "at least we'll be remembered."

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