Photo – Erica James, a student trainer on Northwestern State's sports medicine staff, tends to a Demon football player before last Saturday's game at Turpin Stadium.

NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State Athletics has entered into a three-year agreement with Vivature to streamline sports medicine operations, creating a significant revenue stream for the Demons while shaving costs.
 
Greg Burke, NSU's director of athletics since 1996, made the announcement Monday.
 
Vivature provides a turnkey, no-cost, leading-edge healthcare management program that creates a new revenue stream, risk mitigation and athletic training room compliance for more than 200 schools at all levels of collegiate athletics.
 
Northwestern State, which competes in 14 sports at the NCAA Division I level, has a staff of 10 certified athletic trainers and three doctors from Natchitoches Regional Medical Center who maintain the health and wellbeing of nearly 400 student-athletes.
 
"Partnering with Vivature is positive for the NSU Athletic Department on several levels.  Most importantly, the high level of care already being provided for our student-athletes just took another big step forward," said Burke. "Specifically, funds generated as a result of this contract will enhance the sport medicine program and will also benefit the Athletic Department budget, especially as it pertains to maintaining maximum scholarship levels in all sports.
 
"Vivature's cutting edge technology will further solidify documentation for services being provided for student-athletes in the Eugene Christmas Sports Medicine Center.  All in all, this is a blue-ribbon day for NSU Athletics," said Burke.
 
"The NSU Sports Medicine staff is happy about the partnership with Vivature," said Jason Drury, the veteran director of the Demons' sports medicine program. "This new partnership, along with the existing endeavor with Natchitoches Regional Medical Center, speaks volumes about NSU's commitment to the health and well-being of our nearly 400 student-athletes.  I look forward to this new phase of NSU Sports Medicine."

"We could not be happier to join forces with NSU.  This is a university that was created to produce leaders and teachers.  The steps NSU has taken hold true to these founding principles and demonstrate the ability to not only see the future, but take action," said Lance Wilson, executive vice president of Vivature.   
 
Vivature, based in Dallas, has nearly 400 collegiate partners (over 200 actively billing and generating revenue) using a variety of services and has recently been named one of the of the top 25 emerging sports technology firms in sports today.
 
Using a multi-million-dollar enterprise-level Oracle database, Vivature's clients use their NExTT software to record all injuries and treatments being conducted on student-athletes, creating a complete medical record for the university in adherence with all laws and regulations. The software automatically generates claims in the same form as the physicians or outside providers that work on student-athletes, and delivers a revenue stream back to the athletic department for reinvestment, without any change to their current process, headcount or adding new expenses.
 
For more information on Vivature, visit the company's website, www.vivature.com, or call 1-972-367-1877.