History of Synova Associates

The Early Years

The first meeting of what would eventually end up being called the NICU Leadership Forum took place in April 1997 in New Orleans with about 35 NICU managers in attendance.  The meeting was sponsored by Child Healthcare Corporation of America (CHCA), a business alliance of 41 free-standing children’s hospitals.  CHCA was one of the first consortiums that brought leaders from different areas of the hospital together to share experiences and best practices and enjoy the benefits of group purchasing.  The meeting was hosted by Children’s Medical Ventures (ChMV), then owned by CHCA, with Read McCarty, Cathy Bush, and Chrissy Burke leading the three days of sessions.

That first meeting was very successful, with many ideas generated for a subsequent meeting the next year.  At that time, few hospitals had leadership training for their managers and directors.  Often the “best” nurse was promoted and left to figure it out or learn from his/her peers.   The shared leadership strategies, clinical best practices, and the meaningful relationships were seen as a valuable asset by both the participants and the hospitals.  The NICU Leadership Meeting, run by Cathy and Chrissy with ChMV, soon became a yearly event for managers and directors in the CHCA NICUs as it continued to evolve and grow.  Eventually, the meeting leaders worked with NANN to start a second, separate meeting for NICU leaders in adult hospitals which was held back to back with the CHCA leadership meeting. The back-to-back meetings continued until 2007 when the meetings were combined.

By 2000, the planning of the yearly meetings was taken over completely by ChMV.  Between 2000 and 2010, ChMV was sold several times and eventually was bought by Philips Healthcare.  During this period, many of the NICU leaders were involved in the meeting planning, and eventually, Barbara Greer and Sandy Chapman, both active NICU Directors, came alongside Cathy and Chrissy to help ensure the growing meeting remained relevant and valuable.  Over time many new features were added including more social events, an exhibit hall, a poster session in conjunction with NANN, and more networking events.  Together, along with many volunteer leaders, the meeting evolved into the format of today’s meetings with expert speakers, motivational sessions, networking, and relationship building.