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MedWand CEO Todd Cornell discusses how their Plug and Play, Multi-
Todd Cornell
CEO
MedWand Solutions, Inc.
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFO Magazine
Published -
CEOCFO: Mr. Cornell, you have a long history in medical device and startup companies; what led you to take the reins at MedWand Solutions?
Mr. Cornell: When I departed my most recent company, I took a little bit of time off and began looking into what my next adventure would be. I had been looking at some opportunities but was approached by a recruiter I knew about the opportunity with MedWand. I hadn't had any specific experience in the digital health or telehealth space. Initially, I thought I would take a look, so I did some research into the space.
I looked at the technology, I looked at the market dynamics with the aging population and shortage of clinicians, and it just became clear to me that this was a technological platform that might significantly enhance the efficiency required in resource utilization for continuing healthcare needs. I became very interested based on my research and had the opportunity to meet with the board. I saw a very comfortable fit and decided to join the company.
CEOCFO: According to your website, "MedWand enables clinicians to execute a comprehensive patient assessment for vitals captured from any location." Would you explain the device and how it works?
Mr. Cornell: There are two components. There is the device and the software/telehealth platform. The software and telehealth platform is an application that can be downloaded from the Apple Store or the Google Play store for Android devices. The device itself is a sensor-
Our software platform also pulls in additional information from third-
CEOCFO: How does it compare to what the doctor can find out in their office; is it the same or similar?
Mr. Cornell: I think they are going to find it is very similar to what they would do if the patient was standing in front of them in the office. We compared each of the sensors and devices to the market-
CEOCFO: Does the medical community know what you have, do they understand, and in spite of being FDA cleared, do they believe it really works?
Mr. Cornell: I would say there is limited awareness and that is something we are focused on addressing as an organization. We are currently very active attending scientific meetings to demonstrate the technology and actively marketing through social media channel to highlight our offering. When people see our technology, they are blown away. It is a matter of defining the optimal use cases based on their circumstance and solving any existing problems they may have in delivering clinical care. There is a tremendous opportunity to enhance efficiencies in the market.
CEOCFO: What were the challenges in development?
Mr. Cornell: I joined the company just over a year and a half ago, but I work very closely with our engineers and IT team. The most difficult part, believe it or not, was assembling the right mechanism with the multiple sensors, creating the right algorithms, and the design and device to make sure we delivered clinically relevant and consistent information. If I am not mistaken, I want to say the product that we have developed today is the ninth iteration of the design, which means we didn't get it right eight times.
Through continued development work, development of the algorithm, development of the application, software, and telehealth platform, I do think it took quite a bit of time but finally got to a point where we knew we had a product that worked very consistently, providing clinical-
CEOCFO: What is involved in maintenance?
Mr. Cornell: The beauty of the device is that there is no calibration required. The way our device is designed is that you simply plug the device into a tablet or phone, using a standard USBC cable. The tablet or phone is what powers the device. There is no battery, there is no Wi-
The biggest part of maintenance for us is maintaining the software platform and continuing to enhance and design the software platform for better efficiency. As people begin using the product more and more, we do get customer feedback and we consider that and iterate the design or user interface of the platform, not the device itself per se, but the software platform based on customer feedback. That is a continual evolution process for us. The device is designed to capture the vitals of an individual patient once it is plugged in and the application is turned on.
For the wand, we recommend is simply swabbing an alcohol swab. You can take a small wet napkin that has alcohol on it just to rub it down and make sure it is disinfected for the next use.
CEOCFO: What is the financial component?
Mr. Cornell: We have a couple of different pricing models. First and foremost there is a cost for the device itself, and then there is a cost for the software platform or software license. The standard would be the purchase of the device with a monthly fee, much like a cell phone where you have access to the application, the data, and being able to deliver the data to electronic health records or practice management software. We also have a subscription model so people that don't want to buy the device get charged a monthly fee for the device in addition to the software platform. They are paying a monthly fee very similar to a cell phone.
CEOCFO: Who is using MedWand today?
Mr. Cornell: We are commercially available in the US, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, as well as New Zealand. We have customers in each of those markets. If you look at the US marketplace, we are fortunate to be working with a wide variety customers: health systems, direct primary care practices, employee health programs, and community outreach clinics. In addition, we are also working with several large companies in the evaluation of the technology as part of their clinical offering.
Outside of the US, we are working diligently with the Ministries of Health, both in Thailand and Saudi Arabia. In Thailand, the Ministry of Health has authorized the use of the product in the 77 provinces where they are trying to establish what we call a “hub and spoke model” for rural healthcare outreach. They have some very rural areas in the country and they are deploying nurses to a clinic in each of the provinces. The nurses are allowed to assess the patients while the physicians maintain their positions in more urban hospital settings. They are identifying patients that need to then go to the hospital based on their assessment and vitals capture, or more importantly, patients that are doing just fine and don't need to do anything. They authorized that for a rollout in the 77 provinces and we just started that process launching in our first province at the end of last year and we are launching provinces each month as we go forward.
In Saudi Arabia, we are in a Proof of Concept with the Ministry of Health, for patient outreach as part of their virtual hospital program. They have a virtual hospital they have established called the Seha Virtual Hospital and they are looking at providing MedWand to some of the defined in their homes so that the physicians in the virtual hospital can do patient assessments with the patients in their homes. That is just an overview of some of the customers we have working with the technology.
CEOCFO: How involved is MedWand in each implementation?
Mr. Cornell: We are very involved in supporting all of our customers. We have a defined training process where we go through and train people multiple times. A lot of times, especially if it is a hospital setting, there could be multiple staff. For example, in the first province we launched in Thailand, the training was done through our distributor. We provide all the materials, we support the distributor and train the distributor and then they go and train their folks. They trained their first batch which was 75 nurses that were being deployed out in the province. We do new training and then we follow up and continue to ensure customers are getting the utilization and the efficiency they are looking for out of our products. One of our core focuses as an organization is to make sure we are supporting our customers and exceeding their needs.
CEOCFO: With so much opportunity how do you decide where to focus your efforts?
Mr. Cornell: We try to find problems that we can help solve. Our initial core focus is looking at a couple of different applications. First and foremost is rural healthcare and patient outreach. We know in the US and certainly outside the US, many patients don't live near an urban area, hospital, clinic, or anything else. Sometimes they don't have the access to healthcare that those living in a more urban area do. One of our main focuses is to ensure that we can deliver healthcare to where the patient is. That is a big area we focus on because we feel it is a very large clinical need.
Secondly, we are focused on patients dealing with chronic diseases. They need to be monitored more closely for any change in condition that can lead to a required intervention. If we can enable more consistent and routine patient assessment to be done remotely, we feel that may result in earlier intervention, enhanced outcomes and overall better disease management.
Thirdly, we are focused on patients who are discharged from the hospital. We know from clinical data, that about 30% of patients end up going back into the hospital, so we are trying to see if we can help hospital systems address that by looking at evaluating patients as they are convalescing at home, doing a more comprehensive examination and ensuring patients don't come back into the hospital unless there is a clinical need for it. That is our main area of focus now, but to your valid point, there are lots of different use cases and lots of different opportunities where I think MedWand may make sense in a clinical setting. Right now we are focused on where we can help solve a problem.
CEOCFO: Is it getting easier to get a foot in the door?
Mr. Cornell: From a year ago, I don't see a difference, but I am a firm believer that’s because there are issues that have to be addressed. As I mentioned, the data is overwhelming. We have a shortage of physicians, a shortage of nurses, and then we have an aging population, the baby boomers. Our 65-
I think we have to be able to devise more efficient methodologies and I think MedWand is certainly one of those technologies that could certainly address the utilization of healthcare resources. We are not seeing a big difference yet but I firmly expect that the market dynamics and the issues we are facing will help to push people to look at evaluating options that they are not doing today.
CEOCFO: Are you seeking funding, investment, or partnerships as you move forward?
Mr. Cornell: Yes we are; all three. We are a relatively small company, so we believe in establishing partnerships with existing companies that are working in verticals and markets that we are operating in because I think there is a benefit we can enhance somebody's offering to their existing customer base. If they are associated we can offer MedWand as part of their product offering. That allows us to exponentially increase our footprint in the market and talk to many more customers than we would be able to do on our own. Yes, we are currently undergoing a financing round right now, so we are in the process of seeking additional funds for both operating and growing the company.
CEOCFO: With so many new ideas to look at, why does MedWand Solutions stand out?
Mr. Cornell: I believe and feel strongly, that we can deliver a comprehensive patient assessment remotely. What that means is physicians can stay in their hospitals, in their clinics, in their homes even, and they can monitor patients much more closely. The technology is designed to be easy to use. At this stage of the game, a lot of times nurses are being sent, or our medical assistants, and even looking at applications where paramedics are delivering them to patients and assessing patients. Ultimately MedWand is designed to where a patient should be able to do a self-
The good news is our technology incorporates a telehealth platform so that physicians can either oversee an assessment with a patient from a remote location or they can be called into assessment. Let's say a nurse is assessing a patient and doesn't like something that they see or hear; they can immediately invite a physician into that assessment via a telehealth platform and takeover the assessment, communicate with the patient, guide the patient through the rest of the assessment. The physician can then make a treatment decision on whether that patient needs to go to a hospital, to a clinic, to the office, or more importantly, whether that patient is responding and can receive medication and just stay at home.
At the end of the day, our goal is a better utilization of healthcare resources which are very limited. The two things I have learned in my 30-