The way of the future is reducing health care costs by caring for patients in their home
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jlynch@vitalconnect.com
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Saul Marquez:
Welcome back to the podcast. Today I have the privilege of hosting Joe Lynch. He’s a Chief Commercial Officer at VitalConnect. Joe is a Medtech business leader with 20 years of experience. After graduating from University of Colorado and working in banking and then nonprofit industries, Joe received his MBA from Wharton and joined the health care field with a mission to serve patients. I think one of the best things that we can have in health care is to continue having leaders like Joe that are coming from outside of the industry and to help us get out of the trenches and see the things that maybe we don’t see. Joe as chief commercial officer of VitalConnect is enjoying some of those benefits and we’re gonna dive into those today. But I also want to say he’s a father four and enjoys music, mountain biking, and reading and so it’s a true privilege to have him on the podcast today and with that I’ll give you a warm welcome, Joe. Thanks for joining us.
Joe Lynch:
Hey, Saul thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Saul Marquez:
Joe there’s definitely a lot that we could talk about but before we do dive into that I’d love to hear from you. What got you into the medical sector?
Joe Lynch:
Yeah absolutely. You know what as you shared, prior to graduate school I’ve worked in the non-profit industry a faith based organization. I’m a mission driven person and so when I showed up at graduate school you know I’m trying to figure things out. Talking to different people and I met some folks who had similar backgrounds similar passions and they said to me you should really check out Medtech. I think you might enjoy it. It has a strong mission element but it’s innovative and it’s fast moving and it’s great work and so on that advice I got an internship after my first year of school loved it worked for guidance, exceptional company and you know I’ve just kind of been in the groove ever since I’ve really really enjoyed it.
Saul Marquez:
That’s outstanding. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Definitely one of the best places to live and breathe and work a mission based work style. So I love to hear from you what you believe a hot topic that needs to be on every health leaders agenda and how are you at VitalConnect approaching that. And I’d say take advantage of this opportunity to to educate the listeners on what you guys do and what that hot topic is.
Joe Lynch:
Ok yeah. Thanks for reducing health care costs by caring for patients in their home – I think that’s the way of the future and I think a lot of the leading health care organizations are focused on that right now. So we know it’s expensive here in the US. We have an outstanding health care system but it’s 18 percent GDP and so that’s really not sustainable. And our old model with all of its infrastructure, all of its capital equipment all of the staffing costs for someone to kind of get the pinnacle experience in health care is just crazy expensive and we all see that that’s going to transition to people’s homes and it’s beginning to now. And so vital connect we play a great role in that we’re a key enabler. So we make a bio sensor and remote monitoring system that allows a patient to wear a very very small biosensor you wear it on your chest over your vital organs but when you’re wearing it only it only weighs 11 grams so it’s super light you don’t even know it’s on here can we’re all wearing them all the time because we’re demoing it because we’re part of different studies. So the patient can wear this biosensor and be anywhere and then whoever’s doing the monitoring they get. We’re just increasing the number of vital signs now from eight vital signs to 11 different parameters that can be tracked and aggregated even into a predictive analytics single score for whoever’s doing the patient monitoring and so they get the traditional view that you’ve probably seen at a nursing station where they see all the patients but that nursing station can virtually be anywhere. And so all the patients let’s say patients in their homes can all be monitored from a single point and our solution it was really you know it’s different from you know I also wear a cool watch that helps me exercise and provides good data but it’s not the same as hospital grade level monitoring that’s been militarized down from the hospital type of system. That’s what is at the core at the heart of our system. And so it’s measuring things like continuous CCG respiratory rate. We’re not we’ve now brought in SP02 to add blood pressure through adjunct of devices so a full suite of parameters that the patient can be anywhere and the clinician can be anywhere. So it’s a game changer. All those costs that I mentioned earlier that weigh down and really limit the number of people who can get this kind of monitoring in the traditional environment. That’s all gone away and it’s 20 to 30 dollars a day for people to get this kind of monitoring that otherwise is you know hundreds of thousands of capital investment, a lot of staff support needed a lot of monitoring and maintenance and all those sorts of things. And it’s like what you’ve seen SAul in other industries where you know now we all can get our own travel taken care of now, a lot of different things that required huge infrastructure before now can happen seamlessly so that that’s what we’re providing through our solution.
Saul Marquez:
I think that’s outstanding Joe and the work being done on the sensor front to help with the things like you mentioned right. You know single EDCG, heart rate, you got respiratory rate now I mean temperature. These are all huge. I imagine there’s an accelerometer in there maybe for fall detection.
Joe Lynch:
That’s right. So we we did have the first FDA approved by a sensor with fall detection. You’re exactly right it’s a tri axial accelerometer that accomplishes that. Not only do we know with incredible precision whether a person has fallen but we know that the severity of that fall we provide all this data to whoever may be wanting to really understand what’s happening what’s exciting Saul, so today we’re monitoring falls. We know when they happen. We’re collecting so much data and so many across so many parameters that we’re in the position now to begin working on predicting when a person is going to fall and then the next step after that is really preventing falls. And so across this robust platform we have this ability to collect data in a way that people just have never collected before. And what our that’s what our early adopters are doing that’s what the initial customers have been quite focused on and so enthusiastic about.
Saul Marquez:
Now that’s fascinating Joe and you know when you get into the wearable space and how these things work. One of the common brick walls or obstacles that companies tend to run into is battery life. How are you guys doing there and not to get too much into the weeds but typical battery life. 24 hours. Is that something that you guys are where you guys are at and you’re working to get longer. Tell me a little bit more about that.
Joe Lynch:
Yes. So that’s that actually when our company was started our founder Nersi Nazari he came from the semiconductor industry and so he saw this issue of battery life as one that he knew he could solve based on all of his background. And so we designed it, he designed at the heart of our solution a chip that is finely tuned for monitoring patient vital signs to be worn on the skin to get a longer battery life and to get incredible accuracy the same that you would expect in the hospital and so in planning all of that. They ended up with a five day battery life.
Saul Marquez:
That’s pretty good.
Joe Lynch:
Yeah. Unbelievable. And.
Saul Marquez:
Five days.
Joe Lynch:
Five days and we see a path forward to increase that further as well and for patients who need a longer monitoring period. It’s such a simple device to put on it. It’s almost like a kind of a super Band-Aid and it’s not a big deal to do it yourself. Even for folks who may be quite sick we have great success with our are our customers and their patients be able to replace the device and get an extended wear period and monitor monitoring period.
Saul Marquez:
Now that’s super interesting Joe and we look at that care continuum you have the healthy adults get the very very terminally ill let’s just say you know really this hospice. So you look at this desire of people living longer and and hey I don’t want to die in the hospital you know I want to I want to be at home. What kind of role does this play in people’s ability to take control of where they get care?
Joe Lynch:
It’s a game changer, Saul because it enables exactly that. I’ll tell you every time nearly every time I demonstrate the device and show it to someone the first thing they say regardless of whether they’re a full time medical professional or just some lay person who are showing it to they inevitably say I wish I had. That for my uncle. I wish I had had that for my father. For some relatives someone who they cared about because they know this was the missing link. They know that they wanted to go home but they wanted to be properly cared for while they were in the setting that they really wanted to be in. And there’s just too much guesswork today heart from these kinds of solutions. There’s much too much guesswork to actually deliver and drive outstanding health care. And so I think that’s why people say it but people want to be in their home right. Even if you’re using the solution in the hospital you can now sleep through the night because there are not all these wires that get jostled and have set off all these false alarms. You can get up and use the restroom more easily. You can do that in the hospital. But to be home. And if that if the caregiver thinks that’s appropriate you know you can be with your loved ones you can be in the comfort of your own bed. You can be in an environment where you’re not surrounded by a bunch of other sick people and hopefully surrounded by the people who care for you. But while everyone knows how you’re doing exactly. And so yeah it’s a total game changer. It is the reaction that nearly everyone has when they see a solution when they see the product.
Saul Marquez:
Very cool. Yeah. Definitely a thought that crossed my mind there. What would you say today is one of the most exciting and proud moments that the company has had?
Joe Lynch:
Now we’ve we’ve had a lot you know as an organization I think we’re moving quickly too in the short time I’ve been here. It’s about eight months we’ve delivered two different releases to the market of our SAS based solution. You know all you have to all our customers have to purchase with our solution is a bio sensor and a SAS subscription. And we just keep innovating we keep enhancing it. We just brought on an early warning score that takes all the different Vital Signs parameters and brings it down to a single number to a single color. And that number has been proven to predict cardiac event, ICU admission, death. It’s one of the best characterize early warning scorers in 20 different studies and now that just comes part and parcel with our solution. And so you know I’m really proud of the engineering team, of our whole organization to be able to pull it off to move that quickly because we were launching a version of the product just when I joined. So.
Saul Marquez:
It’s amazing.
Joe Lynch:
Yeah there’s one other I guess at a personal level. We had an interesting situation we have a customer who’s outstanding reference for us. He uses the product all the time to care for patients in their homes. And one day I walk out of a meeting and I can hear he’s on the phone on a conference call with other employees here at VitalConnect and he was upset about something. There was something not working and he was not able to see what was going on with a certain patient in her his home and he was wanting it fixed. And so there were good people in that meeting there working on it. You know I continue on my day I know they’re working on that. One of the members comes in my office and says I don’t know it’s challenging. You know it’s hard to figure this one out. And it was almost like one of those Apollo 13, remember the movie. A lot of people down and say you’re going to get this thing fixed, you’re going to do it now and you guys are going to go in this room and cut it all out and figure out what the deal is. We basically pulled an Apollo 13. We got our best people off. Every other thing they were doing and said this physician needs this fix today and we’re going to have it fixed today. And it was amazing. They recreate it. We didn’t have all the data. We weren’t there on the East Coast where this position happened to be and yet we were able to recreate the whole situation. And they were able to bring it all down. They built this huge Fishbone diagram of all the possible issues and they brought it down to one thing and we said. And they said “We think someone is putting tape over the biosensor and that is that is suffocating it and depriving it a box”. I just thought really that’s you’ve come come to that precise.
Saul Marquez:
That’s interesting.
Joe Lynch:
Diagnosis and we call the physician and that’s exactly what’s going on.
Saul Marquez:
Very cool
Joe Lynch:
There was just a poorly you know it was just a they weren’t following the procedure. That was something that had to be fixed but it was just impressive. You could get that done take care of physician, take care of the patient.
Saul Marquez:
That’s outstanding. Yeah. Now what a wonderful thing to be proud of and a great setback to overcome so quickly. Agility is key especially when working with these devices and so definitely kudos to you and your team. Joe sounds like the passion the smarts and the focus and vision are there. Tell us about an exciting project that you guys are focusing on today.
Joe Lynch:
I was kind of commenting on it earlier so distilling down all of the data that we’re able to collect in a continuous forum to something that’s very actionable where all of the data across say our entire customer set can be leveraged and brought to bear on improving the next decision for the next customer. That’s something that the early warning score work that I described earlier is enabling and that’s really just the start. So that is a general purpose kind of all patient use early warning score where things are going is being able to take a specific condition let’s say a congestive heart failure patient or let’s say a sepsis patient and to run the algorithm that specific to that patient so that their care can be enhanced quickly on the strength of all this data that we have. So that’s where we’re going with our future releases. That’s what we’re working on with our other partners. And it’s exciting. That’s that’s what patients deserve. You know let’s let’s capture the collective wisdom from everything that we’ve done with all the other patients and bring it to bear on the next patient. So that’s a really important part of what we’re doing. It’s exciting for the whole team.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah. That’s really that is exciting and fascinating to hear that you guys are working on you know what’s interesting as my son was sick this week and I was spending some time with them and you know I threw on the ninja turtles and some of the gadgets and technologies that they had in the ninja turtles back in the 80s microbots and like telemedicine. I’m like wow. And today it’s all happening with companies like yours it’s making it real. So really really exciting to hear that it’s being done especially on a remote basis. You don’t have to be in a hospital to get this type of care.
Joe Lynch:
Yeah. Now you’re you’re exactly right. And I think we’re where health care is really at is the fusion of this technology with the human part of caring which we all know has such a important, it’s such a critical part of it. And so our solution in addition to transferring all the data it can also enable video conferencing so that you can have a video console with that patient you can see the data perhaps receive a notification say, wow I need to check in and I’m going to do that right now and I’m going to video in and use our same technology to do that. And so it’s the blend of cool stuff that’s happening in the background and then these personal encounters. I think that make all of us feel cared for right.
Saul Marquez:
Absolutely.
Joe Lynch:
And that’s what we all want. We want to know that someone who has expertise is paying attention to us and taking appropriate action. So it’s very cool.
Saul Marquez:
That is cool. So getting close to the end here Joe, really really appreciate the insight to sharing the work that’s being done there. This part of the podcast is is a lightning round. So I’m gonna ask you some questions and I ask you answer quickly and then we finish that up with a book that you recommend to the listeners. You ready?
Joe Lynch:
OK. Let’s go.
Saul Marquez:
All right. What’s the best way to improve health care outcomes?
Joe Lynch:
I think knowledge is power. I think we need to increase the knowledge of what’s going on with patients. Predictive analytics – I think is the best way.
Saul Marquez:
What is the biggest mistake or a pitfall to avoid?
Joe Lynch:
Losing focus on the patient, forgetting the people at the heart of the whole thing. It’s patient care for a reason. Technology is an enabler but it’s not alone the answer.
Saul Marquez:
How do you stay relevant as an organization despite constant change?
Joe Lynch:
You gotta listen ask good questions keep solving problems and hire smart people with passion who have the ability to get it done.
Saul Marquez:
Love that. What’s one area of focus that drives everything in your company?
Joe Lynch:
Having patients at the center so working together to care for patients. We do have a great leader. I mentioned Nersi earlier. He is people focus and that’s pervasive throughout the company. We have a lot of different results that we’re managing but I think caring for people is a key value and that keeps everybody together.
Saul Marquez:
Critical. Thanks Joe. These next two are more light. What is your number one health habit.
Joe Lynch:
Well mountain biking exercising. You know… if I can.
Saul Marquez:
Love it and what is your number one success habit?
Joe Lynch:
My wife, married to my wife.
Saul Marquez:
I love it. Outstanding. It’s good man. Good shout out to the lovely Mrs. Lynch. So Joe what book would you recommend to the listeners?
Joe Lynch:
Yeah this is so tough. So I’m going to squeeze in two.
Saul Marquez:
That’s fine.
Joe Lynch:
Yeah. Les Miserable the unabridged.
Saul Marquez:
Really?
Joe Lynch:
Yeah I mean it’s probably one of the greatest stories so powerful great lessons life lessons from that book. But there’s a lot of time in the sewer. That’s the downside of that book. You go on. Maybe you go a break. If you go up that much sewer time. Another.
Saul Marquez:
Funny.
Joe Lynch:
That people I think people would love and maybe they’ve not heard of it yet is The Jazz of Physics by Stephon Alexander. I read that last year and loved it. It is a book about this young man who is a musician in New York and he became a lover of jazz and he studied John Coltrane, the great John Coltrane who actually had science at the heart of his music and so he kind of lays out the parallels between coal train and Einstein and you get into cool stuff like for those of you like music how particle theory is similar to notes say in music even like mathematically the frequencies, the physics of it and how string theory is similar to chords and this is the kind of thing that really got behind Coltrane and his music. And just to understand it more was was beautiful really great book. Jazz of Physics.
Saul Marquez:
Love that great recommendations Joe and listeners you could get these recommendations as well as a link to a VitalConnect and Joe on outcomesrocket.health, just go to the website in the search bar type in Joe Lynch. That’s Lynch with the Y and you’ll be able to find all that there. Joe, leave us with the closing thought and also the best way that the listeners could get in touch or learn more about your work.
Joe Lynch:
Absolutely. I don’t think there’s ever been a more exciting time in health care. What used to happen on a special floor or two in the hospital for the very sickest of patients is now possible in people’s homes which is incredible and as care moves to the home to these lower acuity environments we as family members, as loved ones we’re all going to be more intimately connected to health care because it’s going to happen in our midst and there’s gonna be great technology and VitalConnect technology, as I mentioned is a key enabler but are all learning how to stay focused on the people while using technology that kind of works seamlessly. That’s the future of health care. And it’s a delight to be a part of that to have a role in it. So that’s what I’m excited about. You can reach me Twitter @joetlynch You can find me on LinkedIn. And for those of your old school email jlynch@vitalconnect.com.
Saul Marquez:
Outstanding Joe. Hey this has been really great. Really appreciate you sharing the insights that you and the team at VitalConnect are up to. Looking forward to seeing the progress of you and the company and looking forward to staying in touch. Thanks again.
Joe Lynch:
Yeah Saul. Thanks so much.
Thanks for listening to the Outcomes Rocket podcast. Be sure to visit us on the web at www.outcomesrocket.com for the show notes, resources, inspiration and so much more.
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