Paul Grand of MedTech Innovator and Anna Lisa Somera of Rhaeos

2020’s MedTech Innovation Winner with Paul Grand of MedTech Innovator and Anna Lisa Somera of Rhaeos transcript powered by Sonix—easily convert your audio to text with Sonix.

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Saul Marquez:
Hey, welcome back, Outcomes Rocket listeners and viewers. Glad you have tuned in again. Today, I have the privilege of having two guests. One, he’s a repeat offender here on the podcast and a good friend of mine, Paul Grant. He’s the founder and CEO of Medtech Innovator. They’re the premier non-profit accelerator in the medtech industry that really seeks to improve the lives of patients by advancing companies poised to transform the health care system. And also on the podcast, we have Anna Lisa Somera. She’s the CEO of Rhaeos, who is actually the winner of the Medtech Challenge. And we’re going to dive into how that happened and what that means. But Somera brings over 20 years of experience working with startups in different capacities, including biomedical research, venture capital, technology transfer operations, and more. And her interest is in leading startups. It really stems from OrthoAccel Technologies, a medical device company she co-founded in 2005. Obviously, she is passionate about making health care better. Hydrocephalus is what she’s tackling with Rhaeos, and you’ll learn a little bit more about what they’re doing at that company through Anna Lisa. So I want to just start off by thanking both of you for being with us today.

Paul Grand:
Thank you for having us. It’s great to be back on the Outcomes Rocket, and it gets to spend some time with you.

Saul Marquez:
As always. So let’s chat, guys. It was a long run. We were together in February. In fact, Paul, Anna Lisa, like we were in the same room. We recorded some interviews. It was fun. The energy was high. And here we are in October and it’s eight months later. The contest is over. Why don’t you give us a summary of what happened, Paul, and some highlights, and then we could lead to Anna Lisa and some of her insights.

Paul Grand:
Sure. Yeah, thanks. So it’s hard to believe that was eight months ago. In some ways, it seems like two months ago. In some ways, it seems like three years ago. With all the events of the pandemic and everything that’s been happening since then, we were fortunate to be there in Chicago in person right before things got bad with COVID and we had to go fully virtual and the rest of that road tour. So, yeah, what’s happened in between? We went through a process of evaluating over a thousand companies, meeting with a couple hundred of them in person. We then moved on to an incredibly fruitful but challenging in many ways program where we do what we do every year. We find all these incredible companies. We partner them up with some of the leading strategics and providers and other people in our industry as mentors and advisors. And we run this program that we typically do we’ve been doing now for six years is a virtual accelerator. But we depend on a lot of big in-person events as well. So that one in February is one of the last ones that we’ve got to do this year in person. And we had to do everything else virtually, but it went incredibly well. We selected 50 companies that our main program who were part of the primary cohort, and then we had another 12 companies on top of that that was just part of the pediatric track for 15 companies in total that were part of the pediatric program. And we had another 20 companies in Asia-Pacific. So we were running a lot of stuff, a lot of programs. And it’s been literally nonstop since I saw you in February. And we haven’t taken a break. There’s been no vacations. There’s been no rest. I haven’t been reorganized.

Saul Marquez:
You finally get a vacation, though. I mean, it’s over right. or. Well, technically, Annalisa says no.

Paul Grand:
It’s not over. This was the first week and I actually kind of rest a little bit, but we’re still running that Asia Pacific program that runs for another month until it’s finals and we still have a value competition. Coming up, the Value Award during the Medtech Strategist’s Conference in November. So we got a lot more to do still. And we’re opening up applications for MedTech. But I guess the last thing I’ll say and then we can dig into some more details is just that we managed to pull it all off. We selected some credible companies who just blew us away this year, not only as they always do with their technology and their teams and their passion and the way in which they’re solving things. But being able to do that during a pandemic was kind of mind-boggling and how well these companies are executing. No one is like hanging up their shingle and saying, well, I’m going to go to start a farm or something during the pandemic. Everybody is just executing and finding creative ways to do that. And some have been accelerated as a result. So it’s been tremendous. We’re thrilled. I wish I could say it was time for vacation, but I’ll get one eventually.

Saul Marquez:
That’s awesome, man. I mean, to work through the pandemic and in February, I mean, none of this pandemic was even in sight. I mean at least for me, I was like we were running and we were having a great time over there, were shaking hands and hugging.

Paul Grand:
It was only a couple of weeks later that its kind of like looking getting a little wider. What we’re seeing here and starting to look at each other is going to keep doing this stuff in person. I remember the very beginning of March, we had another event at UCLA and people were at that event. We’re kind of looking around going like is this is totally safe. One of our partners didn’t come to that event because they said that their corporate headquarters had stop travel. And we thought that was really strange. Or like you can’t fly from San Jose to L.A. This is crazy. But a week later, like everybody was doing it.

Saul Marquez:
The big one was when Hem’s canceled. Yeah. That was like, oh, wow, that was the first. This is real.

Paul Grand:
Yeah, that was the first one. And then as soon as we started hearing about super spreading events and that stuff became very, very clear that that was the right thing to do for everybody. So we were completely virtual by the second week of March.

Saul Marquez:
Wow, that’s awesome, man. Kudos to you and your team, Paul. And so, Anna Lisa, talk to us right. I mean, because you were a participant through all of this as well. Talk to us about the experience. And obviously, if you’re listening to this or watching this and you have a Medtech company and you want to know from one of the participants how it went and specifically from the winner of the contest. So Anna Lisa, talk to us about your experience and just the insights that you gained and experience or any benefits that you got out of the program thus far?

Anna Lisa Somera:
Yeah, I think so. And it was definitely a whirlwind over the past eight, 10 months. I kind of lost track of time and it was just so intense. But I think I want to back up and say that even though I was my first year participating in the program, I’ve actually been a fan of the program for a long time to the very beginning kind of being on the sidelines, cheering on my other friends that made it through the various stages and just thinking back then, like, wow, this is such a great program. You know, maybe one day back dot dot dot. And then in 2019, when I took on the CEO role of Rhaeos, I said, OK, I think this is the year now that it’s the right technology that comes out of one of the biggest labs in the world, the right team, the right time. I’m going to go all in and so glad I put in that application and I’m so glad there was a stop in Chicago, my hometown, born and raised in the north side, very proud and so glad we had a chance to pitch in person before things got crazy. And we were chatting with you Saul it and doing it. I think it was my first interview and I wasn’t sure where to look. I’m like, do I look at you? They look at the camera. I don’t know where to look. It’s kind of nice. You know, it’s almost like the full circle now, right, that I chatted with you in February and chatting with you now. So that’s great. But I will say the program, I mean, it’s just like exceeded my expectations. I really wanted to go into it just to learn things from others. And even though I’ve been working with early-stage companies for a really long time, I’m by no means an expert in a particular field. So I do have some knowledge gaps. And I kind of went into that knowing and said, I want to learn from some of the best advisors, some of the best partners, and their MedTech innovator. So learning from them through the various disciplines of reimbursement, getting tips, they’re getting tips on regulatory, especially the regulatory side. Rhaeos is fortunate early this year to get a breakthrough designation. And we celebrated. But we didn’t really know what it really meant. And we learned more about it, especially through some of the folks in the program. And it continues to be the gift that keeps on giving Medtech innovators. So throughout the program, we reached out to the advisors, got some good tips, some good intel, where we said, Gosh, that it’s a really great idea writing it down. So I think to start the whole thing, it was just such a great experience. And not to mention the community, the other companies that were the program are so good. I mean, really good. I got to make friends with several of them. We’re still in communication and it’s great, I think one or that kind of just floats around at least that float around the slack as the word family. And I think that’s just kind of how we feel about each other. We’re not competitors. We all at a high level want the same thing, and that’s really to improve patient care. So there’s a camaraderie around that. So I think just a combination of great advisors, great programming, great community, just made for such a positive experience for Rhaeos.

Saul Marquez:
That’s so great Anna Lisa. And, you know, I think about the experience of an entrepreneur and a med-tech entrepreneur that it could be lonely, you know, like,

Anna Lisa Somera:
Oh, yes.

Paul Grand:
Do you connect with and like, nobody gets it.

Anna Lisa Somera:
Yeah, I know. I know. It’s like I tell my family about things, and they’re just like, yeah. I know they don’t fully get it and we do doctor things and they’re like, oh well can w? Are your products for sale yet? And I’m like, you know, we’re free market and they’re like, oh, and like it takes a long time to get to the market. So it’s you’re right. It does kind of feel like you’re on an island sometimes. But it was nice to connect with others through the programs that are going through the same thing so that you’re not alone on the island.

Saul Marquez:
Totally. And, you know, I think about probably a bad analogy, but it came to mind like it’s American Idol, right? Yeah,

Anna Lisa Somera:
American Idol.

Saul Marquez:
And like you have even people that don’t make it to the end that get signed even though the companies didn’t make it right Paul, I mean, you could probably attest to this. They probably get some attention from some of the players there.

Paul Grand:
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we like to say the program is the prize and the prize is like the icing on the cake, but it’s by no means the only benefit is winning the prize. The prize is great. So Analisa won three hundred fifty thousand dollars as the first-place winner this year. There was a total of five hundred thousand dollars in cash prizes, so a number of other companies got twenty-five thousand worth as well. One hundred seven thousand words. And we had companies that kind of cover the gamut. So anyone who made it to the finals received a twenty-five thousand dollar plan. That’s not a participation award. That’s not like the soccer trophy that everybody gets on the team that is making it to the top five out of the thousand sixty companies that we do this year. And there are companies in a company called Leaf Therapeutics that’s got a really great technology for diagnosing and treating mental health conditions. It’s another wearable technology. That company was fantastic, is fantastic. Mouret Medical has this really disruptive hydraulic catheter system for delivering clips for mitral valve procedures that could be used for all sorts of cardiovascular procedures. That’s taking something that’s in the hands of hundreds of surgeons today and giving it to potentially ten thousand surgeons.

Paul Grand:
And then we have and more companies. I want to go into all the detail on all the companies, but I don’t want to use up all the time on this. But if you don’t mind, I’m just going to quickly. Is it OK if I quickly go through the other company? Circadia Health got this really cool technology which was originally designed for sleep monitoring. It’s noninvasive, like a little radar dish you stick on your bedside or on a wall, and noninvasively can measure respiration. So now it’s regulated, FDA approved product that’s being used for not just studies, it’s being purchased right now in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities to monitor patients who are either covid positive or at risk. And you want to see the respiratory rate because that’s a proxy for that oxygen dropping that we all know about. So that technology is being adopted and we’ve got a great business model that is doing incredibly well. Shelbie Therapeutics has this amazing technology for delivering mitochondrial transplant technology that basically is addressing reperfusion injury. So we all think about stroke and heart attack and all these things as being a killer. But it’s really the mitochondria that are dying. They’ve found a way to transplant mitochondria and eliminate the impact of these diseases. So, I mean, just unbelievable game-changing.

Saul Marquez:
Those are great companies.

Paul Grand:
So the point is, all of them were amazing. Rhaeos was the best of the best. And that’s the thing that’s so exciting about all this, is that all these companies are I put them all kind of in the category of the best of the best. But Rhaeos is ultimately crowned by the audience, the winner. And you mentioned American Idol. That was the original inspiration for us.

Saul Marquez:
Oh, was it really?

Paul Grand:
Yeah, Anna Lisa. You know. Anna Lisa was there for Medtech Idol the first year we did it. We called it MedTech Idol.

Saul Marquez:
Oh, did you really? That’s cool.

Paul Grand:
But anyway, that’s always been the inspiration that the audience chooses the winner. By the audience, I mean, we open it up to the entire Internet and they all get to vote because that wouldn’t be fair to select, which is limited to the industry. So this year it was the attendees of the Medtech conference, which is an annual meeting. Couple of thousand people. I think it’s thirty-eight hundred people or something. And then and then plus our judges and reviewers and investors that are part of our ecosystem. So we had about five thousand people who were eligible to vote. And they’re the ones who voted for Analisa and for the other companies. We actually had a three-way tie. This has never happened in history, Saul. We had a three-way tie for second place.

Saul Marquez:
Wow. Which is crazy.

Paul Grand:
Just mind-boggling with these companies. We’re so close in terms of what they offered, but Rhaeos was a clear winner, so that’s awesome. It was a well-deserved victory for Anna Lisa notes.

Saul Marquez:
Well, congratulations, Anna Lisa. And hey, Paul, I mean, my analogy wasn’t off. I was like on point with my American Idol. I’m like, this is probably a bad analogy. That’s cool,

Paul Grand:
And you’re super perceptive, as always.

Saul Marquez:
That’s awesome. So let’s take a minute to educate all of our listeners and viewers on Rhaeos. So, Analisa, why don’t you give us a high-level overview of what you guys do, what problem you’re solving for, and give us a call to action.

Anna Lisa Somera:
So this is a medical device startup that spun out of Northwestern University out of one of the biggest labs in the world, the Rogers lab. And what we’re doing is we’re developing a wearable platform sensor and we’re initially targeting a condition called hydrocephalus. Now, hydrocephalus is a condition that a neurological condition that affects over one million Americans today and that includes three hundred thousand babies. And it’s characterized by excess fluid on the brain. And these patients, there’s no cure for it and there’s no way to prevent it. But the standard treatment right now is the placement of something called a shunt, which is essentially tubing that drains the brain of that excess fluid. Now, these signal shunts really haven’t changed much over the past 50 to 60 years. They fail. It’s terrible. Patients are in and out of the hospital. And in terms of diagnosis, patients exhibit non-specific symptoms. So something like a headache or just feeling nauseous can necessitate trips to the E.R. So it’s not uncommon for kids especially to be in the E.R. multiple times a year. And if there is a failure, a new shunt needs to be put in. So that’s another neurosurgery so kids and adults can have multiple shunt revisions. And in terms of diagnosis, it’s traditionally it’s safe imaging. So CT, MRI, that sort of thing. And it really just makes a picture of the brain, but there’s no real information about the flow. So there’s no information about what’s going on with the CSF fluid flowing through that shunt. And that’s where we come in at Rhaeos. So we’re developing a non-invasive wearable skin sensor that goes on the neck and kind of the region to pretty much in a binary sense, let clinicians know whether there is flow or no flow within the shunt. So it kind of looks like a bumpy Band-Aid on the outside. But on the inside are sophisticated electronics that have taken the Northwestern group an array of researchers years to perfect and a binary sense. We can tell there’s a flow or no flow as well as the rate of flow. And our device can be used in the hospital and we’re looking to launch that in Q4 of twenty twenty-one. So that can be used both in inpatient and outpatient settings. But we’re not stopping at the hospital. We realize that this type of continuous monitoring should extend to the home. So we’re developing our sensor for home use so that patients can have peace of mind. Perhaps they can keep them from going to the E.R. as often or get them to the E.R. even faster. So that’s kind of in a nutshell what we’re doing.

Saul Marquez:
I love it. And, you know, you mentioned home care. And with COVID, the delivery of care is happening at home, you know, and the front door has changed. It’s our front door and very pleased to hear you incorporate some of that into the, you know, the strategy. Love it. And so the one question that came well two questions. Where does the shunt usually go? And then one of them, the other question is on the device itself, battery life and how does that work?

Anna Lisa Somera:
Yeah. Yeah. So the shunts that are invasively to put into the patient set during your surgery, the proximal end actually starts in the ventricle. So I talked earlier about the brain making too much of the fluid so that the ventricles are the regions of the brain that make that CSF and everyone listening and watching as CSF. But for about a million Americans, they just have too much of it. So it starts in the ventricles and it makes its way down the neck and then down into the belly drain. So that’s why I’ve mentioned earlier. Stents are kind of goes the neck region because that’s for the shunt is most prominent, can often see it with the naked eye. You definitely feel it. So our skin sensor goes on top of that.

Saul Marquez:
Got it. So it goes over the shunt.

Anna Lisa Somera:
That’s right. That’s right. Overlying the shunt. Exactly.

Saul Marquez:
And just a quick question, because I’m really curious about this. So does the sun actually go underneath the bone of the spine or does it go over it?

Anna Lisa Somera:
Actually, It doesn’t go it doesn’t touch the spine. It goes kind of like the drill. A hole in it really depends on, you know, you can have your place in different regions of the brain. That really depends on where the fluid is made. So there’s actually this hole. It makes its way down the neck.

Saul Marquez:
And is it inside of the skin?

Anna Lisa Somera:
Yes.

Saul Marquez:
It goes through and down the skin and it goes right on top of it.

Anna Lisa Somera:
That’s right, exactly. On the skin. So we don’t touch the shunt, direct contact with more indirect contact.

Saul Marquez:
Sure, and battery. \

Anna Lisa Somera:
Battery. I’m coming to that one. So the as far as a hospital device that can be used both at inpatient and outpatient settings, that’s a disposable device. So the battery life on that is about an hour and a half, which is more than enough time to provide a spot check because you only really need the device for five minutes because within that time you can get the reading. But as far as the home device, that’s reusable, rechargeable, and we’re still working on how long it would have it on. And we’re talking to some of the top neurosurgeons across the country as well as patients were really well connected to some of the hydrocephalus, patient advocacy groups. So we’re getting input on that one and we realize that’s going to be a great device for the community. So we’re spending a little bit more time on that one.

Saul Marquez:
Got it. Very cool. And I know it’s probably another year before you go to market, but just curiosity and something to put the hook in for the listeners so that you better understand and can explore this technology. We’re going to leave the links to Rhaeos inside of the show notes. Analisa, what calls to action would you leave the audience with today?

Anna Lisa Somera:
Sure. Actually, there are two. The first one is that we are raising a seed round. And I think the med-tech innovator win is huge because every dollar goes such a long way. Medical device world, especially for devices that have an impact on the pediatric population. I mean, we have to climb Mount Everest all the time. So we are raising a seed round one and a half million dollars. And that’ll get us not only through FDA but through the initial market. Lots of them will take us to Q4 of twenty twenty-one. So that’s the first call to action. And the second call to action is that we are launching our clinical trial next year at a couple of different trial sites, posting that on our website, some sites in Chicago, some sites in Houston, some in California, maybe other states. But I would love to have patients that are affected by this condition check us out of it.

Saul Marquez:
And the best way for them to connect with you on those things is the website?

Anna Lisa Somera:
Yeah, the website. Exactly.

Saul Marquez:
All right. Good. Analisa, thank you. And congratulations again. What a great accomplishment, Paul. Keep doing what you’re doing, my man. This is awesome work. Any last thoughts from you for our audience?

Paul Grand:
Well, first of all, again, I want to congratulate Anna Lisa. She just gave a tremendous pitch, as well as representing an amazing company and a great opportunity, huge patient need and which is a tremendous opportunity. So it’s just a great story all around. But I would encourage people to go to MedTech Innovators website. So it’s medtechinnovator.org. I know you’ll have the link and your show notes, but MedTechinnovator.org. Right on our home page is a banner where you can click a link to watch the finals, if you’re in this business, if you’re a startup, if you’re an established company, watch the replay of the finals. We have it right there on that page and watch Annalise’s pitch like she just gave a perfect pitch. Everything about it in the story, like we coach people on how to give their pitches, is one of the thousand things we do during our program. But she just embodied the exact kind of a pitch that you want to see. It was just super impactful. And how she told the story. What you’ll see if you watch it is that you could just watch Analisa and listen to her and not even look over at the slides. The slides are there next to her. But if you don’t look at the slides, you’ll be fine. You could just look at her and look at the story and you would get everything out of it that you need to just like this interview. Even though there’s no slides in this interview, the slides are there and it’s nice to have them as a reference. But I’m saying just anyone who wants to see how to give a great pitch, go watch. Analyst says she did a great job. Our other finalists were awesome as well.

Paul Grand:
And you’ll see what I mean if you go watch those pitches. So I encourage you to do that. We had some other great companies in that competition. We had an execution award winner of Vitals also, who was a tremendous company for comfortless blood pressure monitoring. So they want our execution prize. We also had Parker Isaac Instruments won a J Labs award another amazing instrumentation company that we can go into details on in another interview. But anyway, the point is to get a great lab piece of pathology equipment that can basically maybe be a game-changer in oncology. So anyway, the point is they are great companies. You can learn a ton by just watching those videos. So sit back. I mean, this is like a gift that we that these presentations are available and you can watch someone who’s just artful at telling the story. That’s what it’s all about. Ultimately, if you want to succeed, I mean, your technology has to work. Of course, you have to have an ongoing medical need, et cetera. But MedTech innovator is all about finding those opportunities, the ones that are checking those. Boxes. They’re good companies and making sure that they become great companies and that they succeed in reaching patients and I think Annalisa has proven in winning this award that she has what it takes. And that’s what makes us so excited, is that now everybody gets to see that and not just, you know, a small room full of people may be reading about it or hearing about it like the whole industry now knows about it. So if you’re interested in innovation and MedTech, go to our website. Our applications open this month for our 2021 cycle. So there’s literally no rest, Saul. So apply. It’s medtechinnovator.org/apply.

Saul Marquez:
We already have windows that closed. When does the application close?

Paul Grand:
Applications will close at the end of January and I know that sounds like a long time. And some people are like, oh, I got plenty of time to apply. I encourage people to always apply early. Anna Lisa, how early did you apply? Do you remember?

Anna Lisa Somera:
I applied in the fall, I believe,

Paul Grand:
Yeah. So it was definitely probably still in the end of 2019. I suggest people apply early because our reviewers start looking at these things early and selecting companies to pitch. So apply early.

Saul Marquez:
There you go folks apply early. If you get a med-tech company certainly check out Medtech Innovator, just the great work by Paul and the companies you bring together, and appreciate you spending time with us today. And Analisa, congrats again.

Anna Lisa Somera:
Thank you so much.

Saul Marquez:
Looking forward to your launch.

Anna Lisa Somera:
Thank you.

Paul Grand:
Me as well. Can’t wait for that. That’s going to be a great day for everyone.

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