Keeping People Safe and on Track with Their Treatment with Omri Shor, Founder & CEO at Medisafe® Medication Adherence Platform was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.
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Saul Marquez:
Welcome back to the Outcomes racket, Saul Marquez here, and today I have the privilege of bringing back a guest that I had on about two years ago, guys might recognize the name. He’s a mover and shaker in health care. His name is Omri Shor. He is the co-founder and CEO of Medisafe, a leading digital companion platform that provides personalized treatment support to more than seven million users. He is an expert in digital medicine applications and works closely with major pharma companies in developing and guiding direct connection to patients via innovative platforms to support improved health and treatment with the customization and guided treatment. In the age that we’re in right now, having to think through digital solutions to reach our patients, to reach populations, to reach our employees is critical. And having a way to do that is a way to conduct opportunities with companies like Medisafe. And so today I’m going to give us some updates on what they’re up to. And so I want to welcome you back to the podcast.
Omri Shor:
Great. So thank you so much for the opportunity to join you today.
Saul Marquez:
Absolutely. It’s always a pleasure. The last time you were on the podcast, you really opened up our minds. We were looking at medication adherence as something like just a silo of what it could be. But you really introduced us to so many other things that it means and the problems and the opportunities in the space you guys are maximizing on that. But why don’t you walk us through maybe some of the most recent updates of what you guys have been up to and how things are going during these times?
Omri Shor:
Sure. So, first of all, thank you very much for the opportunity to join you today. Just as a reminder and iterating the things that you’ve said, Medisafe is started as a personal experience where my father, who’s diabetic and hypertensive accidental overdose things, medications, and that’s really that real place of the need in the market is where we started. But today, seven million patients and 15 billion data points. We think that we have a very comprehensive understanding, both of the patients, as well as the data, to be able to work with our partners across health care. And specifically, we work a lot with pharma companies in creating digital companions for their drugs. So looping back to the crazy times that we actually live in. And when we talked last, Medisafe was growing nicely and then the world changed quite a bit. We all worked from home. Our patients are not seeing doctors as much. So as a result of that, our position in the world actually became no less than critical. You want to think about the fact that one of the biggest drivers of mismanagement of medications, adherence challenges, are patients not being educated enough in understanding that the need for the medications and obviously when they don’t seem to help their health care professional in person, that drives a lot of that. So as a result, I think that our positioning in the world actually strengthened since the last time that we spoke.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, you know, I remember we were chatting and then looking at the previous podcast, you guys were at about 4.4, 4.5 Million users. You’re almost double that. Congratulations. That’s that’s awesome. And I mean, that’s really big. You talk to us about your dad. He was user number one. He’s doing great now. And in this pandemic, drug companies are looking for ways to improve adherence. Physicians are looking for ways to improve adherence. You mentioned the words digital companion. And I really like that in this era of companies and providers trying to exercise value-based care. I think it makes so much sense right. Rather than to have an I don’t know. I mean, if it’s the right thing, we just call it a dumb drug, making it a smart drug. Talk to us about that.
Omri Shor:
Yeah. So today, when you have a specialty drug in general, you’re going to get service without medication, right., then the service would likely be a nurse that is going to call you from time to time to see how she can help. And then what we do is that we complete that solution with a digital companion. So the trifecta of the therapeutic itself, the digital component that is personalized to the patient and can be there for the patient 24/7. And then the last piece is the human component that can manage exceptions. We think that’s the face of the future. Medisafe is not replacing the current service. We’re augmenting that with a digital solution.
Saul Marquez:
That’s a good call out.
Omri Shor:
If you think about it, let’s go back not two years, but let’s go back 10 years or eight years ago, when we opened the company, I went to the bank and I set a meeting with an individual. I waited in line. I want to say likely it was like 30 minutes until the teller was ready to take me in. And then we had a conversation following that. We opened the bank account for the company today. My bank account is in my hand right now. It resides in an app and in most cases I would not need to interact with a human being to do all the activities that I need to do so. But for some reason, health care was not there and health care is known to be a lagging industry. But I think that COVID really changed the dynamics here. And I think that’s the biggest driver. We see the uptick in telemedicine, but the current telemedicine model is still person to person. I go and I talk to my physician or nurse and we see one another or we just call. I think that the future models are transitioning from this synchronous experience where you need to have two people available at the same time doing the asynchronous type of models. And I think that having a companion alongside the drug for a pharma company is critical at that point in time.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah. And so what do you think about the area of, for example, let’s just say it’s not a specialty drug. Let’s just say you’re managing some chronic conditions and it’s a basic drug like you name it. You know this stuff better than I do. Is there an opportunity to engage for care management in chronic conditions? You guys play a role there?
Omri Shor:
Yes. In general, our focus with specialty today is A- because specialty is 50 percent of the market. And every dose that one does not take really changes the dynamics. So that’s the reason for focus there. I think that there is an opportunity beyond that for sure. Medisafe -one of our uniqueness is that we’re not dealing just with the one drug we really drink, engage with the individual as a whole. That same patient is going to use Medisfe for their entire medication regimen. That being said, the companion, we do great with our partners across the pharma spectrum. And as a result of that is it’s more geared toward special communications. Does that make sense?
Saul Marquez:
It makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah, you got to have focus. You know, it’s just as important to know what you do as what you don’t do. And it makes sense. You know, there’s been a lot of moves in the space back in June, Wal-Mart acquired, I believe it was Carezone. Employers are looking at solutions like Medisafe to really help them get control of what is a big rising cost. Are you guys doing any partnerships with large companies that are interesting that you guys want to share about?
Omri Shor:
We are doing many partnerships. One, I think that was signed after our previous interview was with a company called Last Group, which is a company that works with pharmaceutical companies to provide patient support programs. And it’s a company that is owned by Horsburgh into a Fortune 10 company and one of the top distributors of medications. So we’ve announced a partnership with them. Lasch has thousands of employees, and many of them are focused on providing the service to the patients via typically phone Medisave partners with them and with their clients, which are the manufacturers, to provide a more holistic solution together. Just one note. We’re very excited for our friends at Kerrison for day opportunity for them to work with Wal-Mart. This is obviously great for us because there is a bit less of competition and it signals the industry the level of opportunity that is available out there. Another company that was acquired in our space is Mengel Health and Mengel was acquired by Troller card. Again, the same OK in the same space. So we’re excited. This is good dynamics for an industry where some of the players are being acquired. And we continue, Medisafe, continue to lead the charge and move forward as fast as we can. It’s good for us.
Saul Marquez:
It’s really exciting. And I mean, you look in the rearview mirror and here you are building something that back then, it’s not a proven concept. You’re going for it. And now. I mean, traction, is there validation studies you guys are showing these types of digital technologies are working. If you had to point to anything that you’re most proud of around outcomes or maybe even business model innovation, what would you highlight as one of the things you’re most proud of in the last few years?
Omri Shor:
So I would say that what we have been able to do is to tie the outcomes and the value of the outcomes to the business model that we have. Our business model is influenced by the value that we derive for these patients and as a result to our clients. So this has been, I would say, a journey. And we’re still on that journey to understand what is the exact value that Medisafe brings and then how do we how are we getting compensated for this volume? But really, there aren’t too many companies that I know of, especially in our space, that are able to point to the value that they’re creating for the ecosystem and be able to be compensated for that. It took us a lot of time, a lot of iterations to say more than everything, a lot of listening to our partners and clients to figure out where is the sweet spot for that.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah. Know, it’s inspiring to see that a from a tough situation that your family with your dad went through. You know, there’s something I could do here. There’s something we could do here. And it’s evolved in a really beautiful way. I’m sure there’s been a lot of bumps in the road like all companies face. But you guys are certainly leading the way in this medication, adherence, and safe space. If you could point to any particular setback that you learn the most from Amry, what would that setback be? I mean, we we learn a lot from those things, probably even more than our successes.
Omri Shor:
Yeah, sure. I’ll say that one of the biggest challenges on Medisave is that we’re almost running two companies. Let me explain. So one of the biggest challenges is that on one side, we have a free app out there with millions of registered users, and hundreds of thousands and thousands of patients will use this on a daily basis. And then on the other side, we’re running a B2B company that works with our partners across the health care continuum. So you really want to think about it almost like two different companies? These companies have very strong synergies between them because we use all the data and the modeling that we are able to build on the free user base then to accelerate our growth on the B2B front. But this is for sure, one of the most challenging running two companies, one company that really is almost like two if it makes sense.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And so is it still you’ve got to B2B and a B2C within one roof. And are you running both of them? What’s the structure like. And maybe that’s, that’s a business innovation story there that you could share, maybe process innovation.
Omri Shor:
Yeah. We have actually two companies, OK, we’ve started in Israel in 2015 and move to the US and in the US we have our Medisafe Inc R US firm that is in charge of the commercialization by the B2B side. Correct.
But over the years, what you were able to see is that for the first three or four years of the company’s life, most of what we did was dedicated to the B2C side. And then when we gave the go to start and commercialize the company, which was twenty fifteen, Gord’s going towards twenty sixteen. That is when more and more of the resources of the company transition to the B2B side. So that ability to change the mindset change to evolve the mission, I would save the company from a point where we used to wear flip flops to the office and shorts to the place where we went to meet these guys with the suits. That is a lot of evolution for us as a company. And the ability to grow from where you started to where you need to be is something that I’m very proud of.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, and it’s a great story Omri, you guys wanted to have an impact on the B2C front and sort of quickly realized, wow, you know, to have an impact, at least in US health care, it’s B to B to C, and if we’re going to get some traction, get some large payors, providers, employers behind us, this is something that we need. And the visual that you shared is as interesting Right. from flip flops to buttoned-up with suits and to make this happen. That’s a transformation.
Omri Shor:
Absolutely.
Saul Marquez:
And so here you are today. You know, you’ve made some traction and the commercialization of the company. What would you say you’re most. Excited about what are you looking forward to as we get through this covid time and keep going into a lot of the things that are still there? Right., I mean, the same health care problems are still there. Just a little more twist with COVID. What are you most excited about?
Omri Shor:
I think that the opportunity to be on these two sides of the equation and dire, challenging days like today is so important. Patients do not have the support that they need. And they really do need folks like Medisafe and many others to support to patients and to support the industry on the other side. You can’t really expect these, I would say more mature companies that change will take time. But the ability for us to go and drive value, I think at times like that is just become so big and so more meaningful. So I’m excited for that opportunity.
Saul Marquez:
Absolutely. Yeah. You know, there’s a lot more happening with care from home. The shift of everything going to the hospital is shifting to care from home. Virtual patient monitoring. It’s becoming more real. And what you guys offer is certainly a critical part of the whole care continuum. Certainly, folks, if you haven’t had a chance to listen to our previous interview with Amry, I invite you all to check that out. If you’re curious about how Medisave is doing what they do. So while they’re at Medisave Dotcom, I’m right before we conclude today, I’d love if you could just leave us with the closing thought and maybe an invitation for the listeners if there’s an opportunity to engage and where you guys could potentially collaborate. Sure.
Omri Shor:
One of the Zaed children have a six-year-old and a nine-year-old. And one of the things that I read to them lately is Dr. Seuss. So I’m going with a quote. My favorite is, oh, the places you’ll go. Oh, yeah, I love that one. From that, I would say I would use one quote that I think really inspires folks. And it goes like that you have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. So if the direction is to steer you towards contacting us at Medisafe, I’m on LinkedIn and on a website, or you can email me OmrI@medisafe. com. And if you choose to do exciting things in health care and we can help you in any way, feel free to drop me a note and we’ll try and help in whatever way we can.
Saul Marquez:
I love it. I love Dr. Seuss. I’m glad you ended with that one. And by the way, folks in Medisafe is also hiring. So if you’re looking for a great place to work, check them out as well. Medisafe.com, just incredible opportunities with a great leader. And I just want to say thank you. Thank you for what you and your team continue to do and really grateful that you’re able to spend some more time with us to give us an update.
Omri Shor:
Thank you so much for the opportunity today. Think that what you’re doing is super important. The focus on outcomes and how companies are growing is critical to our space. We’re dealing with people’s lives and so important that we’ll have many more innovation in our space. So thank you for that.
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