Thrive Global. Identify the problem before you create a solution
A lifetime in healthcare is long enough to know the ins and outs, the good and the bad, and most of all, the problems that go unsolved.
Having started in the industry as a teen, our Founder and President Joan Melendez became aware of the communication gaps in the industry early on.
Realizing that poor data management was leading to patient deaths led Joan to creating Xcelrate UDI, barcode scanning technology that tracks and catches recalled medical devices -- a problem that has killed over 80,000 patients in recent years.
Joan spoke to Thrive Global about how her initial experiences shaped her startup:
“I know the nurses’ workflow because I worked in an operating room. In that hospital, they didn’t have documentation built out for their surgery area. It was all on paper.
“We didn’t build the application to line our pockets. We built it because there was a huge workflow issue in the operating room that is causing patients to die. I’m not exaggerating. A simple example: patients can bleed to death from staplers that aren’t working right.”
The biggest changes that need to happen in healthcare, says Joan? Effective data sharing, and patient advocacy. There are so many databases worldwide, and being able to consolidate them and share knowledge would allow health professionals access to all the information they need to make the right decisions.
When it comes to patient advocacy and education:
“Patients have no clue about what’s going into their body. They trust their doctor. They trust that the medical device being used in their surgery is the best of the best.
“Little do they know, there’s this underlying issue that so many recalled medical devices are in our operating rooms, right now. For patients to even know to ask the questions that would help them be proactive about their own health, it would be so helpful.”
There is a great amount of interest and innovation going on in this area, and healthtech leaders are bringing about big changes.