How Two Australian Medical Startups Are Inspired By Social Media

First published October 6, 2016

The power of communication is something that fascinates The Medical Startup.

Perhaps it’s our experience from looking after stroke patients who’ve lost the ability to speak.

From meeting patients who speak English as a second, third, fourth or even fifth language, and being awed at their skill.

From speaking with non-medical professionals who are trying to break into healthcare and learn healthcare’s language, and vice-versa.

Or from recognising how difficult it must be when an Australian doctor moves to work in a US hospital, and gets stumped by differences in common hospital terminology (read: ER versus ED; or in the UK, ICU vs ITU; or even paracetamol versus acetaminophen, which I encountered on a flight one day. Add in the accent difference, and you’ll see what we mean!).

This fascination with communication in medicine was what inspired us to connect with the Mayo Social Media Summit, which will be in Melbourne next month. Below are two Australian medtech startups founded by medical doctors, and how they’ve used social media with their apps.*

One through instant messaging, and one for the cancer journey. 

1. Bleep

Bleep‘s hashtag feature as inspired by social media. Free download on GooglePlay and the AppStore. Pic courtesy of MedSquared

Sydney-based medtech startup Bleep took a page from social media by cleverly including hashtags to group conversations within its clinician messaging system, and using the “@” system popular with Twitter and Instagram to directly contact particular team members looking after a patient.

Emergency Medicine doctor Joe Logan and co-founder Sarah Humphreys wanted to make messaging easier, secure and more efficient for healthcare workers within hospitals, residential care facilities and other clinical care centres. As Dr Logan explained, “At work, I receive texts, phone calls, emails and paper notes from members of the care team, making communication inefficient as it’s often between two parties rather than the multidisciplinary team.” Not to mention the confusion when a four-digit pager number is entered incorrectly and directed to the wrong person or team, wasting precious time in an emergency.

With Facebook and Twitter already on most peoples’ phones, this means Bleep takes a familiar practice from out-of-work communications to implement safer and better targeted messaging systems in clinical care.

2. CancerAid

CancerAid makes the cancer journey easier for patients, loved ones and healthcare professionals through several features including its Journal, Treatment diary, Opt-in Research, and Newsfeed. Pic courtesy of founder Dr Nik Pooviah

Another Australian startup, CancerAid, has successfully used storytelling and community-building to help humanise the earth-shattering cancer experience for would-be users of their app.

Founder and Radiation Oncology registrar Dr Nikhil Pooviah was struck with his CancerAid Awards inspiration one day as the app was preparing for its soft launch on the AppStore. (Stay tuned for Android news.) Celebrating the victories of cancer patients, oncology researchers, charity fundraisers, and others in the Oncology world, CancerAid’s growing reach speaks volumes about the power of sharing experiences to help deal with a tremendous burden of illness.

CancerAid‘s Symptoms Journal solves the memory recall problem encountered by patients and care providers in clinics worldwide, allowing better tracking of side-effects and other problems. Pic courtesy of CancerAid

Furthermore, CancerAid’s Awards and Championsconcept empowers users to treat the cancer journey not as a setback, but as a temporary hurdle, a race of sorts, with a Winning mindset from the start.

What strategies do you use involving social media with your healthcare solution? Leave a comment below or Contact Us if you want to share privately.

The Mayo Social Media Summit is for anyone interested in how social media can help solve problems in healthcare. They also run a course for medical professionals navigating social media. Tickets for the Summit in Melbourne are available here. 

*The startups listed are not affiliated with the Mayo Clinic. If you’re interested in learning more about either startup or enquiring about trialling either at your hospital/clinic/service, contact them at the links in this article. Both Bleep and CancerAid are currently available on the AppStore for free download.  Bleep is also on GooglePlay. 

Doctors Want To Be Innovative, But They Don’t Know How

First published June 20, 2016

Since embarking on this journey, I’ve been fortunate to explore innovation in medicine and learn what makes a medical entrepreneur, by talking to people first-hand outside of hospitals and clinical environments.

From working full-time in hospitals, I know first-hand what it’s like to want to create change, but not know how to. The constraints of protocols, hierarchies, specialty college milestones, and expectations of supervisors- not to mention full-time rosters- they all exist for safety and for high-quality medical training. I value my time in that world like nothing else. It made me into the doctor and person I am today.

Yet, I had to forcibly step away in order to figure out my odd journey.

Looking up at the possibilities. Gaudi built his vision, which millions enjoy today. Credit: The Medical Startup

Medicine is a long road, signposted by those milestones I mentioned earlier. You graduate from med school. You start Internship. You score your first Resident job in the field you want to enter. You gain entry into the specialty college of your choice. You survive your first day as a Registrar. You pass your college exams. You become an Advanced Trainee. Then you’re a Fellow.

Then, one day, you finish that, and you’re finally a Consultant. (What many in the public refer to as a “specialist” or, in the case of General Practitioners, Fellows of the RACGP– fully qualified and accredited family doctors.)

It is odd if you step away.

Will people point you out for daring to be different? – Grand Canyon. Photo: The Medical Startup

It is odd if you take a break. (Okay, maternity/paternity leave, marriage, other life events, they obviously do happen.) In the recent past, not even five years ago, it may have been more acceptable to take a break for a year. But with the ferocity of job competition amongst junior and senior doctors alike in Australia, the walls are closing in on flexibility.

And now, taking a step away from training; even for just a few months; even by remaining employed but putting off an exam for a year; even if you just need a 6 month “half-gap” of a year, because you’ve not had a proper study break since you were 5 years old – even if – sorry to hear –  a tragic life event has shaken your world – it can be seen as detrimental to a person’s chance of being rehired.

And when you’re surrounded by colleagues and well-meaning friends who don’t understand, and who actually say that those who take a break, even to work on a startup, are “unambitious” or “unmotivated” – is it any wonder, then, why doctors feel isolated and stay under the radar when they come up with an idea?

And, even if a hospital or clinic is supportive (and they usually are; unfortunately, it tends to be particular influential individuals who aren’t) – you have to go a step higher, and try explain to colleges that you’re still doing valuable work in healthcare, by working on your startup- it just doesn’t fit their definition of training.

And this is why doctors find it hard to Innovate.

Leaping through the clouds- daring to dream. Photo: The Medical Startup

How can you innovate when you are feeling weighed down by all these pressures?

How can you innovate where your environment is slow to respond to change, and, despite best intentions, has trouble understanding the few (or many) employees who want to do more, but can’t articulate their feelings?

How can you innovate when you risk being penalised or even kicked out of a specialty college that you’ve worked so hard to enter?

How can the medical profession realise that a step away doesn’t equate a permanent career change, and that it is vital for the future of healthcare for motivated health professionals to gain experience building something outside of their day-to-day work environments in order to bring optimal change for their patients and colleagues? 

Entrepreneurship doesn’t suit everyone. This is not a comment on forcing everybody to become entrepreneurial. It’s about creating the supportive ecosystem for those who are motivated and capable of change, to create that good change.

We should connect our different ways of thinking, and allow ourselves to shine. Credit: The Medical Startup

Many Australian hospitals have rotations in Clinical Redesign and Innovation, or other similarly-named Medical Resident positions. A junior doctor has the opportunity, usually for 10-12 weeks (the standard duration for hospital rotations) to work on innovating within the hospital system. They are usually assigned a senior Supervisor and observe, advise, discuss, formulate, and strategise solutions and carry out these solutions during these ten weeks.

Projects are varied. They can improve the efficiency of completing discharge letters sent to the GP when patients go home. They can improve the allocations of night shift duty. They can create more structured Handover meetings at the start of each shift, so the staff finishing can “hand over” outstanding tasks and patient updates to incoming team members. These roles give junior doctors the opportunity to innovate. However, very few of these roles exist, and to be honest, I am not sure of the demand for doctors who want to rotate in these roles over Cardiology, Nephrology or other critical specialties that count towards training and clinical care. (Feel free to let me know.)

I’ve been really fortunate (and also worked hard!) to attend events where I get to meet people in the health tech space; and others who are medical entrepreneurs in non-medical fields; and I find, that non-medical people are, very graciously, applauding those of us who innovate. Those of us who choose to step away. This whole post has been stimulated by yet another Twitter comment by a non-medical entity encouraging more doctors to innovate. It’s fantastic that the non-medical community are eager to see more doctors and health professionals innovate. If they only knew how hard it was, and how much doctors risk by choosing to innovate, they might understand why there are, perhaps, fewer Australian doctors in the entrepreneurial spotlight than in other fields.

Dreaming big at Yosemite National Park. Photo: The Medical Startup

I’m going to shine this spotlight on inspiring health professionals who are doing great things with their time, to help normalise this situation, and to celebrate their wins as well as their journeys. And I challenge you, too, to be inspired, to value your time, and give your best to the world, no matter what field you’re in.

Do you agree? How can healthcare ecosystems and communities in general improve inclusion for health professionals to innovate, in and out of their workspaces? What cultural issues need to be addressed and how can they be fixed? Or do you think things are fine as they are? Feel free to comment below, or send us an email via our Contact page. 

How Co-Working Spaces Can Help You And Your Startup

First published June 2, 2016

Wondering what co-working is? We visited two major co-working spaces in Perth-  Spacecubed, and its sister space Flux, to find out.

Co-working spaces are community spaces for working on and building your startup, sole trader enterprise, or scaling business. Spacecubed just held Australia’s first Mental Health Hackathon, MindHack. Its success means another MindHack is in the works!

Co-working spaces are also, by definition, a space for working with other businesses, at various stages of a business lifecycle and from a range of different industries. Startups and sole founders can be very isolated, and co-working helps to solve this problem. Membership flexibility allows businesses and sole founders to adapt as they require, and the space is built to facilitate networking and collaboration, as well as quiet -room working spaces and longer-term office leases.

Spaces tend to offer a rotating program of activities that can help its members, for example, SEO tutorials, legal advice, games events, pitching tips, and drinks. Some of these events may be open to the wider community.

Spacecubed offers packages including mentorship and legal advice for its members. Photo: The Medical Startup

Spacecubed Marketing Manager Matt Kirk kindly took us on a tour one Wednesday, showing us the varied office spaces, desks and personalities inhabiting Spacecubed over several floors. Home to startups across a range of industries, co-working helps members cross-pollinate ideas, resources and perspectives that they wouldn’t encounter otherwise . Having neighbours who are coders, engineers, designers, or copywriters from fintech, education, photography and even space tech, helps new connections and, potentially, new startups form. Mentor programs also run from many spaces.

Spacecubed, Perth. Photo: The Medical Startup

Hot-desking options allow members to meet and greet while working in different spaces. Office space for more established companies are also available for hire. Part-time and full-time memberships are on offer, and many spaces offer one-day or even free introductory rates. Packages at most co-working spaces exist to be flexible, starting from daily rates to monthly or even yearly memberships. Spacecubed also offer a day of free co-working at partner locations across Australia, and this helps foster connections between communities across the country.

Housed in the former Reserve Bank of Australia headquarters, Spacecubed has different floors for levels of quietness during work hours. Meetings can be held in a soundproofed former bank vault. And, further down the road at Flux, businesses can use the new maker labs with 3D printer, virtual reality lab, and prototyping materials – a first for co-working in Perth. Introductory packages are on offer to coincide with Flux’s opening this month.

A peek inside a demo office at Flux Perth. Photo: The Medical Startup

The other benefit of co-working spaces tends to be location. Both Spacecubed and Flux are situated along the CBD hub of St George’s Terrace. The area’s bank facades and glass windows are punctuated by shortcuts to some of Perth’s best bars and dining areas for business meetings and post-work meetups. I snuck over to the Print Room for a meeting, chomping kale salad while my colleague had a drink, and, later, The Apple Daily Bar & Eating House for a dinner catchup. (Melburnians, think Chin Chin with less queuing and a more Malaysian twist.) Perth’s startup scene may not be as well-known as Sydney and Melbourne, but its geographical isolation, strong education institutions and quiet beauty has helped it become a major player in Australia’s startup community.

For more details and to book a free tour, visitSpacecubed‘s and Flux’s websites.